Word: hirsch
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...HIRSCH'S argument, a summary of the educational philosophy he espoused in his previous best-seller, Cultural Literacy, centers on the idea that common knowledge eases communication and creates a national culture. The dictionary catalogues this particular information, excluding whatever Hirsch considers too specialized, generalized, regional or transient. He claims that widespread study of this body of knowledge can reverse the American educational decline. Apparently, meager teacher's salaries, budget cuts in public schooling, drugs and escalating drop-out rates are merely secondary causes of this decline. If teachers promised to pepper their lectures with proverbs, Biblical references and other...
...Hirsch maintains that reading skills are limited to topics the reader has encountered, so specific information must be drilled into students' heads. He uses the example of standardized reading comprehension tests: "If a young boy knows a lot about snakes but very little about lakes, he will make a good score on a passage about snakes, but a less good score on a passage about lakes....If you know about lakes and snakes, and rakes and cakes, you will have [a high] reading ability...
Take a break, flake. Some of us grew up reading comic books, sports stories, science fiction or other literature that might not please Hirsch's dignified tastes. We read about what we liked, and that's how we learned to read. If children test poorly on a reading comprehension passage about, say, the Mongolian tree iguana, and well on one about a space taxi, it's because they are more interested in space than in life sciences, not necessarily because have read extensively on the subject. Literacy provides the freedom to discover and decide our own interests, which Hirsch constrains...
...Hirsch's approach gives facts, facts and more facts, but no vision, no interpretation, no invitation to the world of learning. Instead of reading short clips summarizing the great works of literature, shouldn't students try to read the works themselves? The superficiality of Hirsch's approach is pervasive; students are taught catch phrases to spit out at cocktail parties, but they miss out on both the pleasures of learning and the opportunity to discover what it is that truly interests them...
...Hirsch claims that universal cultural literacy would help restore our economic and technological superiority. How? Our computer experts might not be versed in Dostoevsky, but to say that they don't contribute to our culture is to discount the technological advances their single-mindedness has provided...