Cultural Literacy by E. D. Hirsch
"Cultural Literacy" by E. D. Hirsch is a significant work that explores the concept of cultural literacy and its impact on reading comprehension and education in the United States. The book argues that a shared body of knowledge is essential for effective communication and understanding among literate individuals. Hirsch presents a diverse list of cultural references that he believes every literate American should know, which serves as a focal point for discussions around educational content and reform.
Comprising 145 pages and organized into six chapters, the text combines a straightforward exposition with a detailed appendix outlining key cultural terms. Hirsch's tone is generally argumentative yet measured, aiming to highlight the importance of context in literacy. The work fits into a broader dialogue about educational quality in America during the 1980s, alongside contemporaneous critiques of the education system.
While "Cultural Literacy" gained popularity and sparked discussions among educators, it also faced criticism regarding its proposed curriculum and the notion of a standardized body of knowledge. Hirsch's advocacy emphasizes the need for common cultural references to enhance literacy and comprehension, a perspective that resonates with some educational reformers while also igniting debate on the inclusiveness and relevance of such content in a diverse society.
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Cultural Literacy by E. D. Hirsch
First published: 1987
Type of work: Cultural criticism
Form and Content
Occasionally, a university professor is transported from the comparative obscurity of academic life to the prominence of national celebrity. Such was the fate of E. D. Hirsch, Jr., upon publication of Cultural Literacy. During service on the English faculties of Yale University and the University of Virginia, Hirsch established a secure reputation as a literary theorist. That standing among his scholarly peers was achieved, in part, by such books as Wordsworth and Schelling: A Typological Study of Romanticism (1960), Innocence and Experience: An Introduction to Blake (1964), Validity in Interpretation (1967), The Aims of Interpretation (1976), and The Philosophy of Composition (1977). Republication of several of these attested his continuing influential position in his field of specialization.
Cultural Literacy is at once a continuation of Hirsch’s previous work and a sharp digression from it. Simply put, it is a continuation in that it links text to meaning, and a break in that it focuses on the fundamental task of reading and how one learns through reading, or more specifically the functional importance of cultural literacy.
The body of the book is only 145 pages, organized in six chapters, followed by a seventy-page appendix, “What Literate Americans Know: A Preliminary List.” The list—by far the most widely discussed section of the book—is introduced by a brief explanation of its composition. The list itself is not divided into subject areas. It is extremely heterogeneous; a brief excerpt will convey its flavor:
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
The preface (five pages) and acknowledgments (three pages) introduce the theme of the book and trace its intellectual evolution. In chapter 2, eight graphs vividly illustrate the effect of context (cultural literacy) upon reading comprehension.
In form, Cultural Literacy is straightforward exposition: an extended formal essay, generally unencumbered by the trappings of academic writing, although thirty pages of footnotes follow the text. Hirsch’s tone is argumentative, but gently so.
Critical Context
Cultural Literacy is one of several works published in the 1980’s that confronted the issue of educational quality in the United States. Released about the same time as this book was Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students (1987), a critique of college education and one that created far more controversy than did Cultural Literacy. Other widely publicized commentaries were the National Commission on Education’s A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (1983), a study chaired by David P. Gardner, President of the University of Utah; the United States Department of Education’s The Nation Responds: Recent Efforts to Improve Education (1984), a reaction to the Gardner report; and two books by Ernest L. Boyer, commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America (1983) and College: The Undergraduate Experience in America (1987). Many other heated controversies over the content of American education arose in this period, such as the two-year debate (1986-1988) over the Western culture course at Stanford University.
What is especially notable about this book is that it was part of an active attempt to revitalize American education. Shortly after it was released and made the best-seller lists, Hirsch addressed the Conference of English Teachers, who gave his ideas a cool welcome. That reaction may have been partly because of the laudatory reception his point of view had gained from the Secretary of Education, William J. Bennett, a ready critic of contemporary American education at all levels. In the summer of 1987, Hirsch established a foundation to create standardized tests of student knowledge. That was followed by publication of The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (1988).
There may be substantial agreement that there is or should be a body of information common to all literate Americans, but there is also likely to be substantial disagreement about the content of that body. Hirsch would reply that a sample of literate Americans, apparently some six hundred lawyers, were able to identify over 90 percent of the terms in his list. One can also contend that it is not appropriate to teach students merely to be familiar with a specific body of information; education should be broader than that. Hirsch and his proponents would respond that since most other nations do that, why should the United States not do so? It is especially important if American students’ abilities are to be compared with those of other nations. Defenders of mainstream American practices argue that Hirsch exaggerates the influence of Rousseau and, perhaps, Dewey on today’s schools, whose curriculum encompasses much more than traditional academic topics. Within the latter, Hirsch has not questioned instructional methods for mathematics and the physical sciences.
Unlike Bloom and Bennett, who have been overtly hostile in their attacks on American education, Hirsch has demonstrated a calm, rational, cooperative posture toward existing educational practices. His efforts have found support in some members of educational officialdom and of the corporate sector. In the late 1980’s, it could not be foreseen whether his ideas would be adopted—and whether they would then be effective.
Bibliography
Coser, Lewis A. “Remedial Acculturation,” in Science. CCXXXVI (May 22, 1987), p. 973.
Hopkinson, Shirley L. Review in Library Journal. CXII (June 1, 1987), p. 111.
Kanfer, Stefan. “Appendixitis,” in Time. CXXX (July 20, 1987), pp. 72-73.
O’Brien, Tom. “Guarding the Guards of Tradition,” in Commonweal. CXIV (September 25, 1987), pp. 542-543.
Pattison, Robert. “On the Finn Syndrome and the Shakespeare Paradox,” in The Nation. CCXLIV (May 30, 1987), pp. 710-720.
Steiner, George. “Little-Read Schoolhouse,” in The New Yorker. LXIII (June 1, 1987), pp. 106-110.