Re: Re: a rich environment
Elizabeth Hill
**At libraries they put the new books out on open shelves, so you can
see the
covers. They put the newest newspapers and magazines on racks where you
can
see them.**
At some bookstores and libraries they put out "Staff Favorites" as well
as new books. I think that's a bit of what I'm doing when I "strew".
I've been chewing on the ethics of strewing a bit. I've concluded that
promoting something to my son because I love it, or because he might
love it is okay. But promoting something just because E.D. Hirsch says
it's part of required "cultural literacy" is not so cool.
Betsy
see the
covers. They put the newest newspapers and magazines on racks where you
can
see them.**
At some bookstores and libraries they put out "Staff Favorites" as well
as new books. I think that's a bit of what I'm doing when I "strew".
I've been chewing on the ethics of strewing a bit. I've concluded that
promoting something to my son because I love it, or because he might
love it is okay. But promoting something just because E.D. Hirsch says
it's part of required "cultural literacy" is not so cool.
Betsy
[email protected]
In a message dated 5/27/02 6:24:43 PM, ecsamhill@... writes:
<< I've been chewing on the ethics of strewing a bit. I've concluded that
promoting something to my son because I love it, or because he might
love it is okay. But promoting something just because E.D. Hirsch says
it's part of required "cultural literacy" is not so cool. >>
Lots of people hate those Hirsch books, or have said they did, and it seems
to boil down to the title of "needs" to know. Joyce pointed out that he did
recommend using better materials than his own in some (or all) cases.
What he means by "needs to know" is bigger than that set of books. As he
was the main proponent of "Cultural Literacy" as a basis for schools'
curriculae, and he WAS starting to be listened to, he wrote that series as a
way to create a path to the theoretical goal.
What his overall system involves is everyone in the culture having common
terminology and a common historical knowledge base so that when something's
being discussed among educated adults, few to none of them are standing there
baffled as to what the others are talking about. And a big part of the
commonality he's promoting is linguistic and literary. That's why the books
have the common phrases, idioms, homilies--"don't let the cat out of the bag"
and things like that. And that's why the folktales and mythology. If
someone says "the patience of Job" it might be useful for others to know who
the heck Job was and what the overall context of that statement is because
it's not just "patience," it's much larger. "The Emperor's New Clothes" is
(I think) the only simple reference in our culture to the idea that people
are so easily led as to say they see something they don't, if they fear for
their own self-image in the presence of those they perceive to be wiser or
better. That's a lot of words to say "the Emperor's New Clothes." So people
who know those stories can communicate better with one another.
A friend of mine grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which is an odd little
town filled with intellectuals of geeky breeding, in HUGE part, and when
physicists marry physicists and live among physicists, some weird things do
happen. (The're starting to intermarry nowadays <bwg>.) He only knew what
he knew, and what he knew he had pretty much learned on his own. What his
parents had valued was satire from before 1950 (what THEIR parents had
valued, and nothing new), math and science. Engineering. He learned to fix
cars a bit, from his dad, and to tie lots of knots, from boy scouting.
We were English majors. I was out before he got to UNM, and knew him while
he was in college. He was having a TERRIBLE horrible time in Shakespeare and
Milton and some other literature classes because he knew not ONE Bible story
but the nativity and knew vaguely about what Easter was about. He knew no
Garden of Eden, Noah, Tower of Babel--none of those things which others are
expected to know. So he didn't want to go to church to learn them (they
don't teach those to adults so much as kids anyway), and so I was telling him
the stories and finding the passages to give him to read.
It's not that they didn't go to church at all ever. His mother was an
umpty-generation Unitarian from New Hampshire or somewhere. He just didn't
have any Bible basis.
So that's the sort of situation Hirsch's stuff is designed to address. If
you want to read Shakespeare it helps to know English history and the Bible
(at least the highlights) first. It helps to know the cultural situations at
the time the things were written.
My friend Derek was fascinated most by the story of Jacob and Esau, and Jacob
fooling their father into blessing him instead of his hairy brother. It's
Genesis 27, and sets a weird light on the whole business of Jacob and the
tribes of Israel.
So I don't "use" the Hirsh books in order, but I do look in there once in a
while and do a mental checklist, and I wouldn't feel bad if given a straight
choice between something the kids already know, and something that they
don't, directing their attention toward the new piece of information. But I
wouldn't press it if they passed it by. Any information worth having is out
there in the world.
Sandra
<< I've been chewing on the ethics of strewing a bit. I've concluded that
promoting something to my son because I love it, or because he might
love it is okay. But promoting something just because E.D. Hirsch says
it's part of required "cultural literacy" is not so cool. >>
Lots of people hate those Hirsch books, or have said they did, and it seems
to boil down to the title of "needs" to know. Joyce pointed out that he did
recommend using better materials than his own in some (or all) cases.
What he means by "needs to know" is bigger than that set of books. As he
was the main proponent of "Cultural Literacy" as a basis for schools'
curriculae, and he WAS starting to be listened to, he wrote that series as a
way to create a path to the theoretical goal.
What his overall system involves is everyone in the culture having common
terminology and a common historical knowledge base so that when something's
being discussed among educated adults, few to none of them are standing there
baffled as to what the others are talking about. And a big part of the
commonality he's promoting is linguistic and literary. That's why the books
have the common phrases, idioms, homilies--"don't let the cat out of the bag"
and things like that. And that's why the folktales and mythology. If
someone says "the patience of Job" it might be useful for others to know who
the heck Job was and what the overall context of that statement is because
it's not just "patience," it's much larger. "The Emperor's New Clothes" is
(I think) the only simple reference in our culture to the idea that people
are so easily led as to say they see something they don't, if they fear for
their own self-image in the presence of those they perceive to be wiser or
better. That's a lot of words to say "the Emperor's New Clothes." So people
who know those stories can communicate better with one another.
A friend of mine grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which is an odd little
town filled with intellectuals of geeky breeding, in HUGE part, and when
physicists marry physicists and live among physicists, some weird things do
happen. (The're starting to intermarry nowadays <bwg>.) He only knew what
he knew, and what he knew he had pretty much learned on his own. What his
parents had valued was satire from before 1950 (what THEIR parents had
valued, and nothing new), math and science. Engineering. He learned to fix
cars a bit, from his dad, and to tie lots of knots, from boy scouting.
We were English majors. I was out before he got to UNM, and knew him while
he was in college. He was having a TERRIBLE horrible time in Shakespeare and
Milton and some other literature classes because he knew not ONE Bible story
but the nativity and knew vaguely about what Easter was about. He knew no
Garden of Eden, Noah, Tower of Babel--none of those things which others are
expected to know. So he didn't want to go to church to learn them (they
don't teach those to adults so much as kids anyway), and so I was telling him
the stories and finding the passages to give him to read.
It's not that they didn't go to church at all ever. His mother was an
umpty-generation Unitarian from New Hampshire or somewhere. He just didn't
have any Bible basis.
So that's the sort of situation Hirsch's stuff is designed to address. If
you want to read Shakespeare it helps to know English history and the Bible
(at least the highlights) first. It helps to know the cultural situations at
the time the things were written.
My friend Derek was fascinated most by the story of Jacob and Esau, and Jacob
fooling their father into blessing him instead of his hairy brother. It's
Genesis 27, and sets a weird light on the whole business of Jacob and the
tribes of Israel.
So I don't "use" the Hirsh books in order, but I do look in there once in a
while and do a mental checklist, and I wouldn't feel bad if given a straight
choice between something the kids already know, and something that they
don't, directing their attention toward the new piece of information. But I
wouldn't press it if they passed it by. Any information worth having is out
there in the world.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 5/28/2002 10:56:31 AM Eastern Standard Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
is what raises my hackles. (Whatever hackles are.) I do thumb through the
books occassionally to comfort myself that my kids are doing just fine and my
son likes to look through the books and ask for more information about what
he reads. I have found that the books make a great jumping-off point and lead
to interesting conversations.
Amy Kagey
Usborne Books consultant
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=462366">Usborne Books Online Sales</A>
WW: -41.4 lbs
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
SandraDodd@... writes:
>I really agree with this statement. I think that the phrase "needs to know"
> Lots of people hate those Hirsch books, or have said they did, and it seems
>
> to boil down to the title of "needs" to know.
is what raises my hackles. (Whatever hackles are.) I do thumb through the
books occassionally to comfort myself that my kids are doing just fine and my
son likes to look through the books and ask for more information about what
he reads. I have found that the books make a great jumping-off point and lead
to interesting conversations.
Amy Kagey
Usborne Books consultant
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=462366">Usborne Books Online Sales</A>
WW: -41.4 lbs
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]