Book Review: The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Michael F. Shaughnessy - 9.15.09
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

Professor E.D. Hirsch has written yet another book about the issues in education. The book, which is to be released September 15^th is another sane, logical, rational, reasonable discussion of the issues involved in the decline of American education over the past 40-50 years.

As is well known by most contemporary educational theorists, Hirsch has for years indicated that  one of the main problems in American education is a lack of general knowledge, general information, core knowledge, and what he has referred to as “cultural literacy” in the past. This is traced back to a child centered curriculum that was implemented decades ago. We feel the ramifications and repercussions even today.

We have all encountered what Hirsch has been talking about for years. The college student who confuses Austria with Australia. The high school student who does not recognize Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.  And the “person in the street” apprehended by Jay Leno as he does his  jay walking” routine (and Jay continues this tirade to this day, humorously exposing the lack of knowledge of even basic information)

There have been various trends over the past forty years- humanistic education, values clarification, back to the basics, and then the magic bullet of integrating technology into education as well as the most recent magic of “differentiated instruction”.

In his latest book, Hirsch provides a historical background and reflects on the fact that our founding fathers- Washington,  Benjamin Rush, Jefferson,  Lincoln, Horace Mann, and many others have espoused the basic essentials of reading, writing, arithmetic, and the procurement of general knowledge and information regarding their world, regarding their nation and their state.

Hirsch does not just espose general knowledge, but he comments on basic essentials of education.  Let me provide one example. On page 99, he states simply, “The standard language is one of the firmest and most stable realities of American life”.

Common sensical, but sadly, common sense is not so common in American today.

Evidence, data and statistics are provided throughout the book verifying his claims. Drawing on the work of cognitive scientists and educational psychologists, Hirsch explains why children have trouble learning, difficulty on reading comprehension tests and clarifies declining SAT scores. Certainly, there are scholars who would debate the causal factors. But again, Hirsch simply counters with “Offering children a good education is the right way to cram for a reading test” (p. 162). Hirsch even explains some of the understandable reasons for some of our educational difficulties – the increasing problem of high mobility of the American family and the transitory nature and turnover of teachers.

One area that Hirsch does not explore is the explosion of children with various exceptionalities or handicapping conditions or disabilities (which ever politically correct term you want to use) and the flood of children being mainstreamed or included in general education. This is a factor mentioned by teachers, principals and others, but somehow not examined or explored by Professor Hirsch.  It is simply more difficult to teach facts, data, information, knowledge and skills and abilities when the classroom climate and environment is disrupted by children with attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and other problematic educational difficulties.

The basic premise is a simple one- Do we want our children to be educated as Americans and receive an American education as espoused by our forefathers, with the needed skills of correct spelling, grammar, syntax, and composition that have been valued and cherished for many years?

Do we want our children to be able to perform mathematical calculations, locate the U.S. on a globe or map of the world, or do we want them to feel good about themselves.

This book is insightful, and many of the comments are so clear and succinct that one wants to go out and quote from this text almost immediately.  This is another breath of fresh air about education that espouses the fact that students need to learn basic skills, basic knowledge, basic information, data about the world, and be able to write about what they have learned in a concise, cogent fashion.

If all teachers were given an in-service day to read this book, and then began to implement some of the ideas in the book, we would certainly have used our tax dollars wisely in this regard.

This is one of the best books I have read so far this year, and I am happy to say that I have learned a lot from it as well as enjoyed reading it.