Cultural Literacy

Cultural Literacy (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

With support from the Exxon Education Foundation, Hirsch, a widely respected University of Virginia English professor, researched the causes of and probable remedies for an increasing inefficiency in communication at all levels of American society. He is responding to the concerns of American business leaders who have noticed a decline in communication skills in their younger executives.

Hirsch concludes that this decline has not resulted from a lack of technical skill or of knowledge, but rather from a lack of shared information. Recently educated Americans have good language skills and are competent at their work, but they lack cultural literacy. As a result, they cannot communicate efficiently.

Cultural literacy may be defined as the general information a person needs to understand a major newspaper. It is what literate, adult Americans expect others to know. This information need not be detailed, but without it, communication is filled with troubling gaps for the reader and cumbersome explanations for the writer. A reader who knows nothing about the Supreme Court will be lost reading about it; a writer who must always tell what the Court is to explain a decision wastes energy.

For several reasons, modern American schools have chosen not to make cultural literacy a central goal. This choice has condemned the disadvantaged to functional illiteracy and has reduced the literacy of all Americans. Hirsch recommends that schools increase emphasis on factual and traditional knowledge that should be shared by all Americans. He suggests several practical ways this might be achieved within the national goal of a unity that preserves diversity and freedom. As part of a project to produce a guide for curricular development, he includes a list of possible items for a dictionary of cultural literacy.

Bibliography

Coser, Lewis A. “Remedial Acculturation,” in Science. CCXXXVI (May 22, 1987), p. 973.

Hopkinson, Shirley L. Review in Library Journal. CXII (June 1, 1987), p. 111.

Kanfer, Stefan. “Appendixitis,” in Time. CXXX (July 20, 1987), pp. 72-73.

O’Brien, Tom. “Guarding the Guards of Tradition,” in Commonweal. CXIV (September 25, 1987), pp. 542-543.

Pattison, Robert. “On the Finn Syndrome and the Shakespeare Paradox,” in The Nation. CCXLIV (May 30, 1987), pp. 710-720.

Steiner, George. “Little-Read Schoolhouse,” in The New Yorker. LXIII (June 1, 1987), pp. 106-110.

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