From the Publisher
"An important message, eloquently expressed."Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works
"If we did what E.D. Hirsch said, and made sure that all students, regardless of race, income, or neighborhood, were exposed to a rich, challenging, sequenced curriculum in important subjects, schools could make a much bigger difference than they already do."Ed McElroy, president, American Federation of Teachers
"[Hirsch] wants to reverse the current emphasis on reading as a mechanical process and replace it with content-rich curriculum that will turn all children into knowledgeable readers. It's a worthy goal for our schools in an increasingly competitive globalized world." New York Post
"On many fronts, Hirsch's book challenges the conventional educational wisdown. Parents ought to check it out."Rocky Mountain News
"[A] powerful argument . . . [Hirsch's] well-reasoned, common-sense proposals address a vital issue, and his book provides a valuable addition to the debate on public policy in education."Richmond Times-Dispatch
With books such as Cultural Literacy and the Core Knowledge Series, educator E. D. Hirsch Jr. changed the American debate on learning. In The Knowledge Deficit, he argues that our students trail those of other industrialized nations because they are taught how to read, but not how to think. He insists that funding, testing, and teaching the mechanics of readings don't build comprehension; curriculum does. He tackles all the hot-button issues, including standardized testing, No Child Left Behind, regional and class differences, and school funding.
The notion of learning how to learn is a shibboleth in America's schools, but it distorts reading instruction, contends this provocative manifesto. Education theorist Hirsch decries a dominant "Romantic" pedagogy that disparages factual knowledge and emphasizes reading comprehension "strategies"-summarizing, identifying themes, drawing inferences-that children can deploy on any text. Such formal skills, he argues, are easily acquired; what kids really need is a broad background knowledge of history, science and culture to help them assimilate new vocabulary and understand more advanced readings. "Process-oriented" methods that apply reading comprehension drills to "vapid" texts waste time and slow kids' progress, Hirsch contends, and should be replaced with a more traditional, "knowledge-oriented" academic approach with a rich factual content. Hirsch repeats the call for a standard curriculum based on a canon of general knowledge (he touts his own core knowledge sequence as a model) made in his bestselling Cultural Literacy. That work drew fire from multiculturalists who accused Hirsch of promoting dead-white-male worship, but here he grounds his case in the latest cognitive-science research (with a healthy dose of common sense). Fluently written and accessible to teachers and parents alike, the book presents a challenge to reigning educational orthodoxies. (Apr. 24) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, Hirsch(Cultural Literacy) offers another treatise on the need for core knowledge in U.S. education. While the reading scores of younger students in the United States stack up well against those of students in other countries, the scores show a troubling slump around fourth grade and continue to lag behind throughout the secondary grades. Hirsch believes the cause is a lack of general knowledge, which leads to a lack of comprehension. Rather than teaching reading as a skill or strategy independent of content areas, he feels schools should be teaching children general cultural knowledge and encouraging reading within the content areas. He provides solutions for teachers to enable students to gain this knowledge by reading widely in the classics and forgoing reading drills, thereby helping, he hopes, to close the gap between American and other children as well as the gaps between various income and racial groups in this country. This concise, well-written, and insightful book belongs in the collection of every academic and public library supporting teacher education and serving parents of children in all types of schooling situations. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/05.]-Mark Bay, Univ. of the Cumberlands Lib., Williamsburg, KY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.