How Schools Fail Democracy

This E.D. Hirsch commentary in the new “The Chronicle of Higher Education” should be required reading for every educator.

Hirsch explains how a major focus on “child centered” instruction often acts to prevent those children from being able to participate in our republican form of government. Hirsch knows that one of the key goals of education must be to teach every child the core of knowledge that is assumed by adult writers. Without that core of knowledge, a person is doomed to live forever in the “linguistic shadows,” unable to effectively communicate and participate in society.