Rating: 
Summary: Are Our Children Culturally Literate?
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: OH THAT LIST!
Review: In his treatise on the (lowly) state of US public education, Hirsch seems to stop short of theorizing his hypothesis. In fact, he appears as guilty of short changing students as the institutions he decries. I do not fully comprehend his want of a national core cirricullum, or how such a method would result in a nation of better readers. It seems to me that diversity is more important than a single national web of knowledge. I understand that if his list of 5,000 facts contained even a sample of the item, this book would be too cumbersome for bookstores. What I don't understand is why Babe Ruth is on the list, and Hank Aaron is not. Did someone say "elitism"?
Rating: 
Summary: Desperately in Need of Cultural Literacy
Review: In this book there is one main theory that the author tries to get across to his readers, that is the importance of being culturally literate, and the fact that today's children are not learning how to become culturally literate adults in schools. The author makes many valid arguments to support his theory. His belief is that because being culturally literate is so important in succeeding in this world, schools need to be taught in a different way so that children learn the important names, dates, phrases and even concepts that culturally literate Americans need to know, hence the title of the book. The argument that he debates in his book is the fact that to be literate, you must not only know how to read, but you must also understand the things you are reading about. The author argues that without the background knowledge of what the writer is writing about and the knowledge of culturally literate things a student has little chance of entering our society with the communication skills needed to succeed.
I believe that E.D. Hirsh, Jr. has a very good argument. He believes that schools need to get back to a standard curriculum, and because of the open curriculum being used in today's schools, the number of students that are "culturally literate" is rapidly decreasing. Hirsh writes, "In former days, when business people wrote and spoke to one another, they could be confident that they and their colleagues had studied similar things in school." It is often seen today where two students from the same schools are taught many different things, at many different levels. If America were to get back to a standard curriculum in schools, there would be a higher level of cultural literacy in today's youth. Hirsh also believes there are many standard concepts, dates, phrases, and names that should be known by all Americans, for America to be able to communicate. For example in his list, Americans should know concepts like the American Revolution, the Civil War, deja vu, electoral college, and Hiroshima, just to name a few of the 5000 he listed.
In Hirsh's argument his premise seems to be true. Hirsh writes " To be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world". Hirsh's argument I believe is very inductively strong, he claims we as an American culture need certain general information known as cultural literacy to survive and communicate with others. An example of this is used in Hirsh's first chapter, he writes about his father, and how he used to write business letters that alluded to Shakespeare. This was an effective way for his father to convey complex messages to his associates, because in his day there was no doubt of being understood by others. His father used the quote "There is a tide," without writing anything else, and he knew his colleagues would know what he had meant by the quote. From those four words his associates were able to get out of what it could have taken someone an entire paragraph to explain. If someone were to allude to someone such as Shakespeare many people would miss the entire point of the concept and what it may be alluding to. Hirsh has lots of evidence throughout the entirety of his book to conclude that this type of cultural literacy is essential to succeed and communicate in our society. Hirsh's argument seems very complete, he uses examples from many different aspects of our culture, and he offers what he and others in his profession believe to be the way to solve the problem of cultural illiteracy in today's youth, that is getting back to the standard curriculum.
Although I can't say I agree with all of his list, for the most part, it seems as I grow up in America, it is very important for me to know about these things, so that I am able to communicate with the world around me. The evidence that Hirsh gives in his book to support his argument, seems very sound to me. As I try to analyze his work, it all seems practical in what he believes to be the way to get the American people to have more common ground with one another. To understand the newspaper, or even an average sitcom in today's society there are just certain things that you must know. If, for example, you don't know what the Fifth Amendment is, or for that matter what an amendment is at all, you may, as an American, be giving up your rights without even knowing it. Many people fought and gave their lives for those rights, and it is a person's duty as an American to know them. Over all Cultural Literacy is a book that contains a fair argument that needs to be looked at carefully in our society. Things need to change in our schools and a standard curriculum needs to be enforced. The people that live in America must have common knowledge to be able to communicate and live as one culture. Cultural Literacy is a book that every American should read and understand.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting worthwhile read
Review: Interesting insights into how people learn to read. Hirsch makes the case that reading is not just skill but requires some content to provide context and make reading more efficient (and enjoyable). Also intriquing is the idea of defining the reading context in terms of a national literacy. (A good way to appreciate these issues is to try to learn a foreign language enough to understand the media of a foreign country.) The controversial stuff comes from the rejection of the Rousseau/Dewey teaching doctrine, and the proposal for a national standard for teaching content knowledge in primary and secondary school. Hirsch claims that it is teaching doctine, rather than parenting, that is behind the lack of literacy in American children. This was not so convincing as he cites data that indicate that children who spent more time studying do better at reading. It is clear that Hirsch is embroiled in quite an educator doctrine controversy. In any case, the list at the end of the book was a hoot, and I was pleased to find that I knew what most things were and had at least heard of everything else. It would have been nice if the list could have come with reference information but then the book would have been several times larger (maybe someone should come up with a web site devoted to the list). Running down items in the list has been a lot of fun and I still look at the list from time to time when I feel the need to expand my cultural literacy.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: People who are culturally illiterate are at a disadvantage in that they are deprived of fully participating in the society exchange of ideas. Hirsch argues that there are certain facts that a culturally literate person should know. He is specific. Globally he says English speaking countries such as Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States share one layer of cultural literacy based on our common heritage.
Inference is significant in reaching the full meaning of what one reads he says. He writes "The reader's mind is constantly inferring meanings that are not directly stated by the words of a text, but are nonetheless part of its essential content" (pp. 33-34). He categorizes good readers from poor ones based upon how much task-specific information they possess (p. 61). Hirsch makes some valid points in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Another threat to America -- the cultural illiterate
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Hirsch is Culturally Illiterate
Review: That's right. This man is culturally illiterate. He knows next to nothing about his Vietnamese neighbors, what they eat, and what they believe. He knows nothing about holidays celebrated by the Hispanics who live across the street from him. He knows almost nothing about the African diaspora. He marginalizes his own neighbors in favor of a puerile list of factoids. Worse, he knows nothing about where his food comes from, or the energy necessary to produce and transport it, and he doesn't think your kids should care. Does he know where the clothes on his back were made? How about how the water got to the faucet, or how waste is treated? Are these cultural secrets? Or simply a further sign of his illiteracy? Raising your child on E.D. Hirsch's lists will turn your child into an E.D. Hirsch clone, or might qualify her for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But it has almost nothing to do with understanding our culture -- the real culture of where we live, what we eat, or how we organize ourselves. This is a sad excuse for a book, and, in my judgment, simply a representation of Hirsch's own inadequacies. I hope someday he'll grow up.
Rating:
Summary: The cultural genome and the limits of short term memory
Review: The mind can only hold a small number of items in short term memory. Thoughts must be compressed and routed into long term memory or forgotten. Some of the destinations and compression schemes are, for literate people, taken from the shared culture. This book is a dictonary of that shared cullture. This material should be on-line in some way. I wish the authors had e-mail.
Rating:
Summary: Fun! Fun! Fun! The 5000 entry list is like a game.
Review: This book gives a list of 5000 things everyone should know. I have had more fun with this list than I ever imagined. My friends and I enjoy taking a sample page from the list and seeing how many items we know. This book is worth the list itself. The first few chapters are on educational theory, and that is fun too. If you like this book, you will like Steve Allen's book, "Dumbth, the Lost Art of Thinking with 101 Ways to Better & Improve Your Mind." Steve has a similar conclusion as Hirsch, only he adds more humor. Hirsch wrote a companion book to this one that explains all 5000 entries in the list.
Rating:
Summary: The Need For Literacy
Review: This book specifies about the need for reading. Many Americans do not read at an everyday basis. Hirsch believes that illiteracy is a dilemma in the United States. Therefore, every American should read this book as it sends a powerful message to people of the United States to be able to get hooked into reading.
| 
