Word: trefil
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Just ask E.D. Hirsch, whose educational philosophy mirrors Bacon's conclusion. Hirsch, an English professor at the University of Virginia, has enlisted the assistance of Joseph F. Kett and James Trefil to save our nation from cultural stagnation, assembling The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, a collection of specific knowledge of, according to the weighty hardcover's bold subtitle, "What Every American Needs to Know." But there is no power in this book's knowledge...
Supposedly, Hirsch weeded out specialized entries by using a formula of selecting only events, people or things that major newspapers would refer to without a definition. (Under that rationale, many of Hirsch's entries are extremely questionable.) The science entries, compiled by Trefil, are exempt from this qualification, since "there is little broad knowledge of science even among educated people." Granted, but does one need to know what thermal inversion is in order to function as a literate member of society? Similarly, would a science major feel a driving need to recognize that John Constable was an artist...
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