John Beck lectures in the Sociology of Education and Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. He was previously Head of Education Studies at Homerton College, Cambridge where he is still a Fellow. He has published widely in a range of highly reputable academic journals in the fields of Education Theory, the Sociology of Education, and Curriculum Studies.

The first section of the book compares and contrasts 'declinist' accounts of the current moral predicament with the somewhat more optimistic approach derived from recent sociological analyses. The second section is more directly devoted to the role of schools in educating about values, morality and citizenship. Specific curricular issues such as the values of enterprise and enterprise culture, educating about citizenship, and the ambiguities about the meaning of the term 'spiritual' are dealt with in successive chapters.