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Why Knowledge Matters

Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

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Why Knowledge Matters

By: E. D. Hirsch Jr.
Narrated by: BJ Harrison
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About this listen

E. D. Hirsch, author of The Knowledge Deficit, draws on recent findings in neuroscience and data from France to provide new evidence for the argument that a carefully planned, knowledge-based elementary curriculum is essential to providing the foundations for children's life success and ensuring equal opportunity for students of all backgrounds. In the absence of a clear, common curriculum, Hirsch contends that tests are reduced to measuring skills rather than content, and that students from disadvantaged backgrounds cannot develop the knowledge base to support high achievement. Hirsch advocates for updated policies based on a set of ideas that are consistent with current cognitive science, developmental psychology, and social science.

The book focuses on six persistent problems of recent US education: the over-testing of students; the scapegoating of teachers; the fadeout of preschool gains; the narrowing of the curriculum; the continued achievement gap between demographic groups; and the reliance on standards that are not linked to a rigorous curriculum.

Why Knowledge Matters introduces a new generation of American educators to Hirsch's astute and passionate analysis.

©2016 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2021 Tantor Childhood Education Education Primary Education Student

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This could fix so many problems

Key concept: Currently, schools make learning individualised according to student background. But this maintains disadvantage. Poor students aren't taught what rich students know. Better to teach all students the same core knowledge so that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the public sphere.

The book is a bit repetitive, but this worked well in audiobook form because it made it easier to listen to on and off.

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