Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy : What Your Child Needs to Know

The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy : What Your Child Needs to Know
reviewed A must for every family with schoolage children on
Helpful Score: 1


An invaluable book for children to learn all the important ideas and happenings in our country and the world. The list in alphabetical form gathers all of the historical events, ideas and processes that students should have at their hands as they grow into the American society. The author, E. D. Hirsch, of the University of Virginia, and the main person behind the Core Knowledge Foundation, believes there are certain basic facts every citizen in the United States needs to know, and he puts them in this dictionary form. "Here is everything your child needs to know to be culturally literate in twenty one different subject areas, from mythology to literature to U.S. history and technology, and much more." As a former public school teacher, I recommend this book, and the series by the author, "What Your Child Needs to Know in Kindergarten".....all the way through "What Your Eighth Grader Needs to Know." Each book is built on the foundation of the ones before it and is quite comprehensive. It helps to alleviate the hit and miss, and the politically correct curriculum of modern schools.