America鈥檚 literacy problems stem from children鈥檚 lack of knowledge about the common culture鈥攏ot their lack of mechanical skills鈥攁ccording to a book scheduled for release this week by the Houghton Mifflin Company.
In Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, E.D. Hirsch Jr., a professor of English at the University of Virginia, argues that American schools are producing students who鈥攊n the words of one community-college teacher cited in the book鈥攖hink Charles Darwin discovered gravity, J. Edgar Hoover was a 19th-century president, and Mark Twain invented the cotton gin.
Mr. Hirsch argues that true literacy cannot be divorced from subject-matter knowledge, and that schools must return to a much more traditional, facts-oriented curriculum that systematically teaches children the information they need to know.
His book, which includes an extensive listing of information that literate Americans hold in common, is an expansion of earlier essays that earned him both high praise and harsh criticism within the education community.
The book鈥檚 publication comes at a time when more and more states are turning their attention to the problems of adult illiteracy. And its themes may provide ammunition for those, such as U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, who have advocated the return to a more traditional K-12 curriculum as one solution to that problem.
鈥淟iteracy is far more than a skill,鈥�' asserts Mr. Hirsch, but requires 鈥渓arge amounts of specific information.鈥�'
Literate Americans share a discrete body of knowledge, he contends, that is not being imparted to all schoolchildren. Its absence among many individuals has resulted, he says, in widespread 鈥渃ultural illiteracy.鈥�' (See excerpts on page 68.)
He submits that schools can and should play a central role in determining the nature of this shared information base, and in developing an 鈥渋ndex of cultural literacy鈥欌�� that could help guide the creation of curricula, tests, and textbooks.
Knowledge List
With the assistance of two colleagues at the University of Virginia, Mr. Hirsch has compiled a tentative list of nearly 5,000 historical dates and events, geographical names, famous people, bits of patriotic lore, words, phrases, book titles, and texts, which he maintains literate Americans know. The list could serve as a starting point, he suggests, for what students are taught.
Eventually, the 64-page appendix of facts and figures will form the index for a 鈥渄ictionary鈥欌�� of cultural literacy.
It includes such diverse items as the date 1776, acid rain, Johann Sebastian Bach, 鈥渇amiliarity breeds contempt,鈥�' Florida, and the text of the Gettysburg Address. (See related story on page 55.)
According to Mr. Hirsch, the list reflects a high-school level of literacy. But he adds that people鈥檚 knowledge of this core content is sketchy and imprecise, rather than deep.
For example, he writes, 鈥淥nly a small proportion of literate people can name the Shakespeare plays in which Falstaff appears, yet they know who he is. They know what Mein Kampf is, but they haven鈥檛 read it.鈥�'
Nonetheless, he argues, this 鈥渕iddle-level information鈥欌�� distinguishes the literate person from the illiterate, and is the 鈥渉omeland of the common reader.鈥�'
Without shared national information, attitudes, and assumptions, he states, U.S. citizens would not have a 鈥渃ommon basis for communication鈥�'鈥攁 scenario that he views as increasingly possible, given the growing diversity of American society.
According to Mr. Hirsch, one-third of all Americans are now illiterate and many more have literacy skills that must be improved.
Although the level of literacy required to prosper in modern society has been rising throughout the developed world, he writes, 鈥淎merican literacy rates have not risen to meet this standard.鈥�'
Schools鈥� 鈥楩ailed Task鈥�
Responsibility for the state of cultural literacy, Mr. Hirsch maintains, rests squarely with the schools.
鈥淭he new illiteracy is sometimes excused by the argument that our schools are now educating larger portions of our population,鈥�' he writes. 鈥淭he point is that we are not educating them.
鈥淲e undertook the great task of universal education precisely in order to produce a truly literate population, but we have not succeeded in that task in recent years.鈥�'
As evidence, he points to more than a decade of declining reading and verbal scores on both the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, even among the country鈥檚 best educated and most 鈥渁dvanced鈥欌�� youngsters.
Preliminary field tests from a NAEP project on the literacy and historical knowledge of American 17-year-olds, for example, reported that two-thirds did not know the Civil War occurred between 1850 and 1900; three-quarters did not know what 鈥渞econstruction鈥欌�� meant; and half could not identify either Joseph Stalin or Winston Churchill.
鈥楨ducational Formalism鈥�
Mr. Hirsch blames primarily a philosophy of education that he says has eschewed facts in favor of more generic skills development.
"[E]ven now,鈥�' he notes, 鈥渢he goal of teaching shared information is under attack by the latest version of educational formalism, the 鈥榗ritical thinking鈥� movement.鈥�'
Pushing students to engage in higher-order thinking skills is fine, he asserts, but not at the expense of denigrating factual knowledge.
鈥淭he polarization of educationists into facts-people versus skills-people has no basis in reason,鈥�' he writes. 鈥淔acts and skills are inseparable.鈥�'
In particular, he advocates that vast amounts of cultural information be systematically imparted to youngsters in the early grades. If students still lack important elements of the knowledge base by grade 10, he notes, 鈥渢hey will rarely be able to make up the loss.鈥�'
According to Mr. Hirsch, the mere existence of his list 鈥渨ill help people perceive that our previous reluctance to identify core information has seriously hindered the effective teaching of literacy.鈥�'
鈥淚t鈥檚 not the list that is dangerous to serious education,鈥�' he asserts, 鈥渋ts explicitness is dangerous to the inadequate, skills-oriented educational principles of the recent past.鈥�'
鈥楥ognitive Overload鈥�
To support his views on the ties between literacy and content knowledge, the University of Virginia professor points to recent research in the fields of reading and psychology.
According to this work, vast stores of vocabulary, word associations, and skills enable competent readers to rapidly process new information and place it in pre-existing frameworks or 鈥渟chemata鈥欌�� for understanding the world.
Lacking such knowledge, poor readers experience 鈥渃ognitive overload,鈥�' Mr. Hirsch states. They are forced to process so much new material at one time that it quickly overburdens their short-term memories, making their reading 鈥渟low, arduous, and ineffective.鈥�'
Estimates that a chess master can recognize about 50,000 different patterns of pieces on a chess board probably apply equally well to cultural literacy, according to Mr. Hirsch. 鈥淚nterestingly,鈥�' he writes, 鈥渢hat is the approximate number of words and idioms in the vocabulary of a literate person.鈥�'
鈥淭here are, of course, many more than 50,000 items stored in the full text of long-term memory,鈥�' he adds. 鈥淎 basic vocabulary of 50,000 schemata serves merely as a quickly accessible index to a much larger volume of knowledge.鈥�'
Mr. Hirsch鈥檚 arguments are particularly timely, given the current educational climate.
Secretary Bennett has consistently advocated that schools return to a more traditional curriculum that emphasizes the great texts and traditions of Western Civilization.
According to the Secretary, today鈥檚 students do share a common core of knowledge, but it is composed of popular culture, such as the names of television and rock stars, rather than literate culture.
In the last few years, several states鈥攊ncluding California and Texas鈥攈ave approved comprehensive statewide curriculum frameworks to clarify what students should be learning in particular courses.
In addition, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Mr. Bennett last month recommended that the National Assessment of Educational Progress provide state-by-state as well as national data on how students perform in core subject areas.
That proposal would require broader consensus among states than currently exists about what the core knowledge base should be in grades K-12. When NAEP was first designed in the 1960鈥檚, the idea of state-by-state comparisons was explicitly rejected for fear that it would lead to a national curriculum.
Writes Mr. Hirsch: 鈥淭he counterreform of the 1980鈥檚 seems bent upon a return to a more traditional curriculum. This welcome course correction demonstrates the underlying good sense of the American people, who have launched a grassroots movement to advance that reform.鈥�'
Two-Part Curriculum
But according to Mr. Hirsch, a national core curriculum鈥攁s traditionally envisioned鈥攊s 鈥渘either desirable nor feasible.鈥�'
What is needed, he contends, is a two-part curriculum that is 鈥渢raditional in content but diverse in its emphases, that is pluralistic in its materials and modes of teaching but nonetheless provides our children with a common core of cultural information.鈥�'
Mr. Hirsch dubs this bifurcated model the 鈥渆xtensive鈥欌�� and 鈥渋ntensive鈥欌�� curriculum.
The content of the 鈥渆xtensive curriculum鈥欌�� is traditional literate knowledge鈥攖he information, attitudes, and assumptions that literate Americans share. It consists of a 鈥渕inimal description of elements that should be included in every child鈥檚 schooling, no matter what form the schooling takes.鈥�'
Any school can find ways to incorporate this minimal content into its courses, Mr. Hirsch argues, 鈥済iven a determination to do so and coordination among grade levels.鈥�'
In contrast, the 鈥渋ntensive curriculum鈥欌�� consists of the in-depth study and fully developed understanding of a subject, 鈥渕aking one鈥檚 knowledge of it integrated and coherent.鈥�'
The flexibility in methods and content that applies to the intensive curriculum, he asserts, 鈥渆nsures that individual students, teachers, and schools can work intensively with materials that are appropriate for their diverse temperaments and aims.鈥�'
According to Mr. Hirsch, the concept of a two-part curriculum 鈥渁voids the idea that all children should study identical materials.鈥�'
鈥淚t also resists,鈥�' he says, 鈥渢he lure of a core curriculum, if that proposal is taken to mean that all high-school graduates should study, say, Romeo and Juliet. A common extensive curriculum would ensure that students have some information about Romeo and Juliet, but in their intensive curriculum they might study The Tempest or Twelfth Night in detail.鈥�'
Nonetheless, he writes, 鈥淎merican schools should be able to devise an extensive curriculum based on the national vocabulary and arranged in a definite sequence.鈥�'
鈥淭his aim,鈥�' he contends, 鈥渃ould be accomplished with a great diversity of schoolbooks and teaching methods. Although the methods of conveying cultural literacy can and should vary from school to school, an agreed-upon, explicit national vocabulary should come to be regarded as the basis of a literate education.鈥�'
Textbook and Tests
The most effective way to reform the curriculum, according to Mr. Hirsch, would be to increase the proportion of nonfiction and traditional myths and stories included in the reading materials for grades K-8.
鈥淲hat are needed,鈥�' he argues, 鈥渁re reading texts that deliberately convey what children need to know and include a substantially higher proportion of factual narratives.鈥�'
In higher grades, where teaching is done by subject matter, Mr. Hirsch maintains that continued systematic attention to the national vocabulary is needed.
In particular, he argues, schools should teach more survey courses that cover large movements of human thought and experience.
He proposes that publishers and educators reach an accord about the contents of the national vocabulary and a good sequence for presenting it. One option, he suggests, is to convene a group of educators and public leaders to develop a model grade-by-grade sequence of core information.
Their recommendations would carry 鈥渙nly the force of personal authority,鈥�' he notes, 鈥渨hich is sometimes effective, sometimes not.鈥�'
He also suggests the creation of 鈥済eneral knowledge tests鈥欌�� for three different stages of schooling, each based on an agreed-upon body of information. Again, it would be up to each state or local district to use the examinations.
But he argues that even if such tests were not compulsory, their mere existence would 鈥渆xert a normalizing effect on the extensive curriculum.鈥�'
鈥淚f school administrators knew that some of their students might want to take one or more of the tests, they might adjust their curricula accordingly for all students,鈥�' he writes.
鈥淪imilarly, the mere existence of such tests might encourage publishers, as a matter of commercial prudence, to include in their textbooks the core information upon which the tests were based.鈥�'
鈥楬idden Curriculum鈥�
Mr. Hirsch anticipates that his opinions will be roundly criticized by those who view them as undemocratic or intolerant of minority cultures.
But he argues that the question of specific content 鈥渃an no longer be ignored鈥欌�� in American education.
According to Mr. Hirsch, somebody in each classroom already is deciding what material children should learn in the name of 鈥渟kills acquisition.鈥�'
鈥淎ll too often it is content for which our children will have no use in the future,鈥�' he asserts.
The challenge, according to Mr. Hirsch, is to bring that 鈥渃urrently hidden curriculum鈥欌�� out into the open, and to 鈥渕ake its contents the subject of democratic discussion.鈥�'
