Why Knowledge Matters

Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

By: E. D. Hirsch Jr.

Narrated by: BJ Harrison

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

Thought provoking and challenging

I am a special education teacher and struggle to reach children who have what my principal once called a “slippery brain.” It felt like we taught the same lesson every day and the information never “stuck.” We started from scratch day after day. E.D. Herschel Jr. opened my eyes to a new (yet old) approach to teaching my students.

I call myself an “accidental teacher” because my first degree was in psychology. When I moved from the mental health world to the public school system, I struggled with an education system that conflicted with cognitive and developmental psychology. While I cannot change the current trend of educational philosophy, I now feel better equipped to alter my district’s curriculum to meet the needs of my students. I have let go of the pressure to teach every child an individualized set of skills, but now strive to create a common classroom vocabulary based on a common set of language goals.

I encourage any educator who feels overwhelmed and overworked to read this book. We can break the SpEd to prison pipeline. We don’t have to teach in ways that are counterintuitive to our own experience. We don’t have to work ever-increasing hours without compensation. You will be challenged and forced to rethink everything your educational college taught you. And, in turn, you will become a more passionate, more effective teacher.

A Must Read for Every Educator and Administrator

This is an accessible, thorough, look into the educational theories that shape practice in America and abroad, and how those Romantic ideas have demonstrably disintegrated curriculum, thereby withholding the knowledge students need to be literate, successful citizens.

Great for ELA Teachers

I'm an English teacher here in Surabaya and I thought that listening to this book was very useful for my classes. However, for an average teacher, I believe that the book goes into depth for curriculum heads and principals. It's a worthy read for any educator.

Useful update of his 1995 book

E. D. Hirsch's 1995 book "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have them" told a compelling story about the US education system's fall from grace and the philosophical underpinnings of why it occurred. After fifteen years, it was time for an update and this was that book. I found this one a less cohesive narrative and a reader who hadn't read the 1995 book might be somewhat confused by the themes in this one. Which somehow supports the author's main point: background knowledge has a strong effect on reading comprehension.