Cultural Literacy
What Every American Needs to Know

The best part of this book was the reference to "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" by Gilbert and Sullivan. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can get down to some more specific critiques. But before those critiques, I feel I should offer a disclaimer. I was homeschooled. I also......more

This is the best book on education that I have read. Excellent work. Interesting thesis: There are FACTS out there that educated citizens must know. Teaching skills is not enough. The reason is because communication of any sort is based on shared knowledge. Picture a Venn diagram: you and I can only......more

Interesting contribution to the debate on National education. The gist of the book is that literacy is misunderstood. One can be proficient with a skill as a reader without having mastered comprehension of text. In other words the finite skill of interpreting letters into words and speed at which th......more

This text left me nodding vigorously at some sections and wanting to rip out the pages of other portions. Hirsch gives an impressively extensive background of the establishment of the English language. When my students ask, "Who made these grammar rules and spelling decisions?" I can now give them q......more

Hirsch is really hung up on making cultural literacy a partisan issue (80s culture wars?). Also, his assertion that one can become fully culturally literate by learning and comprehending just current mainstream culture seems woefully ignorant and willfully suppressive of multicultural America. This......more