The purpose of this article is to contribute to the contemporary debate by supporting school subjects. The article explores the technicist manner in which teachers' work is now configured and highlights ways in which competitive, output-led models and tick-list approaches have reified schools as qualification factories. Arguing for a deeper understanding of subject disciplines in the school curriculum, the author critiques contemporary approaches to the secondary curriculum planning and organisation and shows ways in which important debates about what is taught are being marginalised. The article points to the intellectual vacuum that can lie at the heart of practical curriculum making when subjects no longer take a leading part. It concludes that teachers' capacity to think synoptically about a subject is essential for the effective teaching of integrated themes or topics and that excellent, innovative teaching of subject disciplines is vital in twenty-first century schools.