Cultural Literacy and E.D. Hirsch

In E.D. Hirsch’s essay, Literacy and Cultural Literacy, he states “ to withhold traditional culture from the school curriculum, and therefore from students, in the name of progressive ideas is in fact an unprogressive action that helps preserve there political and economic status quo. Middle-class children acquire mainstream literate culture by daily encounters with other literate persons. But less privileged children are denied consistent interchanges with liter persons and fail to receive this information in school. The most straightforward antidote to their deprivation is to make the essential information more available inside the schools” (302). In this quote, Hirsch is stating the importance of having set standards of school curriculum, to prevent some of the students from becoming less literate than their peers. It is unfortunate that some students from lower income families are not able learn as much as students from high income families, but it does not have to remain t...