The Schools We Need

Hirsch argues that despite the nation's political and economic strengths, American K-12 education is among the least effective in the developed world due to its adherence to 'naturalistic fallacies...

Chapter 2 argues that a shared body of knowledge is not merely a pedagogical preference but a foundational civil right and a prerequisite for democracy. The author contends that intellectual capita...

The educational establishment maintains a 'fortress' of progressive orthodoxy by presenting its hundred-year-old anti-subject-matter ideology as a new 'reform.' Despite dominating teacher training ...

Chapter 4 argues that American education is controlled by an insulated 'Thoughtworld'—a progressive ideological consensus that makes traditional pedagogical ideas literally unthinkable. Hirsch asse...

The author argues that educational improvement must be guided by disinterested, mainstream research rather than the selective use of science to support ideological positions. He asserts that the de...

The author argues that the current campaign against objective testing is a misguided extension of Romantic progressivism that undermines educational excellence and social equity. While acknowledgin...

This chapter synthesizes the book's core argument that the failure of American education stems from an ideological adherence to Romantic-progressive ideas which contradict empirical reality. To res...

The introduction to the glossary argues that the American educational 'Thoughtworld' maintains dominance through a uniform system of rhetoric and slogans that lack scientific substance. These terms...

In this introduction to the paperback edition, Hirsch argues that a decade of progress has shifted the national mood toward accepting content-rich curricula, evidenced by the growth of the Core Kno...