In this paper I will attempt to outline the long and complex history of National Curriculum technology at primary level, celebrating the successes as well as analysing the mistakes. It is, in the words of the chairman of the National Curriculum Council (NCC), a 'lesson for us all' (Graham 1993) and makes salutary reading for any country or state about to embark upon the implementation of its own primary technology curriculum. The story in England and Wales is one of 'free-market curriculum making' in which: "; ... policy for technology education has emerged in an unplanned way by a process of action and reaction, involving initiatives and proposals from a variety of stakeholders ... "; (Layton 1995, p. 114
