No Title

In ‘Cultural Literacy, Hirsch outlines a plan for making cultural literacy our education priority, to define core know¬ledge, put more information in school text books and develop tests of core learning that can help students, measure their progress. An index entitled ‘What literate Americans know’ was compiled by Hirsch and his two colleagues Joseph Kett and James Trefil. The team is working on compiling a dictionary of cultural literacy. The book lays empha¬sis on common knowledge that enables students to make sense of what they read. The imparting of this background information that the writers and speakers assume the readers have is the key to effective education. It is urged that teachers should share with students such knowledge. The author is concerned about gaps in the young American’s basic knowledge of geography, history, literature, politics and democratic principles. This is cor¬roborated by studies like ‘National Assessment of Educational Progress’, Inter¬national comparison of Reading Attain¬ment’ and decline in verbal aptitude test scores in recent years. Of late, there has been a decline in the ability to under¬stand the written material among the seventeen-year olds. The lack of inter-generational information in American stu-dents is a serious problem for the nation. Therefore, education should provide a common basis for communication.