The Founders of this nation believed that the government they were creating required a civically educated populace. Such an education aimed to cultivate enlightened, informed, and vigilant citizens who could perpetuate and improve the nation. Unfortunately, America's contemporary youth seem to lack adequate opportunities, if not also the ability or will, to critically examine the foundations of this nation. An even larger problem is an increasing ambivalence toward education in general. Stepping into this void is a diverse group of educators, intellectuals, and businesspeople, brought together in Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship to grapple with the issue of civic illiteracy and its consequences. The essays, edited by Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Jonathan W. White, force us to not only reexamine the goals of civic education in America but also those of liberal education more broadly.

The Founders of this nation believed that the government they were creating required a civically educated populace. Such an education aimed to cultivate enlightened, informed, and vigilant citizens who could perpetuate and improve the nation. Unfortunately, America's contemporary youth seem to lack adequate opportunities, if not also the ability or will, to critically examine the foundations of this nation. An even larger problem is an increasing ambivalence toward education in general. Stepping into this void is a diverse group of educators, intellectuals, and businesspeople, brought together in Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship to grapple with the issue of civic illiteracy and its consequences. The essays, edited by Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Jonathan W. White, force us to not only reexamine the goals of civic education in America but also those of liberal education more broadly.

In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of WHY KNOWLEDGE MATTERS addresses the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught-an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America's unity, identity, and democracy. In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America's public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on "child-centered learning." History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning "techniques" and "values-based" curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues. The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
"What Your Second Grader Needs to Know"
What will your child be expected to learn in the second grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. Designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children, featuring a new Introduction, this second-grade volume of the Core Knowledge Series presents the knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education, including
- Favorite poems--old and new, from "Caterpillars" to Gwendolyn Brooks's prizewinning "Rudolph Is Tired of the City"
- Literature--from around the world, with African folktales, American tall tales, European fairy tales, and classic myths from ancient Greece
- Learning about language--the basic building blocks of written English, all explained with a touch of humor and common sense
- World and American history and geography--visit Japan, explore ancient Greece, travel the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman
- Visual arts--with activities and full-color illustrations of masterworks by El Greco, Van Gogh, Matisse, and others
- Music--basic theory, great composers, instruments, and fun-to-sing songs such as "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Do-Re-Mi"
- Math--challenging lessons ranging from telling time to doing fractions, numbers to 100, and a first look at geometry
- Science--the cycle of life and the seasons, levers and magnets, the wonder of the human body, and more, with lots of hands-on activities and stories about famous scientists

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
"What Your First Grader Needs to Know"
What will your child be expected to learn in the first grade? How can you help him or her at home? How can teachers foster active, successful learning in the classroom? This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American first graders. Featuring a new Introduction, filled with opportunities for reading aloud and fostering discussion, this first-grade volume of the acclaimed Core Knowledge Series presents the sort of knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging first-grade education. Inside you'll discover
- Favorite poems--old and new, such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," and "Thirty Days Hath September"
- Beloved stories--from many times and lands, including a selection of Aesop's fables, "Hansel and Gretel," "All Stories Are Anansi's," "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," and more
- Familiar sayings and phrases--such as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "Practice makes perfect"
- World and American history and geography--take a trip down the Nile with King Tut and learn about the early days of our country, including the story of Jamestown, the Pilgrims, and the American Revolution
- Visual arts--fun activities plus full-color reproductions of masterworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others
- Music--engaging introductions to great composers and music, including classical music, opera, and jazz, as well as a selection of favorite children's songs
- Math--a variety of activities to help your child learn to count, add and subtract, solve problems, recognize geometrical shapes and patterns, and learn about telling time
- Science--interesting discussions of living things and their habitats, the human body, the states of matter, electricity, our solar system, and what's inside the earth, plus stories of famous scientists such as Thomas Edison and Louis Pasteur

This revised and updated edition provides the reader with forty percent new material including illustrations, photographs, and an expanded introduction. This is a necessary guide for all parents and teachers of kindergarten-age children, as established by the Core Knowledge Foundation, an educational reform movement based on the premise that a grade-by-grade core of common learning is necessary to ensure a sound and fair elementary education, and lay the groundwork for a lifetime of learning.

This completely revised and attractively redesigned edition of one of the most popular volumes in the bestselling Core Knowledge Series features up-to-date ideas and information based on input from parents and teachers across the country.
With sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, reflects the Core Knowledge Foundation's ongoing commitment to providing a solid educational foundation for today's elementary school students.
What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, covers the basics of language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, math, and science. A collection of American speeches, tales from around the world, math problems, and biographies of famous scientists add to the book's usefulness and enhance the pleasure of both adult and child as they work together. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This revised edition gives a new generation of fifth graders the knowledge they need to make progress in school and establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime.

In Why Knowledge Matters, influential scholar E. D. Hirsch, Jr., addresses critical issues in contemporary education reform and shows how cherished truisms about education and child development have led to unintended and negative consequences. 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. Hirsch examines evidence from the United States and other nations that a coherent, knowledge-based approach to schooling has improved both achievement and equity wherever it has been instituted, supporting the argument that the most significant education reform and force for equality of opportunity and greater social cohesion is the reform of fundamental educational ideas. Why Knowledge Matters introduces a new generation of American educators to Hirsch's astute and passionate analysis.

The Knowledge Deficit illuminates the real issue in education today -- without an effective curriculum, American students are losing the global education race. In this persuasive book, the esteemed education critic, activist, and best-selling author E.D. Hirsch, Jr., shows that although schools are teaching the mechanics of reading, they fail to convey the knowledge needed for the more complex and essential skill of reading comprehension. Hirsch corrects popular misconceptions about hot issues in education, such as standardized testing, and takes to task educators' claims that they are powerless to overcome class differences. Ultimately, this essential book gives parents and teachers specific tools for enhancing children's abilities to fully understand what they read.

Fully updated for the twenty-first century, The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy gathers together all of the essential facts that youngsters should have at their fingertips for school success. The child education expert E. D. Hirsch, Jr., cuts through the wealth of information available today to highlight those terms that a child should be familiar with by the end of sixth grade. With nearly 3,000 concise definitions, including 250 new entries (Harry Potter, centaurs, northern lights, and World Series, to name a few), this popular sourcebook makes finding information easy. Here is everything your child needs to know to be culturally literate in 21 different subject areas, from mythology to literature to U.S. history to science and technology, and much more.

The hugely successful Core Knowledge Series has told the parents of first- through sixth-graders what they need to know. Now this essential companion volume helps those parents finds the books and other resources that will allow their children to learn even more about their favorite subjects.

In this forceful manifesto, Hirsch argues that children in the U.S. are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. Includes 5,000 essential facts to know.