Via Tim Worstall (where are you, Tim?), we have this open letter from a British Physics teacher protesting the dumbing-down of his subject by the Blair Government. The complaint is general, but there are some interesting specifics about global warming in the curriculum:

The Political:The number of questions that relate to global warming is appalling. I do not deny that pupils should know about the topic, nor do I deny its importance. However, it should not be the main focus of every topic. The pupils (and their teachers) are growing apathetic from overexposure. A paper question asked: `Why must we develop renewable energy sources?’ This is a political question. Worse yet, a political statement. I’m not saying I disagree with it, just that it has no place on a physics GCSE paper.Pupils are taught to poke holes in scientific experiments, to constantly find what is wrong. However, never are the pupils given ways to determine when an experiment is reliable, to know when an experiment yields information about the world that we can trust. This encourages the belief that all quantitative data is unreliable and untrustworthy. Some of my pupils, after a year of the course, have gone from scientifically minded individuals to thinking, “It’s not possible to know anything, so why bother?” Combining distrust of scientific evidence with debates won on style and presentation alone is an unnerving trend that will lead society astray.The Non-scientific:Lastly, I present the final question on the January physics exam in its entirety:Electricity can also be generated using renewable energy sources. Look at this information from a newspaper report. The energy from burning bio-fuels, such as woodchip and straw, can be used to generate electricity.Plants for bio-fuels use up carbon dioxide as they grow.Farmers get grants to grow plants for bio-fuels.Electricity generated from bio-fuels can be sold at a higher price than electricity generated from burning fossil fuels.Growing plants for bio-fuels offers new opportunities for rural communities. Suggest why, apart from the declining reserves of fossil fuels, power companies should use more bio-fuels and less fossil fuels to generate electricity.Suggest why, apart from the declining reserves of fossil fuels, power companies should use more bio-fuels and less fossil fuels to generate electricity. The only marks that a pupil can get are for saying:Overall add no carbon dioxide to the environmentPower companies make more profitOpportunity to grew new type of crop (growing plants in swamps)More JobsNone of this material is in the specification, nor can a pupil reliably deduce the answers from the given information. Physics isn’t a pedestrian subject about power companies and increasing their profits, or jobs in a rural community, it’s is about far grander and broader ideas.

I have to say that these sorts of questions and marking schemes would have been thought puerile in a General Studies or Geography exam in the 1980s. But physics?