How to Educate a Citizen

The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation

By: E. D. Hirsch

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

“Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our peril.""— Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools

In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy addresses the failures of America’s early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught—an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America’s unity, identity, and democracy.

In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America’s public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on “child-centered learning.” History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning “techniques” and “values-based” curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues.

The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Practice in Reserving Judgement

There are many times in this text that I was tempted to stop reading entirely. The points the author makes can ruffle many feathers. While I don't believe his point that American Schools need to make a point of enforcing patriotism in school, I do agree that common knowledge can in general inspire a patriotism that the nation has slowly fallen out of love with. Certainly the education system in the United States would benefit from some kind of reform. By the end of the book, and while disagreeing with some of his points, I was able to see that the author is not taking any sort of political stance, but an academic one, that children do better when they are expected to learn the same kinds of things at the same periods of time so that they can all share a common knowledge to draw off of in personal and professional settings going forward.

Must read

When we learn, really learn from our missteps, we can overcome so much. This illustrates quite well why it's in everyone's interest to have a shared education which allows for a shared understanding.

eye opening and timely

Good, brief, discussion of the history of constructivism and the core knowledge approach and their impact on learning through the lens of research. Timely commentary on how this issue impacts how nations create citizens.

Read or Listen to this book.

All parents should listen to or read this book.we as a nation needs to make a educational change.

Awakening

an awakening what was supposed to be and what had actually taken place.

Give American children the chance