1. Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr.
American Educator & Academic Literary Critic
March 1928~
"To grasp the words on a page we have to know a
lot of information that isn't set down on the page"
(Hirsch, 1988, p. 3)
2. Table of Contents:
• How did Hirsch Start in Education Reform?
• Literacy in Decline
• Coleman Report 1966
• Coleman Report 1981
• The Great Hidden Problem in American Education
• Let's Test Your Cultural Literacy!
• Language or Culture
• Why is Literacy so Important to Hirsch?
•
And who agrees with him?
The Fragmentation of Education
• Hirsch's Proposed Solution
• What Steps did Hirsh Take?
• References
3. How Did Hirsch Start in Education
Reform?
1957 Hirsch receives his Ph.D in English from Yale
In the 1960's As an English professor at University of
Virginia, he realizes that background knowledge
is a vital factor in students' ability to comprehend texts,
beginning his focus on education reform
1980's Hirsch establishes his theory of "cultural literacy,"
the idea that reading comprehension largely depends
upon wide-ranging background knowledge
1986 He founds the Core Knowledge Foundation, an
organization that champions his belief in the
importance
of teaching cultural literacy.
4. Literacy in Decline
In 2009, a federal study showed that an estimated 32 million adult Americans
suffer from low literacy skills that would make it difficult to understand side effects
listed on a medicine bottle...
...which means about one in every seven
adult Americans find difficulty in reading
anything more challenging than a
children's picture book (Toppo, 2009)
Literacy rates have been
declining over previous
decades. What are some
theories as to why
illiteracy is such a
problem in America?
5. Coleman Report, 1966
In 1966, James S. Coleman and team found "that differences in academic
achievement were more strongly correlated with students' family backgrounds
than with differences in the schools they attended"(Hirsch, 1988, p. 114)
6. Coleman Report, 1981
The new Coleman report "shows that schools have a larger effect than had been
supposed [showing] private schools produce better academic results for all
students, even when family backgrounds are taken into account" (Hirsch, 1988, p. 115-16)
Hirsch (1988) infers that private schools produce higher academic achievement because "students
spend more time in content courses and are exposed to more of the information that belongs to
literate culture" (Hirsch, p. 116)
So what is really behind the
literacy decline in America?
7. "The Great Hidden Problem in
American Education" (Hirsch, 1988, p.1)
We lack what Hirsch (1988) refers to as cultural literacy,"the network of
information that all competent readers possess. It is the background
information, stored in their minds, that enables them to [read and give]
meaning to what they read" (Hirsch, p. 2)
We are lacking in shared knowledge, "the information that writers of American
books and newspapers have traditionally taken for granted among their readers
from all generations" (Hirsch, 1988, p.7)
There is a strong, direct correlation between literacy and shared, contextual
knowledge. Hirsch (1988) argues that "shared information is a necessary
background to true literacy" and our education system must provide more
"general knowledge that enables us to deal with new ideas, events, and
challenges," rather than "treat reading and writing as empty skills, independent
of specific knowledge" (Hirsch, p. 7-8)
Let's test your "cultural literacy"!
8. Let's Test Your "Cultural Literacy"!
What helps you more:
Language skills or contextual knowledge?
Scintillate, scintillate, meteorite minific
= Twinkle, Twinkle, little star
Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate
= Birds of a feather flock together
Male cadavers are incapable of yielding any testimony
= Dead men tell no tales
Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude
= Cleanliness is next to godliness
Neophyte's serendipity
= Beginner's luck
(Selby, 2012)
9. What Helps You More:
Language or Cultural Knowledge?
Hirsch would argue your ability to correctly 'translate' and understand those
idioms strongly depend on your ability to understand their true meanings:
"Even if culturally literate readers bothered to look up individual
words, they would have little idea of the reality being referred to.
The explicit words are just surface pointers to textual meaning
in reading and writing. The comprehending reader must bring to
the text appropriate background information that includes
knowledge [about] the shared attitudes and conventions" (Hirsch, p.
13-14)
So even with the knowledge that "male cadavers" refers to "dead
men," a reader lacking the shared knowledge of the idiom may not
understand the true meaning of the statement.
10. Why is Literacy Important to
Hirsch?
Democracy: "The aim of universal literacy has never been a
socially neutral mission in our country...no modern society
can hope to become a just society without a high level of
universal literacy"(Hirsch, 1988, p. 11-12)
Lisa Delpit (1988) would agree: "Students must be taught the codes
To improveto participate fully in the mainstream of American life...within the
needed our national character:"The acculturative
context of meaningful endeavors"(Delpit, 343
responsibility of the schools isp.primary and fundamental
[and] remains the essence of the education of our children
[so they can become] competent to communicate with
Americans throughout the land"(Hirsch, 1988, p. 17-25)
IntelligenceM. Schlesinger (1997): "The bonds of national cohesion are
Arthur and Knowledge: "The more we read the more
sufficiently fragile already. Public education should aim to strengthen
necessary knowledge we gain for further reading"(Hirsch, 1988, p.
those bonds, not to weaken them" (18) "Should it not seek to make our
28)
Dr. Seuss (1978): girls contributors to a common American culture? (90)
young boys and "The more that you read, the more things you will know/
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!"(I can read with my eyes shut)
11. The Fragmentation of Education
1893 - Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary
School Studies.
o Scholars believed the American education system was fragmented
(students in different areas were learning different topics) and
proposed a "traditional curriculum" (Hirsch, p. 117).
1918 - The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education
o To ensure that all students could graduate high school, which the
Committee of Ten made impossible, scholars "recommended
introducing a wide array of courses that would accord with children's
individual differences" (Hirsch, p. 120).
The result was a knowledge gap among Americans that
reduced literacy.
12. Hirsch's Proposed Solution-How to
Help Close the "Knowledge Gap" (1988, p. 8)
1. "We cannot assume that young people today know things that were known in
the past by almost every literate person in the culture" (Hirsch, 1988, p. 8)
2. "We cannot treat reading and writing as empty skills, independent of
specific knowledge...the level of literacy exhibited in each task depends
on the relevant background information that the person possesses" (Hirsch,
1988, p. 8)
3. Avoid the shopping mall high school, the theory that any suitable content
will instill reading, writing, and thinking skills; which inevitably leads to a
lack of shared knowledge across and within schools (Hirsch, 1988, p. 21)
13. What Steps did Hirsch Take?
Hirsch established the Core Knowledge Foundation to create an outline,
entitled The Core Knowledge Sequence, of the specific foundational
knowledge that every student in preschool through eighth grade should
learn.
It suggests that kindergartners learn the following phrases:
"A dog is a man's best friend."
"Better safe than sorry."
"The early bird gets the worm."
"Practice makes perfect."
Hirsch believes that this level of specificity is required to ensure that all
students have an equally strong educational foundation.
The complete Core Knowledge Sequence is aligned with the common core and
14. References:
Delpit, Lisa, D. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people's
children. Harvard Educational Review, 58 (3). pp. 330-345.
Curt Hennigan. (2011, May 30). Martin Luther King, Jr., speech (I have a dream). Retrieved June
20, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57lotnKGF8
Hirsch, E.D., Jr. (1988). Cultural Literacy: What every American needs to know. New York: Vintage
Books.
---(2012). Our philosophy. Retrieved from http://www.coreknowledge.org/our- philosophy
---(2009). The making of Americans. C-Span. Lecture conducted at Manhattan Institute, New
York, NY. Retrieved from http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/289952-1
Schlesinger, Arthur, M., Jr. (1992). The disuniting of America: Reflections on a multicultural
society. New York: W.W. Norton.
Selby, E. (2012, May). Celebrated oracular utterances. Psychology of adolescent development and
learning. Lecture conducted at Fordham University, New York, NY.
Seuss, Dr. (1978). I can read with my eyes shut. New York: Random House.
Toppo, Greg. (2009, January 8). Literacy study: 1 in 7 adults are unable to read this story. USA
Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com
