A Core Knowledge Approach Is Worth the Effort

American educator and academic literary critic E. D. Hirsch delivers a speech at the second Policy Exchange Education Annual Lecture on Education at Pimlico Academy, London, on Sept. 17, 2015. Policy Exchange/ CC BY 2.0

Commentary

In 1987, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., a highly respected English professor at the University of Virginia, burst upon the education scene. His bestselling book, “Cultural Literacy,” argued that schools were failing to provide students with the content knowledge (facts, dates, and concepts) they needed to be successful.