Hirsh has plan for curriculum

By Caroline Cournoyer, staff writer
Posted on November 1, 2007

Students tired of being taught the same information year after year are in luck —  Prof. E.D. Hirsch intends to correct this trend with his concept of “core knowledge.”

Hirsch’s idea of core knowledge promotes academic excellence for elementary and middle school students, independent of race or economic factors, through a shared core curriculum for each grade.

Hirsch held an open discussion on Monday and Tuesday with college of education faculty and spoke with students during a Q&A session about his address, “The Two Achievement Gaps and How to Narrow Them.” 

One of Hirsch’s main goals is to close the fairness and quality gaps. The fairness gap, according to Hirsch, is the gap between monetarily disadvantaged and advantaged students, whereas the quality gap is the difference in academic achievement levels.

“The solution to the fairness gap is also the solution to the quality gap,” Hirsch said. “If we can raise average verbal achievement, we will narrow the fairness gap [and the quality gap], killing two birds with one stone.”

In order to close these gaps, Hirsch said people need to figure out what the “haves” know that the “have-not’s” don’t know. The initial cause of the gap is the fact that children in low income homes typically hear less words and simpler sentences from their parents, and enter school with significantly smaller vocabularies and literacy levels.

 According to Hirsch, you must know 95 percent of the words in a sentence to understand it, therefore low-income children may not comprehend much, and the gap further increases between rich and poor.

However, some students were not as supportive of Hirsch’s theories.

“I believe that your teaching style will bridge the gap,” graduate secondary education student Sarah Miller said. “You need to differentiate your instruction to fit all learning styles.”

Rather than a planned curriculum, Miller said that her graduate work has taught her that experience is the most effective way to learn.

“Elementary education is the period of schooling that determines whether or not children are going to have the chance to succeed,” Hirsch said, adding that this is why it should be given so much attention.

Over 700 schools have adopted Hirsch’s concept internationally, including seven in Virginia. Hirsch’s concept spans across four continents, from the United States to Switzerland to Thailand to Nicaragua.

“What schools need in practical terms is to adopt core curriculum that uses school time productively,” Hirsch said. “Teachers have told me they spend the first six weeks in review. The word ‘review’ is a euphemism.”

Rather than reviewing at the beginning of each year, Hirsch proposes that having a clear outline of content to be learned in each grade will prevent repetition and gaps from occurring in the learning process.

According to Hirsch, learning new knowledge is based on existing knowledge. For example, in sixth grade, students will be presented with the law of conservation of energy, which they should easily grasp due to previous lessons.

Senior Caroline Bickley agreed.

“I agree with his overall concept that there’s a tremendous education gap in the United States and the idea that you have to know things to learn things.”