E. D. Hirsch at the Miller Center
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October 18, 2010 11:00 am
On Monday, October 18 head over to the Miller Center to hear E. D. Hirsch, Jr., founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at UVA, address the question: how can the U.S. reform its educational standards and curriculum?
Hirsch is the author of “The Knowledge Deficit,” which solidified his reputation as one of our most influential education reformers. With “The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools,” Hirsch argues that a content-based curriculum is essential to address inequality. A book signing will follow his Forum, which begins at 11am
Didn’t get to see Hirsch…but if he’s still saying the same old thing – and it sounds like he is – then one has to wonder why the MIller Center is giving him a forum.
In his first big book, Cultural Literacy, Hirsch made the argument that learning specific content was the key to maintaining American culture…even if students were only “acquainted” with the knowledge they were expected to learn.
Then a firestorm broke out over the content Hirsch suggested was the most important to learn. That content was more than a little skimpy on women and minorities, and on movements that were progressive in nature. It was called a Euro-centric curriculum, and it attracted conservatives (like Lynn Cheney, for example). And because it focused exclusively on content, Hirsch was accused of ignoring process and skills and values.
Hirsch said that he was only offering up the content….it could be taught multiple ways. But his follow-up books, What Every First Grader Should Know, What Every Second Grader Should Know, etc. belied that statement. It really was all about the content.
The saddest part of Hirsch’s books and commentary is that they are not based on any research. Cultural Literacy had one research reference, and it cited a very small group of “gifted” students. That’s it.
Hirsch can say and write what he wants. It’s a free country. But he is no education researcher. He doesn’t discuss well-established principles of learning. He doesn’t appear to have knowledge about how the brain works.
It looks like he’s just making the same argument all over again.
As is often the case, those who do not hear Hirsch’s remarks or read what he writes feel the need to react to what they think the man means, rather than what the man says.
The idea that Hirsch favors a Euro-centric curriculum is a common and completely mistaken view of his body of work. His point is not and never has been that children from other walks of life be force-fed a canon. Rather that familiarity with the common knowledge of a culture–any culture, anywhere–is the principal difference between those who are literate and those who are not. This distinction is what led Dan Willingham, the UVA cognitive scientist to call Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy the most misunderstood education book of the last 50 years.
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/the-reading-wars-round-2-content-knowledge-vs-reading-strategies/
It is not about imposing a canon or a culture. It’s about helping the disadvantaged succeed in the culture we have.
The idea that he is not a researcher and “doesn’t discuss well-established principles of learning” is a jaw-dropper. It would be more accurate to say that research doesn’t support the well-established principles of learning that are dominant in America’s schools. Saying so has made Hirsch controversial. It has not made him wrong.