This is a review of "Cultural Literacy" by E.D. Hirsch. In it, he explains this concept of cultural literacy, why we should care, how we are losing it as a people and what can be done about it. Hirsch makes many good points, but goes off on some tangents now and then - the small font did not help.
Cultural literacy refers to knowing certain basic information on our shared culture - the author focuses on the shared culture of the United States, but other bases could be used I guess for different (large) groups. The major importance of this, other than being able to make interesting conversation I suppose, is to be able to follow what one reads, since writers cannot possibly explain every detail in things that they write. This type of literacy may explain why some people do better than others on reading tests and function better in the work force.
To digress a bit, I guess we should not be surprised that we are becoming a country of cultural illiterates, given what is popular on TV. Fortunately, we can get old TV series of better quality on Netflix and ignore most of today's TV. But that would not solve the problem of the younger generation for the most part not knowing what they should about our shared culture.
One problem is in defining the "list" of topics one needs to know about to be culturally literate. The author recognizes that some will complain about who decides and what is included on the "list". Of course, many of these same people are responsible for where we are now, so maybe we should not care what they have to say. Hirsch says to the remainder of the complainers that we can argue about that as we go, but we need to start. Wise man! He goes on to say that the "list" should only change slowly with time, making it possible to keep up, so to speak, as well as to be able to communicate over many generations.
Something REALLY worth noting was the comment regarding science topics for the "list". Actually, it may have not been Hirsch who made this comment, but a physicist who helped him come up with the first "list". In any case, the point was that people in today's society have to understand the basic concepts in the major sciences, or we may be in big trouble with newer technologies; public complacency or overreaction due to ignorance may allow dangerous technologies to develop or prevent good ones from coming off the drawing board. By the way, "drawing board" might need to be on the list for the youth of today to get my meaning in that last sentence given how computers have taken over recently.
The book is a bit old now, but still a worthwhile read. It was mentioned in the new book (reviewed previously) "Real Education" - another book worth reading on a similar topic. There is also a dictionary now on the topics on the "list" which also looks good.
Cultural literacy refers to knowing certain basic information on our shared culture - the author focuses on the shared culture of the United States, but other bases could be used I guess for different (large) groups. The major importance of this, other than being able to make interesting conversation I suppose, is to be able to follow what one reads, since writers cannot possibly explain every detail in things that they write. This type of literacy may explain why some people do better than others on reading tests and function better in the work force.
To digress a bit, I guess we should not be surprised that we are becoming a country of cultural illiterates, given what is popular on TV. Fortunately, we can get old TV series of better quality on Netflix and ignore most of today's TV. But that would not solve the problem of the younger generation for the most part not knowing what they should about our shared culture.
One problem is in defining the "list" of topics one needs to know about to be culturally literate. The author recognizes that some will complain about who decides and what is included on the "list". Of course, many of these same people are responsible for where we are now, so maybe we should not care what they have to say. Hirsch says to the remainder of the complainers that we can argue about that as we go, but we need to start. Wise man! He goes on to say that the "list" should only change slowly with time, making it possible to keep up, so to speak, as well as to be able to communicate over many generations.
Something REALLY worth noting was the comment regarding science topics for the "list". Actually, it may have not been Hirsch who made this comment, but a physicist who helped him come up with the first "list". In any case, the point was that people in today's society have to understand the basic concepts in the major sciences, or we may be in big trouble with newer technologies; public complacency or overreaction due to ignorance may allow dangerous technologies to develop or prevent good ones from coming off the drawing board. By the way, "drawing board" might need to be on the list for the youth of today to get my meaning in that last sentence given how computers have taken over recently.
The book is a bit old now, but still a worthwhile read. It was mentioned in the new book (reviewed previously) "Real Education" - another book worth reading on a similar topic. There is also a dictionary now on the topics on the "list" which also looks good.
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