[The schools we need & why we don't have them]

In 1987, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., published Cultural Literacy, in which he contended that there exists a common core of cultural knowledge in America (and also in other English-speaking countries) that well-educated people know and that good education systems pass on to students. The ideas presented in Cultural Literacy caused considerable controversy. Scholars, from both the Left and the Right, used the book in their continuing debate about the nature of knowledge and the importance of formal education as a way of helping students become more productive citizens. The analysis in Cultural Literacy sets the stage for Hirsch's new book, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them.

In this book, Hirsch presents a critique of American education that we think is broadly applicable to Canadian education. Hirsch maintains that "core knowledge" is necessary not only for full participation in society, but also for effective participation in smaller social institutions -- families, communities, schools, and classrooms. "If shared knowledge is necessary for full participation in the larger national society," he writes,

the same reasoning must also hold for full participation in a smaller social group, and most especially that of the classroom itself. If shared knowledge is needed among citizens to understand newspapers as well as one...