In the previous post we were discussing cultural literacy—the concept first propounded by educator E. D. Hirsch in 1987—and I’m still thinking about it.
When I was writing that post I stumbled upon this article from Psychology Today, and got a kick out of the little quiz it opens with. Are you culturally literate? asks Jonathan Wai about the twenty-one concepts listed here.*
No, don’t boot up Google. Put your iPhone down. Stop.
That’s precisely the point Wai makes:
For much of my life, I’ve had Google, and you have too. And because I’ve felt
thatI could always reason my way through problems as long as I was given the appropriate information (or was able to look it up), I always thought that what really matters is the ability to problem solve, not the ability to remember a ton of facts. What I have come to recognize is that problem solving ability is without question important, butthatthe core knowledgethatI have makes up the resources from which I can immediately draw upon to problem solve with.
“In other words,” Wai concludes, “you can’t solve problems unless you have the relevant knowledge to do so. And sometimes this knowledge needs to be immediately present.”
That is, as a cultural frame of reference.
Wai makes some good points, not least that cultural literacy cannot and must not be limited to one’s own generation. (He also uses the word that too much.)
Hirsch’s lists of cultural relevancy tend more toward concepts but I was interested to find this list of important books by someone who has talked a lot about why it’s vital that writers read great books. Even if you haven’t read all of them (and who has, for heavens’ sake?), the fact that you recognize these titles is a part of being culturally literate. (Some of the comments after the post are particularly distressing, but that’s another post entirely. Faulkner is not boring, and that’s just the start of it.) I present the list just as an item of interest.
Finally, after reading the previous post a dear friend of mine reminded me that the ability to use whassup in proper context is, in fact, cultural literacy, and he’s right, he’s right. He is right. But, God help us, it’s from a television commercial. That’s almost as low on the cultural literacy food chain as you can get (Jersey Shore, I think, is lower, but that’s your call). On the other hand, the television series Thirtysomething (first broadcast in 1987) added a word to the Oxford English Dictionary. And being possessed of cultural literacy definitely enhanced one’s viewing pleasure of Lost (premiered in 2004). Nonetheless, much of television is ephemera and, as noted above, is so of the moment it won’t contribute much of lasting value to anyone’s frame of reference.
Or at least that’s what I think right now. 🙂 Let me know what you think.
* I can get you nineteen of them. But that’s only because I’ve read Steven Pinker. All I know about gamma rays is this, and I draw a complete blank on absolute zero. I think maybe it has something to do with temperature but, seriously, I haven’t a clue. Science has never been my strong suit.
Tweet: Cultural #literacy: “You can’t solve problems unless you have the relevant knowledge to do so.”
Tweet: Cultural literacy cannot and must not be limited to one’s own generation.
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Ah, how I love to see your posts arrive in my Inbox! You amuse, educate, and challenge me. Today, your post brought warm memories of a retired schoolteacher who tried to bring a little culture to the tiny hamlet where I grew up. There was no library, so she scrounged books from who-knows-where and set up some shelves in a dark, dusty corner of the town hall, the old kind of town hall with a stage at one end and a hardwood floor where folks gathered for turkey dinners and dancing. I don’t think her little library was open very long, but it was a great supplement to the Books of Knowledge on my parent’s bookshelves. My education was in science rather than literature, but I still love to read, and your great posts offer a rich bookshelf of ideas to add richness and variety to my life.
I’m sitting here clutching my heart. 🙂 Thank you. Thank you! You just made my morning. 🙂
The same is true for biblical literacy. People toss around phrases in conversation and in their writing/reading without realizing they’re quoting Scripture. They haven’t read the Bible thoroughly as devotional material, spiritual insight, or simply as literature upon which classic novel titles and plots, character qualities, internal conflicts, outcomes, and epic battles are based. We read mythology to become more literate. Some seem to disdain reading the Bible for the same purpose. But without knowing what it says, we’re not even aware when it’s being quoted in either ancient literature or modern.
SIDENOTE: If I were Wai, I would have dropped the last word of this phrase–“from which I can immediately draw upon to problem solve with.” Just playing the “that” game. 🙂
Oh my gosh, yes. Our cultural heritage is rich with biblical references! (And non-references, like the Lord helping those who help themselves. Ha!) Don’t hold back, Cynthia: why don’t you write me that post, hmmmmm?
Nice post Jamie. I got 19/21. Literature isn’t my strongest area.
I think 19/21 is really GOOD. 🙂
I have ADHD – I went to read the book list, and where he has all the books listed in paragraph form, my brain screamed TL;dr!! hahaha 🙂 Just glancing at the titles, though, most of those we covered in high school and in college, so I got double-doses. Some of them were on my high school’s reading list, and I got them through that, from libraries. And please tell me he meant Yeats and not Yates. Otherwise I’m going to sit here and drown my sorrows in spiked hot tea all day.
I think I need to write him about the spelling errors. That “Yates” isn’t the only one.
That was the one that managed to stick out for me. Probably because it was at the end of that one paragraph. Like I said, that entire post was difficult for me to read, so I didn’t.
A list really would have been more readable!
Also. What plugin do you use to highlight your author comments?
Ummmmm…. my wonderful designer set up this WordPress blog. I assume it’s a WP plug-in but I don’t honestly know. I’ll ask her next time I talk to her. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂