Help your child exceed the Common Core standards with the revised and updated What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know

Designed for use by parents and teachers, this groundbreaking first volume in the Core Knowledge Series provides kindergartners with the fundamentals they need to prepare them for a lifetime of learning. It sets out the elements a parent or educator should look for in a good kindergarten program and introduces activities that help a child take the first steps in learning to read and write. Featuring a new Introduction and filled with age-appropriate questions and suggestions that stimulate thinking and build vocabulary, this revised and updated edition of What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know also includes

- Favorite poems--read and recite together from Mother Goose, A. A. Milne, Langston Hughes, and more, all beautifully illustrated
- Beloved stories and fables--read aloud from The Three Little Pigs, The Ugly Duckling, Cinderella, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Velveteen Rabbit, and many more, including multicultural folktales from African, Japanese, and Native American traditions
- Familiar sayings and phrases--impart traditional wisdom such as Where there's a will, there's a way and Better safe than sorry
- History and geography--a friendly introduction to our world, complete with simple questions and fun activities
- Visual arts--painting, drawing, cutting, and pasting go hand in hand with learning about color and helping a child look at and talk about great works of art
- Music--many musical experiences for parents and children to participate in, along with dozens of songs to sing and dance to
- Math--lively and interesting exposure to concepts and operations that provide a springboard to later mastery
- Science--activities that let children observe, experience, and get their hands dirty while exploring the wonders of nature

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
What Your Third Grader Needs to Know

What should your child learn in the third grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that thousands of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American third graders. Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Third Grader Needs to Know is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This edition, featuring a new Introduction, gives today's generation of third graders the advantage they need to make progress in school and to establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. In this book you'll discover

- Favorite poems--old and new, from the traditional rhyme For Want of Nail to Lewis Carroll's whimsical poem The Crocodile
- Literature--including Native American stories, African folktales, European fairy tales, classic myths from ancient Greece, stories from ancient Rome, and more
- Learning about language--the basics of written English, including sentence structure, parts of speech, and a first look at writing a report or letter
- World and American history and geography--journey down the great rivers of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, visit ancient Rome, and experience the earliest days of America with the Pilgrims and Native Americans
- Visual arts--an introduction to masterworks by Rembrandt, Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, and others, with full-color reproductions and fun, do-it-yourself activities
- Music--the fundamentals of appreciating, reading, and making music, plus great composers, instruments, and sing-along lyrics for songs such as Bicycle Built for Two and He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
- Math--stimulating lessons ranging from counting money to solving division problems, numbers through 100,000, graphs, and the metric system
- Science--fascinating discussions on the natural world, the cycles of life, the human body and its systems, and the environment, with accompanying activities and stories about famous scientists such as Copernicus and Alexander Graham Bell

Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our peril.-- Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools

Now in paperback, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy delivers a powerful manifesto on the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught--an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America's unity, identity, and democracy.

In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America's public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on child-centered learning. History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning techniques and values-based curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues.

The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.

In Why Knowledge Matters, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., presents evidence from cognitive science, sociology, and education history to further the argument for a knowledge-based elementary curriculum.

Influential scholar Hirsch, author of The Knowledge Deficit, asserts that a carefully planned curriculum that imparts communal knowledge is essential in achieving one of the most fundamental aims and objectives of education: preparing students for lifelong success. Hirsch examines historical and contemporary evidence from the United States and other nations, including France, and affirms that a knowledge-based approach has improved both achievement and equity in schools where it has been instituted.

In contrast, educational change of the past several decades in the United States has endorsed a skills-based approach, founded on, Hirsch points out, many incorrect assumptions about child development and how children learn. He recommends new policies that are better aligned with our current understanding of neuroscience, developmental psychology, and social science.

The book focuses on six persistent problems that merit the attention of contemporary education reform: the over-testing of students in the name of educational accountability; the scapegoating of teachers; the fadeout of preschool gains; the narrowing of the curriculum to crowd out history, geography, science, literature, and the arts; the achievement gap between demographic groups; and the reliance on standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, that are not linked to a rigorous curriculum.

Why Knowledge Matters makes a clear case for educational innovation and introduces a new generation of American educators to Hirsch's astute and passionate analysis.

Give your child a smart start with
What Your Preschooler Needs to Know

Designed for parents to enjoy with children, filled with opportunities for reading aloud and fostering curiosity, this beautifully illustrated anthology offers preschoolers the fundamentals they need to prepare for a happy, productive time in school--and for the rest of their lives. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the acclaimed Core Knowledge Series, developed in consultation with parents, educators, and the most distinguished developmental psychologists. In addition to valuable advice for parents, such as what it means for a child to be ready for kindergarten, special sidebars throughout the book help parents make reading aloud fun and interactive, suggesting questions to ask, connections to make, and games to play to enrich their preschooler's learning experience. Inside you will discover

- Favorite poems and rhymes--all beautifully illustrated, to be read and recited together, from Robert Louis Stevenson's At the Seaside to limericks by Edward Lear and tongue twisters by Jack Prelutsky, plus fun clap along and fingerplay verses that parents and children can act out together
- Beloved stories and fables--stories such as The Three Little Pigs and the African folktale Why Flies Buzz will open whole new worlds of learning and discovery
- Visual arts--beautiful full-color reproductions of classic works that foster early appreciation of art history while igniting discussions about shapes, colors, and different styles and media
- Music--dozens of songs to sing and dance to, including such move around songs as Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes and The Wheels on the Bus
- History--a delightful introduction to American history, from the first Thanksgiving to Martin Luther King, Jr., with activities and stories parents and children can enjoy together
- Science--from exploring the wonder of animals to the physical properties of light, air, and water--fun activities that will let children observe, experience, and enjoy the natural world

This completely revised and attractively redesigned edition of one of the most popular volumes in the bestselling Core Knowledge Series features up-to-date ideas and information based on input from parents and teachers across the country.

With sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, reflects the Core Knowledge Foundation's ongoing commitment to providing a solid educational foundation for today's elementary school students.

What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, covers the basics of language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, math, and science. A collection of American speeches, tales from around the world, math problems, and biographies of famous scientists add to the book's usefulness and enhance the pleasure of both adult and child as they work together. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This revised edition gives a new generation of fifth graders the knowledge they need to make progress in school and establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime.

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
What Your Second Grader Needs to Know

What will your child be expected to learn in the second grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. Designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children, featuring a new Introduction, this second-grade volume of the Core Knowledge Series presents the knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education, including

- Favorite poems--old and new, from Caterpillars to Gwendolyn Brooks's prizewinning Rudolph Is Tired of the City
- Literature--from around the world, with African folktales, American tall tales, European fairy tales, and classic myths from ancient Greece
- Learning about language--the basic building blocks of written English, all explained with a touch of humor and common sense
- World and American history and geography--visit Japan, explore ancient Greece, travel the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman
- Visual arts--with activities and full-color illustrations of masterworks by El Greco, Van Gogh, Matisse, and others
- Music--basic theory, great composers, instruments, and fun-to-sing songs such as I've Been Working on the Railroad and Do-Re-Mi
- Math--challenging lessons ranging from telling time to doing fractions, numbers to 100, and a first look at geometry
- Science--the cycle of life and the seasons, levers and magnets, the wonder of the human body, and more, with lots of hands-on activities and stories about famous scientists

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know

How can you help your child at home? This book answers that important question and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that thousands of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American fourth graders. Featuring full-color illustrations throughout, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of students have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This edition, featuring a new Introduction, gives today's generation of fourth graders the advantage they need to make progress in school and establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. Inside you'll discover

- Favorite poems--old and new, from the familiar classic Paul Revere's Ride to Langston Hughes's Dreams
- Literature--from around the world, including African and Chinese folktales, excerpts from beloved novels, and condensed versions of popular classics such as Gulliver's Travels and Rip Van Winkle
- Learning about language--the basics of written English, including grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms, plus an introduction to common English sayings and phrases
- World and American history and geography--explore world and American history, including creation of a constitutional government and early presidents and politics
- Visual arts--a broad spectrum of art from around the world, including African masks, Islamic architecture, Chinese calligraphy, and great American painters--featuring full-color reproductions
- Music--understanding and appreciating music, from the basics of musical notation to the orchestra, plus great composers and sing-along lyrics for such favorites as Auld Lang Syne and Waltzing Matilda
- Math--challenging lessons ranging from fractions and decimals to understanding graphs, making change, square roots, and the metric system
- Science--discover the wonders of the human body and its systems, learn about electricity, atoms, chemistry, geology, and meteorology, plus concise biographies of some of the great scientists of our time

From child education expert E. D. Hirsch Jr., the national best-selling author of How to Educate a Citizen, The New First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy gathers together all of the essential facts that youngsters should have at their fingertips for school success.

The perfect one-stop homework helper and family reference for children cuts through the wealth of information available to highlight terms that a child should be familiar with from the beginning of the first grade through the end of the sixth.

With nearly 3,000 concise definitions, this popular sourcebook makes it easy for children to become literate in mythology, literature, US history, science and technology, and more.

This paperback edition, with a new introduction, offers a powerful, compelling, and unassailable argument for reforming America's schooling methods and ideas--by one of America's most important educators, and author of the bestselling Cultural Literacy.

For over fifty years, American schools have operated under the assumption that challenging children academically is unnatural for them, that teachers do not need to know the subjects they teach, that the learning process should be emphasized over the facts taught. All of this is tragically wrong.

Renowned educator and author E. D. Hirsch, Jr., argues that, by disdaining content-based curricula while favoring abstract--and discredited--theories of how a child learns, the ideas uniformly taught by our schools have done terrible harm to America's students. Instead of preparing our children for the highly competitive, information-based economy in which we now live, our schools' practices have severely curtailed their ability, and desire, to learn.

With an introduction that surveys developments in education since the hardcover edition was published, The Schools We Need is a passionate and thoughtful book that will appeal to the millions of people who can't understand why America's schools aren't educating our children.

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated
What Your First Grader Needs to Know

What will your child be expected to learn in the first grade? How can you help him or her at home? How can teachers foster active, successful learning in the classroom? This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American first graders. Featuring a new Introduction, filled with opportunities for reading aloud and fostering discussion, this first-grade volume of the acclaimed Core Knowledge Series presents the sort of knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging first-grade education. Inside you'll discover

- Favorite poems--old and new, such as The Owl and the Pussycat, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, and Thirty Days Hath September
- Beloved stories--from many times and lands, including a selection of Aesop's fables, Hansel and Gretel, All Stories Are Anansi's, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and more
- Familiar sayings and phrases--such as Do unto others as you would have them do unto you and Practice makes perfect
- World and American history and geography--take a trip down the Nile with King Tut and learn about the early days of our country, including the story of Jamestown, the Pilgrims, and the American Revolution
- Visual arts--fun activities plus full-color reproductions of masterworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Paul C zanne, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others
- Music--engaging introductions to great composers and music, including classical music, opera, and jazz, as well as a selection of favorite children's songs
- Math--a variety of activities to help your child learn to count, add and subtract, solve problems, recognize geometrical shapes and patterns, and learn about telling time
- Science--interesting discussions of living things and their habitats, the human body, the states of matter, electricity, our solar system, and what's inside the earth, plus stories of famous scientists such as Thomas Edison and Louis Pasteur

In this fast-paced information age, how can Americans know what's really important and what's just a passing fashion? Now more than ever, we need a source that concisely sums up the knowledge that matters to Americans -- the people, places, ideas, and events that shape our cultural conversation. With more than six thousand entries, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy is that invaluable source.
Wireless technology. Gene therapy. NAFTA. In addition to the thousands of terms described in the original Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, here are more than five hundred new entries to bring Americans' bank of essential knowledge up to date. The original entries have been fully revised to reflect recent changes in world history and politics, American literature, and, especially, science and technology. Cultural icons that have stood the test of time (Odysseus, Leaves of Grass, Cleopatra, the Taj Mahal, D-Day) appear alongside entries on such varied concerns as cryptography, the digital divide, the European Union, Kwanzaa, pheromones, SPAM, Type A and Type B personalities, Web browsers, and much, much more.
As our world becomes more global and interconnected, it grows smaller through the terms and touchstones that unite us. As E. D. Hirsch writes in the preface, Community is built up of shared knowledge and values -- the same shared knowledge that is taken for granted when we read a book or newspaper, and that is also taken for granted as part of the fabric that connects us to one another. A delicious concoction of information for anyone who wants to be in the know, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy brilliantly confirms once again that it is an excellent piece of work . . . stimulating and enlightening (New York Times) -- the most definitive and comprehensive family sourcebook of its kind.

The Knowledge Deficit illuminates the real issue in education today -- without an effective curriculum, American students are losing the global education race. In this persuasive book, the esteemed education critic, activist, and best-selling author E.D. Hirsch, Jr., shows that although schools are teaching the mechanics of reading, they fail to convey the knowledge needed for the more complex and essential skill of reading comprehension. Hirsch corrects popular misconceptions about hot issues in education, such as standardized testing, and takes to task educators' claims that they are powerless to overcome class differences. Ultimately, this essential book gives parents and teachers specific tools for enhancing children's abilities to fully understand what they read.

Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our peril.-- Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools

In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy addresses the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught--an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America's unity, identity, and democracy.

In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America's public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on child-centered learning. History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning techniques and values-based curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues.

The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.

From the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy, a passionate and cogent argument for reforming the way we teach our children

Ought to be read by anyone interested in the education and training of the next generation of Americans.--Glenn C. Altschuler, Boston Globe

Why, after decades of commissions, reforms, and efforts at innovation, do our schools continue to disappoint us? In this comprehensive and thought-provoking book, educational theorist E. D. Hirsch, Jr. offers a masterful analysis of how American ideas about education have veered off course, what we must do to right them, and most importantly why. He argues that the core problem with American education is that educational theorists, especially in the early grades, have for the past sixty years rejected academic content in favor of child-centered and how-to learning theories that are at odds with how children really learn. The result is failing schools and widening inequality, as only children from content-rich (usually better-off) homes can take advantage of the schools' educational methods.

Hirsch unabashedly confronts the education establishment, arguing that a content-based curriculum is essential to addressing social and economic inequality. A nationwide, specific, grade-by-grade curriculum established in the early school grades can help fulfill one of America's oldest and most compelling dreams: to give all children, regardless of language, religion, or origins, the opportunity to participate as equals and become competent citizens. Hirsch not only reminds us of these inspiring ideals, he offers an ambitious and specific plan for achieving them.

The invaluable grade-by-grade guide (kindergarten--sixth) is designed to help parents and teachers select some of the best books for children.

Books to Build On recommends:

- for kindergartners, lively collections of poetry and stories, such as The Children's Aesop, and imaginative alphabet books such as Bill Martin, Jr.'s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Lucy Micklewait's I Spy: An Alphabet in Art

- for first graders, fine books on the fine arts, such as Ann Hayes's Meet the Orchestra, the hands-on guide My First Music Book, and the thought-provoking Come Look with Me series of art books for children

- for second graders, books that open doors to world cultures and history, such as Leonard Everett Fisher's The Great Wall of China and Marcia Willaims's humorous Greek Myths for Young Children

- for third graders, books that bring to life the wonders of ancient Rome, such as Living in Ancient Rome, and fascinating books about astronomy, such as Seymour Simon's Our Solar System

- for fourth graders, engaging books on history, including Jean Fritz's Shh We're Writing the Constitution, and many books on Africa, including the stunningly illustrated story of Sundiata: Lion King of Mali

- for fifth graders, a version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream that retains much of the original language but condenses the play for reading or performance by young students, and Michael McCurdy's Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass

- for sixth graders, an eloquent retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the well-written American history series, A History of US

. . . and many, many more

A must-read for parents and teachers, this major bestseller reveals how cultural literacy is the hidden key to effective education and presents 5000 facts that every literate American should know.

In this forceful manifesto Professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr., argues that children in the United States are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. They lack cultural literacy: a grasp of background information that writers and speakers assume their audience already has. Even if a student has a basic competence in the English language, he or she has little chance of entering the American mainstream without knowing what a silicon chip is, or when the Civil War was fought. An important work that has engendered a nationwide debate on our educational standards, Cultural Literacy is a required reading for anyone concerned with our future as a literate nation.

Here is a book that brings logic to the most unruly of disciplines, literary interpretation. . . . This study is a necessary took for anyone who wants to talk sense about literature.--Virginia Quarterly Review

By demonstrating the uniformity and universality of the principles of valid interpretation of verbal texts of any sort, this closely reasoned examination provides a theoretical foundation for a discipline that is fundamental to virtually all humanistic studies. It defines the grounds on which textual interpretation can claim to establish objective knowledge, defends that claim against such skeptical attitudes as historicism and psychologism, and shows that many confusions can be avoided if the distinctions between meaning and significance, interpretation and criticism are correctly understood.