Toward a National Curriculum

Cultural Literacy.

Presented by Jeffrey A. Margolis

Is there a specific body of knowledge that every American needs to know? Who should decide what we need to know and how do we determine what is to be included in that body of knowledge?

Dr. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., former professor of Humanities and English at the University of Virginia decided to address that issue.   His book, Cultural Literacy – What Every American Needs to Know, when published in 1987 became at once both a best seller and a controversial flashpoint. It evolved from a concern with the decline in literacy in America.  Hirsch maintained that “to be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world.” (Hirsch, p.xiii). His thesis, while well meaning, angered multiple groups of educators. There were those who challenged Hirsch with righteous indignation. Who is Hirsch to decide what Americans should know?  His book provided a “list” of about 5000 items including historic events, names of famous scholars and politicians, opera and music, religion, and so on. So the argument went on as to what should be included on this list. A subsequent publication of Hirsch’s Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, gave brief descriptions and illustrations of the items he included on his now famous list.

The other group of offended scholars and intellectuals included those who saw this as exposing class differences in American education.  Minority and disadvantaged students were not exposed to the same experiences as their middle and upper middle class counterparts.  They had not been to museums, concerts or the opera. They had not read the same books (like Shakespeare’s plays), magazines or even vacationed in the same places. Many had not been to a live sporting event.

Those familiar with public education in the United States know that with the exception of the Advanced Placement program in high schools and the International Baccalaureate Program (IBP), there is no standardized national curriculum. What this means in a mobile society is that students who move from one state to another may either be ahead or behind their peers, depending in what state they end up in. Thus if Hirsch’s theory would be adopted there would be a common universal fund of knowledge that all American students would be required tp know.

It should be pointed out that there is a movement under consideration that would standardize knowledge in specific subject areas (like math).-(Common Core State Mathematics Standards)

In 1986 Hirsch established the Core Knowledge Foundation ( www.coreknowledge.org)  in an effort to develop a uniform curriculum for elementary school students. The foundation subsequently published a series of books about what each grade level student should know.  The series  goes from Kindergarten through grade 8.

Where do you stand on this issue? Should there be a uniform national curriculum? What should its contents be? Who should devise it? We want to hear from you.