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More News on the Canon Front
by Susan Ohanian
Below you will find a review of E. D. Hirsch's latest book, published in September. It is interesting to see who supports the canon. Admittedly, I divide the world into two types: the people want and need the structure and safety of a specific list. And those who don't. Needing a specified canon does does not make Standardistos bad people. Needy, but not bad. Nor are the people who prefer to work within a more flexible framework, one that allows teachers and students to make choices, ipso facto good people.
I try hard to be tolerant in all this, but, that said, you can read my acerbic (but funny) criticism of Hirsch's underlying idea Finding a Loony List While Searching for Literacy. Written 20 years ago, my review of Hirsch's cultural determinism is still as current as President Obama's White House recent toast at a black tie dinner to the National Governors Association and their Common Core Standards.
Twenty Years ago, I asked what you can make of a list of cultural need-to-know terms that includes the trombone but not the tuba, Fresno but not Ghana, Kenya, Nagasaki, Sri Lanka, and Armenia. It's a bizarre list that includes Onan but not Ruth, Naomi, or Esther. Today I ask what you make of a cultural need-to-know list that includes Plato's Cave for 6th graders, Wordsworth Prelude for 9th, and As I Lay Dying for 11th.
It's all about who gets to decide. And nobody is interested in inviting teachers or students.
And please stop calling people like Hirsch conservative. Politically, he's a liberal, insisting that every child in America can and should have the same education, with an emphasis on "same." In fact, he believes democracy depends on everybody reading the same books. Remember this: Literacy lists and the Common Core Standards are not about liberals and conservatives. Literacy lists and the Common Core Standards are about power, about who's in charge, about who gets to decide. The Common Core Standards are about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation giving the PTA $1 million smackers to promote this list.
The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools, by E. D. Hirsch
From Publishers Weekly
Hirsch's 1987 bestseller, Cultural Literacy (See Ohanian Education Weekreview here , generated an intense debate over its proposals for education reform, namely that all schools should teach a standard core curriculum—the information every American should be equipped with in order to participate in the national cultural life (e.g., everyone should understand the term Achilles heel; know who said, To be or not to be or who wrote the Gettysburg Address). Hirsch's new book fine-tunes his philosophy while rebutting the criticism that cultural literacy fostered a conservative white curriculum that didn't take into account the learning styles and knowledge base of minority groups. Although must reading for educators, the book undoubtedly will reignite the earlier controversy. For example, Hirsch questions the wisdom of charter schools and educational vouchers, insisting that a trans-ethnic common educational experience can be had only in public schools attended by rich and poor together. However, in the context of the continuing shortcomings of American education and armed with the support of prominent educators, Hirsch once again challenges the prevailing child-centered philosophy, championing a return to a subject-centered approach to learning.
". . . Hirsch builds on [his] earlier work and widens the lens to connect his ideas on education reform to the fundamental rationales for our system of public schools in the United States. . . . American education would be far better off if leaders heeded Hirsch''s sound advice to restore a common-core curriculum."-Richard D. Kahlenberg, The American Scholar. (Richard D. Kahlenberg American Scholar )
"E. D. Hirsch is one of the very few academics in this country who can write for a wide audience about complex issues without ever condescending, oversimplifying, or falling into a populist rant."-David Labaree, Professor of Education, Stanford University (David Labaree )
"E.D. Hirsch''s The Making of Americans is a wonderful book that is must-reading for everyone who cares about our children and our country. It is the one book I would recommend to every legislator and school board member."-Diane Ravitch, author of Left Back and The Language Police (Diane Ravitch )
"In this important defense of the idea of a common national curriculum, E. D. Hirsch makes a lucid and convincing case that our habit of confusing such a curriculum with retrograde social and educational views has given us 'sixty years without a curriculum.'"-Gerald Graff, 2008 President, Modern Language Association (Gerald Graff )
"In this new book, E.D. Hirsch, a relentless advocate for universal common education, makes clear the very special relationship between education and democracy. Now more than ever we need his lessons to become part of our common wisdom."-Randi Weingarten, President, The American Federation of Teachers (Randi Weingarten )
"Once again, E.D. Hirsch has written a powerful and illuminating book about public education in America. This time he not only highlights 'the knowledge deficit' that has long impaired our students'' reading abilities, he also explains how this deficiency is undermining the role of education in developing an informed citizenry. With all the talk in Washington about national standards and what it means for a high school student to be 'college ready,' this book is an essential read."- Joel I. Klein, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education (Joel I. Klein )
"The most cogent and persuasive version of [Hirsch's] views that I have seen. . . .This is not just a good book. It is an important book."-Robert Scholes, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Brown University (Robert Scholes )
— Susan Ohanian
Amazon Reviews
2010-02-26
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Americans-Democracy-Our-Schools/dp/0300152817/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267209505&sr=8-1
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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