The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools.

• Author: McCluskey, Neal
• Position: Book review

The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools

E. D. Hirsch Jr.

New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009, 261 pp.

Historian David Tyack breaks educational progressives into two types: pedagogical and administrative (Tyack 1974). The former are champions of "child-centered" instruction in the classroom, while the latter want centralized, government control of the schools.

The last century has been good to anyone who embraces both types of progressivism. But for E. D. Hirsch Jr. who reveres government schooling but hates progressive pedagogy--it has been deeply frustrating. And as his new book, The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools makes clear, that frustration is likely to continue. For politically progressive reasons, Hirsch won't break with the system that has given progressive pedagogy a stranglehold.

Literature-turned-education professor Hirsch is probably best known for his "cultural literacy" crusade. His 1987 book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know resided on the New York Times bestseller list for 26 weeks and was a major flashpoint in the culture wars of the 1980s. At about the same time the book came out, Hirsch founded the Core Knowledge Foundation and assembled curricula based on his theories.

What does it mean to be "culturally literate," according to Hirsch? Ultimately, to possess the shared knowledge necessary to fully interact with other members of one's society; to have all the historical, literary, and other knowledge that constitutes a community's culture. Because culture changes slowly, and is, naturally, based largely on what was prominent in the past, this corpus of knowledge consists of much that is often considered dead-white-male stuff in America.

There is an important side benefit to cultural literacy: actual literacy. Research cited by Hirsch demonstrates that effective reading requires not just the ability to decode letter sounds, but also previous knowledge of much of what is being read. You need to start off understanding a lot in a reading selection to focus on what is new. Otherwise, reading can be much like trying to comprehend a story about a baseball game without knowing what "pitchers," strikes," or "innings" are. You can read the words, but comprehension is hopeless.

Cultural literacy's inherently "traditionalist" focus has put Hirsch at odds with pedagogical progressives, who believe, broadly, that the best way to educate a child is to let him pursue what draws his...