Ping Ray O'Hara

[Hugh Lawson]

Yo, Ray!

Are you still reading this newsgroup? I just read an interesting
piece to the effect that Massachusetts adopted some of the ideas of
E. D. Hirsh (_Cultural Literacy_) in elementary education some years
ago, and that they are getting great results with this. Have you
heard anything about this?

I read CL when it came out in '87, and then prepared a session paper
on the academic reception of this book. It was the first time I had
studied a thoughtless academic trashing of a good book.

Hirsh's essential message is that reading involves two things: the
first is skill of decoding the letters, arranging them into words and
sentences; the second is possession of adequate background knowledge
to comprehend the sentences. Hirsch thinks schools do pretty well at
#1, but stumble on #2 because of a dogmatic insistence that #1 is
enough.

HL

[[.]]

You might look for your Facebook buddy on FB. Last I heard, he was
still going nuts over watching his Red Sox lose and the Yankees
winning their 27th World Series ... while battling accusations that he
was a drunk, etc., on the Red Sox usenet newsgroup. Seems Ray has
that reputation.

Be a friend and help him out. He's in pain. Real pain. :)