The task on hand is to think critically about, the idea of “What is worth knowing”? This is a task that has kept my mind busy over the last couple of days. After reading through Chapter One of E.D. Hirsch Jr Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, and perusing some of his idea’s in his list of "What Literate Americans Know", and then dissecting this list based on my knowledge of the concepts on the list I discovered that I would have most definitely fell under the Hirsch’s definition of illiterate. Which does not sound good being that I am a high school educator. But I know that I am not illiterate. I also know that I have always struggled with remembering facts and history lessons, dates and times, building a strong vocabulary, misuse and misspelling of words often, and I almost always have the wrong punctuation. I mean how many times have I asked my husband which War came first the Vietnam or WWII. This is basic information the any “literate” person in the United States and Europe for that matter should know. Well I can tell you that most of the knowledge on the list was fuzzy or obsolete for me. So what is that I do know. I am 33 years old, I graduated with honors from my High School, I have a BFA in Fashion Design and graduated Cum Lade, and have been getting my Master in Professional Studies in Multicultural/Humanistic Education and at this point carry a 4.0. So I have been left to think about how is it possible that someone who is “illiterate” can have been successful through all of this education?
After much reflecting in my life I deicide that the most powerful thing that I have learned in my life is an understanding about the powers that dictate our society and consequently then dictate our function within society. Which only goes to prove Delpit’s point and my belief to be true that cultural capital is more important than factual knowledge. I respect Hirsch notion that there is a base understanding that one must have in order to communicate effectively in society, but I also believe that what is more important is what, who and where you come from and the access one possess because of these truth’s. I think understanding the “Truth’s of the World” are “what is worth knowing.”
Know the truth about the food we eat?
Know the truth about the energy we use?
Know the truth about the education we receive?
Know the truth about the health care we receive?
Know the truth about the war on drugs?
Know the truth about “Outlier’s”?
Know the truth about yourself?
Know the truth about the cultural capital you have?
Know the truth about the cultural capital others have?
Understand the POWER STRUCTURE that exist and are used to govern the decisions that control the outcomes to the questions posed above.
Understand that People ARE created equal-, but The Pledge of Allegiance is a LIE – liberty and justice for all is NOT true, but an ideal worth working towards.
Understand that YES knowledge is power.
I leave you with this thought- Does effective change happens from the Top Down or the bottom UP?
My thought- an educated populous is a powerful nation and with power comes change. I believe the higher ups enjoy their power and don’t want it to change so one should question whose interest is it in to have an educated populace? Yes, we would prosper as a nation but at whose expense. The rich are still getting richer so doesn’t it help that the poor continue to get poorer and the middle class continues to scrape by participating in the game for no other reason than to keep their families safe, fed and educated. With all of that being said I still believe in the POWER of the PEOPLE and know that change can happen. I leave you with my favorite John Lennon quote “ You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one.”
