Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

An excellent book. And, the critics of this book miss the point. You are reading this review because you have developed the skill to recognize the meaning of words printed on the page. Try this experiment. Pick up any magazine or journal like The New Yorker, or something of similar quality, and circle every allusion that you recognize or recognize but don't understand the meaning. For example, allusions like "Catch 22" or "Oedipus complex." The pages, when you are done, should be covered with circles. The better educated you are, the better read you are, the more you know, the more you will recognize. This is your intellectual vocabulary. Just as it would be difficult to read anything if you did not understand the words you were reading, so too is it difficult to understand ideas without a good intellectual vocabulary. This book list what is essentially a basic intellectual vocabulary. And, rightly or wrongly, the intellectual material alluded to in most of our daily reading comes from the material listed. Consider this chauvanistic if you wish; regardless, it is a fact. And that, is the point.

Put this on your To-Read-No-Matter-What list. Hasn't the popularity of "Dummies" books raised a red flag anywhere? What does that say about the average American reader's view of him/herself? Do we sense that we're educationally lacking?Too many of America's young people do not have, because they haven't been taught, the knowledge they need to preserve the exceptional way of life they've inherited. They know Harry Potter and West Wing but not the Peloponnesian Wars or who said, "To be or not to be." They are culturally illiterate. Cultural literacy is the background information we need to know in order to understand and to communicate in our society. Without it we wouldn't understand what a reviewer says when he likens Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" to "Cinderella" or when a pundit says the environment is a politician's Achilles heel. "To be culturally literate," Hirsch says, "is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world." Readers must understand the writer's unspoken "systems of associations." I've taught college-level writing classes and have been astounded to meet students who have never read a book, who don't understand the simplest references to classical literature and who, frankly, don't care.This ignorance threatens our very existence as a free nation. One of the most important points Hirsch makes is the need for the average citizen to understand enough science to comprehend debates about environmental and political issues. He cites the debate over the Strategic Defense Initiative and says of the voting public, "...their education should have provided them with the general facts and principles needed to understand the terms of the debate -- how a satellite works, what a laser is and can do, and under what conditions such a system would be likely to succeed or fail." He neglects to mention the historical, social and political backgrounds that enter into the debate but his point applies to those as well.The highest stakes are involved here. The last election was a primary example of the ignorance of the American voter. Many still don't understand what happened and are merrily led down a primrose path of misunderstanding by an equally Constitutionally (as in the US Constitution)uninformed press. Further, and even sadder, they don't bother to find out!Read CULTURAL LITERACY. Absorb it. Make it your mantra and work to see that the next generation of Americans learns the background of their culture as well as the history, sociology and science they need to protect our way of life at the ballot box.

In his book, E.D. Hirsch makes a good arguement that kids in America are not being taught the basic knowledge that they need in order to function and communicate effectively in our society. The book was published in 1988. Reading it was like hearing a voice crying in the wilderness. I can hear Hirsch's voice speaking louder with each passing year.This vital information that Hirsch refers to is simply not being taught in schools, at least not enough of them. If you're concerned, ask your child what he's learning in history, science, math, English. Or just flip through the appendix in the back of the book where Hirsch lists his "What Literate Americans Know." Sure, it's not a perfect list, but it is a starting point. Our culture is rapidly becoming one in which movie stars, professional sports stars, and scandals in the news are the factors that tie us together culturally as a nation. We are rapidly losing the thoughts, ideas, concepts, and lessons from our national culture that really matter. Read 'Cultural Literacy' and see if you agree.

A great irony, while reading several of the negative criticisms of Hirsch's controversial position, occurs when one considers that these critics would simply be unable to attack without being the embodiment of Hirsch's central postion: that reaching the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy requires a set body of knowledge. Analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information is literally impossible without first knowing, comprehending and applying.A fine example is in the medical profession where the first year focuses narrowly on the rote memorization of the body. Without a set knowledge (knowing) of anatomy and the related maladies it is impossible to make effective diagnosis (analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating).As an educator I have experienced first hand the industry driven mandate to produce a more effective group of critical and creative thinkers. In the process we have tragically discovered that such an endeavor is impossible without first teaching content. The kernal of Hirsch's position is that critical and creative thinking are absolutely intertwined with specific content. We as educators, parents and members of society are cheating our children and our futures if we fail to mutually and communaly provide a central frame of reference (or schema). Without such a frame of reference, contribution to and therefore extension of our culture will become but a distant memory.We have been asked to focus upon the process of guess and go and the cult of the "How did you arrive at that solution?" over the precise "what are we putting into their heads". This is of course saying nothing of the cult of the self esteem. The result? I have seen the result as manifested in declining test scores, a rise of self absorbtion and an ever narrowing of world awareness. Hirsch is not an elitist, in fact he strongly asserts (repeatedly) that it is indeed providing all students (and one of the beautiful facts of American Public Education is that "All" means ALL) with the same basic frame of reference enables them to take control over their lives and contribute actively as producers as opposed to passive consumers.Having a common base of knowledge unites us all and crosses all boundries. It is that common fram of reference that defines our culture and truly creates a pluralistic society.Hirsch provides plenty of qualitative and quantitative evidence to support his postion. His Bibliography and related sources are also most helpful.Coming from a state that uses a prescribed reading assessment, I found his analysis of a reading selection describing Lee's surrender at Appomattox most illustrative of the need for more content based education. Hirsch and his fellow researchers found that the test takers were not able to construct (higher levels of Bloom) a great amount meaning due to their ignorance of even a basic knowlege of the American Civil War.As an acting teacher, I have found that the individuals who have the greater knowledge of history, art, literature and general

I read this book in 1995 and found it fundamentally correct with respect to two ideas: 1) that a core of knowledge is necessary to infer, read-between-the-lines, and to understand wholly much written material; 2) that *content* is vital in education - the mental organization of which (though association and other means) is essential to becoming educated. To demonstrate another assertion, namely that public education is largely failing, Hirsch claims that a majority of high school seniors can not correctly answer this question: "in what decades did the Civil War, World War I, and World War II occur?" I was 35 when I read this and asked it of a 25-year-old architect - who would not even attempt it.