Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

by E. D. Hirsch

Overview

In Why Knowledge Matters, influential scholar E. D. Hirsch, Jr., addresses critical issues in contemporary education reform and shows how cherished truisms about education and child development have led to unintended and negative consequences.
 
Hirsch, author of The Knowledge Deficit, draws on recent findings in neuroscience and data from France to provide new evidence for the argument that a carefully planned, knowledge-based elementary curriculum is essential to providing the foundations for children’s life success and ensuring equal opportunity for students of all backgrounds. In the absence of a clear, common curriculum, Hirsch contends that tests are reduced to measuring skills rather than content, and that students from disadvantaged backgrounds cannot develop the knowledge base to support high achievement. Hirsch advocates for updated policies based on a set of ideas that are consistent with current cognitive science, developmental psychology, and social science.
 
The book focuses on six persistent problems of recent US education: the over-testing of students; the scapegoating of teachers; the fadeout of preschool gains; the narrowing of the curriculum; the continued achievement gap between demographic groups; and the reliance on standards that are not linked to a rigorous curriculum. Hirsch examines evidence from the United States and other nations that a coherent, knowledge-based approach to schooling has improved both achievement and equity wherever it has been instituted, supporting the argument that the most significant education reform and force for equality of opportunity and greater social cohesion is the reform of fundamental educational ideas.

Why Knowledge Matters 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
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	154,651
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

E. D. Hirsch, Jr. is the founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation.
 

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​

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