Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

by E. D. Hirsch

Overview

In Why Knowledge Matters, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., presents evidence from cognitive science, sociology, and education history to further the argument for a knowledge-based elementary curriculum.

Influential scholar Hirsch, author of The Knowledge Deficit, asserts that a carefully planned curriculum that imparts communal knowledge is essential in achieving one of the most fundamental aims and objectives of education: preparing students for lifelong success. Hirsch examines historical and contemporary evidence from the United States and other nations, including France, and affirms that a knowledge-based approach has improved both achievement and equity in schools where it has been instituted.

In contrast, educational change of the past several decades in the United States has endorsed a skills-based approach, founded on, Hirsch points out, many incorrect assumptions about child development and how children learn. He recommends new policies that are better aligned with our current understanding of neuroscience, developmental psychology, and social science.

The book focuses on six persistent problems that merit the attention of contemporary education reform: the over-testing of students in the name of educational accountability; the scapegoating of teachers; the fadeout of preschool gains; the narrowing of the curriculum to crowd out history, geography, science, literature, and the arts; the achievement gap between demographic groups; and the reliance on standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, that are not linked to a rigorous curriculum.

Why Knowledge Matters makes a clear case for educational innovation and introduces a new generation of American educators to Hirsch’s astute and passionate analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612509525
Publisher:	Harvard Education Press
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., is the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers Cultural Literacy and The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (both Houghton Mifflin). Other books by Hirsch on related subjects are A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Mariner); the Core Knowledge Sequence, What Your [First Through Sixth] Grader Needs to Know (Doubleday); The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them (Anchor); and most recently, The Making of Americans (Yale University Press). These works have influenced recent educational thought and practice in the United States and other countries.

Hirsch is a graduate of Cornell University, and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He began his teaching career at Yale, specializing in Romantic Poetry and Literary Theory, and in 1966 became Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he served twice as chairman of his department. Before his retirement in 2000 he held the position of University Professor of Education and Humanities. In 1977, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1997 to the International Academy of Education. He is the recipient of several honorary degrees, has been a Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a Humanities fellow at Princeton University, a fellow at the Australian National University, and an honoree of the Royal Dutch Academy and of the National Academy in Rome. He received the biennial QuEST award of the American Federation of Teachers in 1997, and the Fordham Award for Valor in Education in 2003. In 2012, the Education Commission of the States presented Hirsch with the Conant Award for “Outstanding Contributions to American Education.” He has served on many advisory boards, including the National Council on Educational Research.

Hirsch is founder of the nonprofit Core Knowledge Foundation, an organization that continues to advise and help schools, with over one thousand Core Knowledge schools in forty-seven states and abroad.

Table of Contents

Prologue The Tyranny of Three Ideas 1

Chapter 1 The Invalid Testing of Students 15

Chapter 2 The Scapegoating of Teachers 35

Chapter 3 Preschool and the Persistence of Fadeout 43

Chapter 4 The Dilution of the Elementary Curriculum 61

Chapter 5 The Persistence of Achievement Gaps 91

Chapter 6 The Tribulations of the Common Core 103

Chapter 7 The Educational Fall of France 131

Chapter 8 The Knowledge-Based School 159

Epilogue Breaking Free 185

Appendix I The Origins of Natural-Development Theories of Education 193

Appendix II Translations of French Reports 209

Appendix III The Japanese Early Science Curriculum 213

Notes 227

Acknowledgments 259

About the Author 261

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2016
Hirsch (Cultural Literacy), founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, assesses recent reports on education in the U.S. and abroad to reaffirm his career-long crusade for a coherent, cumulative, and content-specific K-12 curriculum. The problems besetting the American system can all, he insists, be attributed to a fragmented, diluted curriculum caused by faulty ideas about individualism, child-centeredness, and theories of natural development not supported by cognitive science. The news from the educational experiments in France, Sweden, and elsewhere in Europe, Hirsch reports, is that so-called “progressive education” that valorizes skills of critical thinking, creativity, and communication without trying to instill a broad base of knowledge produces declining test scores, inequality, and social injustice. What is called for, he says, looking at examples of high-performing Asian schools and the example of a N.Y.C. school that adopted a Core Knowledge curriculum, is a return to community-centered ideals and traditions of shared knowledge that equip citizens for full participation in the public sphere. The structure of the book leads to much rehearsal of its main points with selective or highly summarized glances at the research, and Hirsch sidesteps the question of who gets to decide what is communal knowledge, insisting that knowledge-based learning is not a Gradgrindian emphasis on rote facts but is fun and playful and involves empathetic teaching. Though shy on practical implementation strategies, Hirsch’s call for “a better-educated citizenry” should be heeded by educators and administrators alike. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Hirsch’s call for 'a better-educated citizenry' should be heeded by educators and administrators alike." —Publishers Weekly​



"Hirsch’s call for a renewal of rich content in the early grades based on social justice concerns as well as research on student achievement and learning theory is extraordinarily timely and makes Why Knowledge Matters one of the most important education books of 2016. Parents, educators, and policymakers should read it closely." —Gary W. Houchens, Bowling Green Daily News
 



"Hirsch’s call for curricular coherency through deep content knowledge is a welcome proposal in an era of narrowed curriculum and skills-based high-stakes testing." —Pamela Bolotin Joseph, Educational Review



"Living in an era when news is faked, alternative facts guide national policy, assertions are accepted on the basis of volume or repetition rather than evidence, reasoned debate is ridiculed, and scientific findings are routinely dismissed, it is difficult not to be drawn to a title such as Why Knowledge Matters." —Bertram C. Bruce, Educational Theory

From the Publisher

09/15/2016
Hirsch, founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, argues that in order for kids to succeed, educational systems need to be built on defined, structured, knowledge-based curricula. Focusing on education in France as an example, the author contends that the emphasis on teaching skills instead of domain-specific information is at the heart of today's problems. To change, schools need to drop the concentration on progressive, individualistic, naturalistic principles and strive to implement curricula that emphasize shared vocabulary and knowledge. Hirsch notes that he is blatantly promoting his own Core Knowledge Curriculum, revealing a clear bias throughout the book. While some of his review has merit, the philosophy here echoes his other works, including Cultural Literacy. Repetitious arguments that fail to address the complexities of educational pedagogy, along with research framed to fit the author's agenda, and few examples that reveal practical application make this work problematic. VERDICT For Hirsch's longtime readers who wish to continue to follow the development of his curriculum.—Rachel Wadham, Brigham Young Univ. Libs., Provo, UT

Library Journal