Literacy Requires Culture
By: Albert Shanker
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1.
A few weeks ago I wrote about an important new theory which explains that
millions of American students and adults are illiterate not so much because they can’t
sound out or recognize words (though some can’t) but because they don’t have the
background information they need to understand what they’re reading. The following
examples how not having the appropriate information makes a difference.
2.
A perfectly literate Englishman may not be able to understand much of the
sports page in an American newspaper, not because he can’t read the words, but
because he doesn’t know enough about baseball, football or basketball.
3.
A recent item in a New York City newspaper reported a conversation between a
Manhattan bus driver and a woman about to board the bus, which, if I remember
correctly, went something like this: She asked the driver if the bus stopped at 42nd
Street. The driver responded, “Didn’t you read the sign in front of the bus which says
we go to 8th Street?” The woman said, “I’m from out of town. Do you stop at 42nd
Street?” The driver came back with, “Even people from out of town can read, lady.”
But the driver missed the point. Even though the woman could read, what she read
didn’t answer her question, because she didn’t know how Manhattan streets were laid
out – she didn’t have the required background information.
4.
All writers assume that readers have adequate background knowledge. But
according to L.D. Hirsch, Jr., while today’s students may know their alphabet, “at the
present time, our students in the early grades are not getting the ABCs of knowledge.”
What is it, then, in addition to phonics, that students need to know if they’re to be able
to read? And why aren’t they getting it? Hirsch, who is a professor of English at the
University of Virginia, provides some of the answers in “Cultural Literacy and the
Schools,” appearing in the Summer 1985 issue of The American Educator. One thing
needed is what Hirsch calls “extensive knowledge,” which he describes as “broad, but
superficial.” Writers feel free to use certain words, names, concepts, facts without
explanation, expecting the general reader to know them. If the reader can pronounce
the words but doesn’t “know” them, reading can be tough or even impossible. Hirsch
gives some examples of what an American reader needs, and a forthcoming book will
list thousands of such words and concepts.
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Hirsch points out that while we may know very little about some of these
people, places, literature and songs – “that little is of crucial importance because it
enables writers to assume a foundation from which they can treat in detail whatever
they wish to focus on.”
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Why don’t students learn as much of these as they should? There are a number
of reasons. First, there’s a strong bias in our schools against “mere memorization.”
Committing things to memory is considered old-fashioned, a waste of time when you
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can “always look it up.” This bias is probably a healthy reaction to the old-time heavy
emphasis on memorization, but it has been taken to its opposite extreme.
Remembering things – and not exclusively through rote memorization but by
memorable teaching and example and gentle repetition grade to grade – is essential as
a base for literacy.
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A second reason is the widely held view that children can learn to read with
virtually any subject matter or content – that it’s the skill that counts. So why not
motivate them with things that are intrinsically interesting to them, materials on rock
stars or sports heroes, for example? But it’s just not true that any material will make
them literate; there is a body of information which, says Hirsch, “is not arbitrary” and
“which is known to be central by every true literary person in our culture.” Kids
should begin to have this information as early as possible, so that they can absorb and
build upon it.
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Finally, there’s the legitimate need to provide reading materials that enhance the
image of groups which have largely been excluded from literature – blacks,
Hispanics, women and others. This is worthwhile and necessary – but not as a
substitute for what students must know in order to be literate. Future lists of words
and concepts for extensive knowledge will undoubtedly be less male, Anglo Saxon
and white, but “until we succeed in changing the literary culture,” says Hirsch, “we
must not misinform our students by pretending that its contents are just what we wish
them to be.”
9.
Hirsch and others who have engaged in the research are arguing for a permanent
traditional curriculum, especially in the early grades, and the evidence is on their side.
He writes, “In the early grades, children are fascinated by straightforward
information. Young children are eager to master the materials essential for adult life,
and if they believe in the materials they will proudly soak them up like sponges and
never forget them. Young children have an urge to become acculturated into the adult
world by learning the facts of the tribe long before they can make any sense out of
them.” If we want a truly literate society, the educational community has an obligation
to transmit that society’s longstanding culture – the sooner the better.
Article provided by The Open University
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Answer the questions below in your own words in English unless otherwise
stated.
Complete the sentences below
1.
The author says that there are two kinds of illiteracy (paragraph 1). The first
kind is that people can’t read because _________________________________
________________________________________________________________
The second kind is that people can’t read because ________________________
________________________________________________________________
Choose the best answer
2.
How do paragraphs 2 and 3 relate to paragraph 1?
Answer:
a. They disprove the ideas in paragraph 1.
b. They question the ideas in paragraph 1.
c. They illustrate the ideas in paragraph 1.
d. They are irrelevant to the ideas in paragraph 1.
3.
“Cultural Literacy and the Schools” (line 23) is
a. a book
b. an article
c. a speech
d. an answer
4.
Hirsch claims that students (paragraph 4)
a. don’t know the ABCs.
b. don’t have broad superficial knowledge.
c. can’t pronounce words.
d. aren’t studying enough.
5.
Paragraphs 6, 7, and 8 give the reasons for the problem the author is speaking
about. What is the problem.
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
What are the reasons for the problem? (Use your own words.)
b/1: ____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
b/2: ____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
b/3: ____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
6.
Paragraph 9 suggests teaching young kids
a. things that interest them.
b. facts about people, places, and songs.
c. to read.
d. things that don’t make sense to them.
It suggests doing this because ________________________________________
________________________________________________________________