Originally published as a collection of Krishna Kumar's UGC national lectures, What is Worth Teaching? has acquired the status of a popular analytical text on curriculum inquiry. The title essay poses the problem of curriculum design and content as aspects of the relationship between education and society. The central theme of knowledge, its selection and representation is pursued in the other essays in the book in the context of the issues such as the teaching of reading, the use of the textbook, gender socialisation, and the values associated with secularism. Structural and historical characteristics of the Indian system are used as frames to study the social character of school knowledge and skills. What is worth Teaching? covers a wide range of issues concerning institutional and pedagogic choices. From reading and storytelling in the early primary classes to the teaching of history in India and Pakistan, this collection of Krishna Kumar's lectures and essays offers an accessible introduction to critical inquiry in education theory.