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A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Our Children Need to Know
Introduces fundamental information about the world, from the ancient past through the present day, that children should learn in grade school, gathering and arranging information by subject, including art, mythology, history, music, geography, art, and more. Original.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 1989
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About the author
E.D. Hirsch Jr.
156 books111 followersE. D. Hirsch, Jr. is the founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education in which he has persisted as a voice of reason making the case for equality of educational opportunity.
A highly regarded literary critic and professor of English earlier in his career, Dr. Hirsch recalls being “shocked into education reform” while doing research on written composition at a pair of colleges in Virginia. During these studies he observed that a student’s ability to comprehend a passage was determined in part by the relative readability of the text, but even more by the student’s background knowledge.
This research led Dr. Hirsch to develop his concept of cultural literacy—the idea that reading comprehension requires not just formal decoding skills but also wide-ranging background knowledge. In 1986 he founded the Core Knowledge Foundation. A year later he published Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, which remained at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for more than six months. His subsequent books include The Schools We Need, The Knowledge Deficit, The Making of Americans, and most recently, How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation.
In How to Educate a Citizen (September, 2020), E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America’s public schools, particularly in Preschool – Grade 8, to educate our children using common, coherent and sequenced curricula to help heal and preserve the nation.
A highly regarded literary critic and professor of English earlier in his career, Dr. Hirsch recalls being “shocked into education reform” while doing research on written composition at a pair of colleges in Virginia. During these studies he observed that a student’s ability to comprehend a passage was determined in part by the relative readability of the text, but even more by the student’s background knowledge.
This research led Dr. Hirsch to develop his concept of cultural literacy—the idea that reading comprehension requires not just formal decoding skills but also wide-ranging background knowledge. In 1986 he founded the Core Knowledge Foundation. A year later he published Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, which remained at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for more than six months. His subsequent books include The Schools We Need, The Knowledge Deficit, The Making of Americans, and most recently, How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation.
In How to Educate a Citizen (September, 2020), E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America’s public schools, particularly in Preschool – Grade 8, to educate our children using common, coherent and sequenced curricula to help heal and preserve the nation.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 12, 2015
for a combined review of this and two related books associated with the concept of Cultural Literacy, see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cultural Literacy
“Cultural Literacy” was a term introduced by E.D. Hirsch in the late 1980s with his book of the same name: Cultural Literacy (1987).
By this term, Hirsch referred to knowledge of a detailed and particular sort, not general knowledge. Here’s an example that illustrates.
Suppose you’re a younger person, or a person from a minority sub-culture (American Indian, inner city migrant, etc) or a not very culturally literate older person, and people you know, or have recently met at a new school or a new job, throw around terms like “reconstruction” (they seem to be talking about something political? that happened in the past); and “moma”, or “the moma” (you’re like huh?; or make a joke about “babe ruth” (a dame? movie star? candy bar?);none of which you really understand. Well, in these instances, because of your ignorance about these terms and names, you are excluded (unless you’re willing to ask) from the conversation, the plans for going to an art museum, the laughter.
So Hirsch propounded this theory about people needing to know a lot of facts, terms, names from an amorphous set of same. That if one knows enough of this stuff they can function in the culture as other people do, but if they don’t know enough they’re excluded from participating, even if they want to.
Hirsch is certainly given credit for the introduction of the term into the social sciences, and it’s generated a large amount of interest, commentary, probably criticism, in the past quarter century, at least in the U.S. And Hirsch himself has remained quite visible in the area, being the founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation. (Not to be confused with the U.S. “Common Core” initiative in public school education – though obviously there is a close connection between the theories involved in both cases.)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Hi... for Hirsch, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural... for Cultural Literacy (the term and the area of study in the social sciences).
The review
The subtitle of this book says it all: “What Our Children Need to Know”. It’s about half as long as one of the other books reviewed at the link above, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. It’s split up into almost all the same chapters, leaving out only the first two from that one: The Bible, and Mythology and Folklore (interesting!)
Here’s what the kids read about Abraham Lincoln in this book.
As well as an index, this book has a six page Guide to Further Reading, consisting of books “appropriate for ages six through 12”. These are put into fourteen categories, obviously differing from the chapter headings.
Cultural Literacy
“Cultural Literacy” was a term introduced by E.D. Hirsch in the late 1980s with his book of the same name: Cultural Literacy (1987).
By this term, Hirsch referred to knowledge of a detailed and particular sort, not general knowledge. Here’s an example that illustrates.
Suppose you’re a younger person, or a person from a minority sub-culture (American Indian, inner city migrant, etc) or a not very culturally literate older person, and people you know, or have recently met at a new school or a new job, throw around terms like “reconstruction” (they seem to be talking about something political? that happened in the past); and “moma”, or “the moma” (you’re like huh?; or make a joke about “babe ruth” (a dame? movie star? candy bar?);none of which you really understand. Well, in these instances, because of your ignorance about these terms and names, you are excluded (unless you’re willing to ask) from the conversation, the plans for going to an art museum, the laughter.
So Hirsch propounded this theory about people needing to know a lot of facts, terms, names from an amorphous set of same. That if one knows enough of this stuff they can function in the culture as other people do, but if they don’t know enough they’re excluded from participating, even if they want to.
Hirsch is certainly given credit for the introduction of the term into the social sciences, and it’s generated a large amount of interest, commentary, probably criticism, in the past quarter century, at least in the U.S. And Hirsch himself has remained quite visible in the area, being the founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation. (Not to be confused with the U.S. “Common Core” initiative in public school education – though obviously there is a close connection between the theories involved in both cases.)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Hi... for Hirsch, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural... for Cultural Literacy (the term and the area of study in the social sciences).
The review
The subtitle of this book says it all: “What Our Children Need to Know”. It’s about half as long as one of the other books reviewed at the link above, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. It’s split up into almost all the same chapters, leaving out only the first two from that one: The Bible, and Mythology and Folklore (interesting!)
Here’s what the kids read about Abraham Lincoln in this book.
Abraham Lincoln was president during the CIVIL WAR and one of the greatest American leaders. Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, he educated himself and became a politician and lawyer in Illinois who was respected for his sincerity and character. As president, he opposed the extension of slavery and fought to preserve the UNION. During the Civil War, he issued the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, which led to the end of slavery in America. His GETTYSBURG ADDRESS and his Second Inaugural Address, in which he urged the nation to reunite in a spirit of forgiveness, are among the finest speeches in American history. After the war, he was assassinated by JOHN WILKES BOOTH.The entry on Lincoln in the non-kids version is about three times as long.
As well as an index, this book has a six page Guide to Further Reading, consisting of books “appropriate for ages six through 12”. These are put into fourteen categories, obviously differing from the chapter headings.
February 11, 2024
This is an excellent resource to keep in your home for use with upper elementary and middle school age students. Because most children probably won't sit down to read through it on their own, it will be a resource for you to help them discover answers to interesting topics or help them with their homework.
* Find a newer edition. Most of the entries are still current, but this 1996 edition does include some outdated entries. For example floppy discs, Yugoslavia, and the World Trade Center (example of a skyscraper in New York) are now historical rather than current as referred to in the edition I read.
* Find a newer edition. Most of the entries are still current, but this 1996 edition does include some outdated entries. For example floppy discs, Yugoslavia, and the World Trade Center (example of a skyscraper in New York) are now historical rather than current as referred to in the edition I read.
June 28, 2010
As a child, I would have really enjoyed this book. I have always enjoyed learning a little about this and a little about that, and it would have been a good springboard to learning things that really interested me in greater depth.
My only critique with this book is the same that I've had with every book that I've seen by E.D. Hirsch so far - all of the illustrations are in black and white. I think the goal was to de-emphasize graphics and emphasize facts because if the publisher spent a lot of money on high-quality, full-color pictures, then the book would have to be priced much higher and perhaps even be priced out of most people's budget.
But on the other hand, having dull pictures makes the subjects seem less interesting, and since making a wide variety of subjects interesting to children so they want to learn more about them is the whole purpose of this book, it seems like the publisher should have just bit the bullet and spent more money on the illustrations.
As it is, I will return the copy I read to the library, and I will keep my eye out for an updated dictionary (after all, this one was written in the 80's) with full-color pictures. If such a creature does appear, I'll be the first one in line to buy it. :-)
My only critique with this book is the same that I've had with every book that I've seen by E.D. Hirsch so far - all of the illustrations are in black and white. I think the goal was to de-emphasize graphics and emphasize facts because if the publisher spent a lot of money on high-quality, full-color pictures, then the book would have to be priced much higher and perhaps even be priced out of most people's budget.
But on the other hand, having dull pictures makes the subjects seem less interesting, and since making a wide variety of subjects interesting to children so they want to learn more about them is the whole purpose of this book, it seems like the publisher should have just bit the bullet and spent more money on the illustrations.
As it is, I will return the copy I read to the library, and I will keep my eye out for an updated dictionary (after all, this one was written in the 80's) with full-color pictures. If such a creature does appear, I'll be the first one in line to buy it. :-)
February 7, 2012
This is a classroom must-have.
This book has maps, proverbs, idioms, english, literature, mythology, music,art and arcitecture
The Bible
Relligion and Philosophy
US history to 1865
Politics and Economics
World History to and since 1600
US Geography
World Geography
Mathematics
Physical Sciences
Earth Sciences and Weather
Life Sciences
Medicine and the Human Body
Technology
Everything you need to know is in this book.
Incredible source of information.
This book has maps, proverbs, idioms, english, literature, mythology, music,art and arcitecture
The Bible
Relligion and Philosophy
US history to 1865
Politics and Economics
World History to and since 1600
US Geography
World Geography
Mathematics
Physical Sciences
Earth Sciences and Weather
Life Sciences
Medicine and the Human Body
Technology
Everything you need to know is in this book.
Incredible source of information.
December 30, 2016
For the benefit of a teenager, I read through this dictionary and was surprised by the large amount of nursery rhymes quoted in this dictionary. Coming from a different culture, it seems to be extraordinary. The "proverbs" and "idioms" sections are mostly made of tired old things; perhaps that is the main idea. As a dictionary it seems to be useful.
August 15, 2015
It is amazing helpful and short dictionary that is rich in its information . It is benefitial foe all people children or adults teachers or learners really it is the most amazing book that I have ever read . thank you
April 11, 2009
Excellent, excellent book for helping guide teachers and parents. I recommend it even for middle/high school parents--it can become a list of topics to discuss and teach or remind.
Want to read
November 21, 20103rd Place has it $30 --
November 5, 2012
Just scratches the surface but at least it does that.
December 5, 2012
A good review to see if you "know your stuff"
July 25, 2013
We study this book at mealtimes as a family. My kiddos are becoming little smarties! This is a must-have in any home!
May 1, 2017
Great for any student, but especially homeschooled/unschooled/world schooled students whose parents worry about whether their kids know culturally relevant "stuff."
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews