Date post: | 05-Dec-2014 |
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By: Bridget Gaitor & Sarah Deuitch
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know
Click the following hyperlink to read the short biography written by the Hoover Institute at Stanford University where Hirsch was a distinguished visiting fellow from 1999 to 2006
http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10666
Who is E.D. Hirsch Jr.?
Hirsch believed that the education system should strive for universal literacy. He believed that in order to achieve this we must have large amounts of specific information. This theory lead to cultural literacy, the specific information, needed to gain universal literacy.
Hirsch’s Theory: Cultural Literacy
Cultural literacy defined by Hirsch is the network of information that all competent readers possess. It is the background information, stored in their minds. That enables them to take up a newspaper and read it with an adequate level of comprehension.
Cultural literacy: the set of cultural facts that is known in a society
What is Cultural Literacy?
Cultural Literacy Literacy
The ability to comprehend and decipher words in a text for knowledge.
The specific facts that everyone should know in order to engage in intellectual and academic conversations.
Cultural Literacy vs. Literacy
Hirsch’s book ends with an appendix that includes a list of 5,000 essential facts and people that every student should know. Here are a few:
Galileo
Mozart
The years of the Civil War
The Book of Genesis
The solar system
Cultural Literacy Dictionary
Think about it:
How many of these things are you “culturally literate” about?
How many are your students “culturally literate” about?
Why do you think that is?
Cultural Literacy DictionaryOpen the hyperlink below to read a full description of Hirsch’s updated Dictionary
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Dictionary_of_Cultural_Literacy.html?id=GAzOg4eQl2YC
Visual “List” of Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy
Dictionary
If you have trouble viewing the video above, please click on the following hyperlink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LadSZ-tB_A
Cultural literacy is needed to connect society
together. It is the glue that allows us to hold
conversations with one another and have a
common understanding.
Why is cultural literacy needed?
Hirsch and Cultural Literacy on
McNeil/Lehrer News Hour
If you have trouble viewing the video above, please click on the following hyperlink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROIujiY1uZU
http://www.coreknowledge.org/
Hirsch founded the Core Knowledge Foundation in 1986 to promote “Educational Excellence and Equity for All Children”
Even though Hirsch’s cultural literacy theory has received much praise, some educators oppose his theory for these reasons:
Who decides what information constitutes as cultural literacy?
Why does cultural literacy outweigh other information?
Cultural literacy is always changing with society.
Issues with Hirsch’s theory
Core knowledge. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.coreknowledge.org/
Cultural literacy. (2009). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LadSZ-tB_A
E. Donald Hirsch Jr. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10666
Hirsch and cultural literacy on Mcneil/Lehrer news hour. (2011). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROIujiY1uZU
Hirsch, E. D. (1988). Cultural literacy: What every american needs to know. New York: Vantage Books.
References