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A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Our Children Need to Know

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Serious students -- even young ones -- will find laughable errors in this poorly edited reference. Three examples follow:

My fifth grade students, who routinely measure angles in radians to solve school problems, were amused that, on page 185, the author insists that "angles are always measured in degrees."

In science class, the students learned (on page 214) that plants and animals are different organisms. Then, they learned (same page) that "a carnivor is an animal that..." and immediately found a highlighted section that says "Some plants, such as the Venus flytrap, are carnivors." This cracked up the kids who have just had an introduction to simple logic.

Our favorite lesson came when the author taught us that light travels much farther in a minute than it does in a year! This we learned by comparing page 202 ("A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about six million miles.") with page 205 ("Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second..."). It didn't take the smartest fifth-grader to multiply 186,000 by 60 and report that light travels more than eleven million miles in a minute, but only six million miles in an E.D. Hirsch year (page 202).

In fact, other errors abound, and the main use of this book in my classes has been to warn youngsters that "it ain't necessarily so" and to fuel our running contest to see who can find other errors in "What Children Need to Know."

Potential Buyer's should note that this is the child user's version of the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy for children to use and easily understand as a grade-school reference. Amazon also sell the 1993 adult's version.

As an "over-fifty" college graduate with occasional lapses (or suspicions of such lapses)the children's version of E.D.Hirsch, Jr.'s A FIRST DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL LITERACY is an excellent reference to confirm facts quickly and accurately. It is not a substitute for encyclopedias or scholarly references but does fairly accurately and succinctly confirm facts that comprise a fund of knowledge common to all Americans. Although it was originally purchased for use by our elementary age children, it is a reference that I turn to for quick confirmation.

I had hoped to give this book to my 11-year old daughter to use as a jumping-off point for many of the subjects we would be studying in our home school. I decided to review it myself first and was surprised to find on page 52 that Mr. Hirsch credits Harriet Beecher Stowe instead of Julia Ward Howe with writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Instead of continuing through the book with a red pencil, I decided to throw it away and start somewhere else.

Just browsing the book gives the reader a sense of what kids need to know. This book can be a conversation starter, an inspiration for lesson-planning or quiz book.

Before E.D. Hirsch came along we were wallowing in the dark wasteland of ignorance. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy is somewhat of a Bible to me and my kinfolk. When ever I need practical help I can always turn to Hirsch's words of wisdom and they guide me towards the essential truths...
Basically this is everything you need to know and everything your child needs to know all together in one book. In fact, you can throw away every book you've ever read- this has EVERYTHING. Forget anything else you've ever read, that isn't important.
The world according to E.D. Hirsch is the world according to me.
Hopefully public educators will see E.D. Hirsch for the visionary genius that he is and force all children to follow his path to higher wisdom.

This book promulgates disinformation about the "separation of church and state". On page 340, this ideology is defined as "required by the first Amendment to the United States Constitution". This idea of "separation" was a quote from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson regarding a single denomination and is taken out of context when applied to school issues of prayer, etc. Nowhere does the constitution refer to any such mandate. What is more disgraceful, the co-author, Joseph F. Kent is a professor of History. come on, professor, do your homework - try reading the constitution for once.