The Educational Glue That Binds

When we fail to pass along certain pieces of core knowledge to our young people, we may produce readers, but they will be culturally illiterate.

E.D. Hirsch's "What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know" has stories about Julius Caesar. Detail, "Julius Caesar on a Triumphal Car" by Andrea Mantegna. Public domain

In 1988, E.D. Hirsch’s “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know“ became a bestseller.

In this book, Hirsch argues that when we fail to pass along certain pieces of core knowledge to our young people—the dates for World War II, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the meaning of sayings like “Touché!” or “tempest in a teapot”—we may produce readers, but they will be culturally illiterate.