TUBIOLI+CULTURAL+LITERACY+RESPONSE

Donielle Tubioli Response to "Cultural Literacy" (Group 1) Back (to personal page)

In the article, "What Johnny should read", it discusses opinions about a new outlook on education and cultural literacy by an English professor at the University of Virginia, Hirsch. He devised a book called "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know". Hirsch was determined to write this novel because he felt that American students today lack the knowledge that they should know about America. Some of the points that he brought up was that fact that students do not know important people such as Churchill or Stalin, or important facts such as when the Civil War took place. He blames the schools for not addressing these enough because he believes school focuses more on skills (ways of learning) rather than actual content. He defines cultural Literacy as "The kind of knowledge that allows a person to pick up a newspaper and comprehend what he or she is reading." In Hirsch's opinion, he feels that schools should make sure students can master a core body facts. For example, he feels that Ulysses S. Grant and George Washington is just as important as the alphabet. Hirsch believes " If all Americans were required to learn this culture in school, Hirsch urges the benefits for both the individual citizen and society as a whole would be great." Many critics do not agree with Hirsch's reasoning, they do not believe that cultural literacy is not achieved when children are just given facts upon facts. They believe that children are not old enough to understand what it is that they are learning. Critics still believe in pluralistic culture but this can be done in other ways, not just feeding students information that they might not even be old enough to respond to. Instead, schools should encourage cultural diversity. I would really have to agree with the critics. I do not believe that making students learn facts about American culture is going to make them any wiser about their culture. Sure, they may have to know these facts, but it does not mean that they actually understand the meaning behind the facts. They may just memorize the information because they "have" to know it, but once they are done using the information, and has no interest to them, students will forget the information or gain no meaning from what they memorized.

In the youtube video, "E.D Hirsch and Civic Education", Nathan commented on Hirsch's ideas. He believes that his ideas are good with knowing content instead of skill. He believes he makes a good point about knowing the background of knowledge being crucial to understand what you are reading about in news. The question of why he is unpopular in schools of education arose in the video conversation. Nathan feels that it is because school is all about how to learn, not just content. He believes many schools have an "anti-content bias". I believe that schools have a right to believe this way. I myself have mixed feelings about this debate.I do understand that learning facts about America is very important in Cultural Literacy because Americas //should// be educated in the country that they live in, but it does not make them any less of a person if they do not know this information. Also, if I did have more backgroud in such facts like discussed in the video as well as the article, I would be more knowledgable picking up a newspaper and reading a current event. Though I also believe that students could function in the world not knowing when the civil war took place. To be honest, information like this I was taught at a young age and being a college student I wouldn't be able to tell you off the top of my head when the civil war took place because the information is forgotten that I learned. This does not make me un-American or uneducated. I can still go to Bloomsburg University, major in Early Childhood Education, and participate in extra- curricular activities.