Gunther Kress's call for a curriculum based on textual creation in a global era of instability is particularly appropriate to the present historical moment. Here I argue the need for a notion of creativity as the basis for a national curriculum in English. The kind of creativity envisaged issues out of a systems theory approach which sees creativity not in terms of individual genius, but as part of the context of a discipline. I emphasise in particular Pope's view of creation as re-creation, with students creating alongside the authors/filmmakers etc whom they read and view--a view of creativity with a respectable history in Australian classrooms. Three key recent paradigms of the subject--rhetoric, a renewed aesthetic and design--are brought together to centre this approach to creativity on the notion of form. I argue that the national curriculum needs to look not only at the necessary in curriculum design, but also at the sufficient, and that a focus on creativity will assist that move.