acquire concrete skills and gain knowledge in certain disciplines to participate fully and
effectively in human civilization. To this end, Hillsdale, though it does not require the
Core Knowledge curriculum in its schools, does embrace E. D. Hirsch’s idea of “cultural
literacy.” For people to communicate effectively, according to Hirsch, they must not
only use the same language. To express and understand complex ideas, they must
possess a reservoir of common facts, ideas, and references known to all in a given social
and political order. Abraham Lincoln is perhaps the best example of a leader who relied
on cultural literacy to convey his ideas. Like other Americans on the frontier, he had
little formal schooling. Yet he read intensively the works of Shakespeare, the King
James’ Bible, the fables of Æsop, Euclid’s geometry, and the documents of the American
Founding. Few men in our history have been able to express so forcefully and with such
economy the principles of freedom and human dignity:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Lincoln’s audience at Gettysburg instantly knew that he referred to the “proposition” of
the Declaration of Independence. For this reason, the Gettysburg Address is not only one
of the greatest speeches in our history; it is the shortest. Lincoln did not have to retell the
history of the Revolution. His fellow Americans already knew it.
One of the great dangers we presently face as a nation is that, in the words of Hirsch,
“many young people today strikingly lack the information that writers of American books
and newspapers have traditionally taken for granted among their readers from all
generations.” The same observation applies to the realm of politics, the financial and
industrial world, and all other facets of American life. Employers are constantly amazed
at what their employees do not know and therefore cannot do. In politics, the poignant
allusions of a Lincoln would fall upon deaf ears. Indeed, most citizens and most elected
officials are alarmingly ignorant of the basic facts of American history and constitutional
government. Make no mistake. Cultural literacy is not merely ornamental trivia. Our
purpose is not to make Jeopardy champions. Rather, cultural literacy is essential to a
nation and its citizens. A culturally illiterate America cannot live up to the demands
placed upon us by history and the present condition of the world. A culturally illiterate
individual cannot comprehend and navigate the vast areas of human knowledge essential
to his political, economic, and moral well-being.
By endorsing the idea of cultural literacy (and civic literacy), Hillsdale’s charter
school initiative has resolved to break out of the cycle of ignorance that modern culture
and modern educational theories and practices perpetuate. The students of these schools
will study the traditional liberal arts—language and literature, history and government,
mathematics and the sciences, music and art—in a coherent and orderly program. Each
curriculum will run from the rudiments of basic literacy and math skills to the higher
orders of thought and expression. All students will be required to complete this classical
curriculum. Admittedly, different children have different talents. Some students “catch
on” more quickly than others. We shall always seek to challenge every student all the
time. Yet Hillsdale regards any system of tracking that relegates certain students to an