This is a very interesting article, about how children are being denied to visit theatres on educational trips because schools fear that will cause them to drop in the league tables.
Pullman says: 'This is dreadful. These experiences are genuinely part of an education, not a luxury extra for middleclass children. They're desperately important for everyone.'
Philip Pullman, the award-winning children's writer, attacked the Government last night for creating 'dreadful' pressures that rob children of the experience of live theatre.
Pullman, whose His Dark Materials trilogy will be staged at the National Theatre from December, said pupils were being denied educational trips to theatres because headteachers fear losing ground in school league tables.
'It's not only computer games and videos I'm worried about,' he said. 'The national curriculum makes it more and more difficult for teachers to take children on school outings.
'Teachers have told Nicholas Hytner of the National they've wanted children to come for workshops but the head won't release them because they're frightened the school might slip in the league tables.
'This is dreadful. These experiences are genuinely part of an education, not a luxury extra for middleclass children. They're desperately important for everyone.'
Pullman, a former teacher, added: 'If you're introduced to theatre as a child you know it's an experience full of joy and pleasure and curiosity and interest and fun. It involves you on every level of your being. But if you're not, it takes a lot to persuade you to go into the theatre.
'Nick Hytner is doing great things at the National with the
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