Topic > Eric Donald Hirsch Jr. Influence on the American Education System

Education has proven to be an important aspect of our daily lives. Most of us have grown up in a system where we think and believe that education is all about studying and passing exams. This is far from the main goal of learning. Education should help people understand things, think critically and intensely. Education provides people with a background that can allow them to see things from a more detailed and informed perspective. As a result, educated people can make informed choices and decisions. Education gives people an open mind from which they can challenge things, even their own understandings. According to Martin Luther King Jr., the main purpose of education is to teach people to think critically and intensively. This article will discuss exceptional educational experiences that shaped my character and my ability to think. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There are people who have made a significant impact on the education sector. Eric Donald Hirsch Jr. is among the people who have had an immense impact on the American education system. Eric is an educator and educational literary critic. Eric is known for the Common Core curriculum adopted by most US states in 2015. The new curriculum was developed by Eric after studying composition for a long time. Its basic concept is to ensure that students have adequate background knowledge that allows them to understand the concepts they read about. According to Eric, the previous curriculum places a lot of emphasis on readability rather than background knowledge (Hirsch 23). He argues that having basic knowledge will improve students' ability to understand and develop a desire to understand new material. In his latest work, Why Education Matters, Hirsch extensively criticizes the emblematic American approach to education. Emphasize that students gain the ability to identify the main idea and draw conclusions from the clues they get from the text they read. This approach fails to emphasize the content students should learn. Currently, most educational programs encourage students to acquire specific skills, while diminishing the value of the content. According to Hirsch, this approach should be invalidated because it confuses mastery of skills with the final content that students will possess. Students who have mastered a handful of skills are assumed to have been learned, but in the truest sense are lacking in the final content (Hirsch Jr. 36). Furthermore, the current trend of increased testing has contributed to narrowing the curriculum by causing students to move from subjects that teach content such as science to those that do not prescribe content such as languages. Hirsch says students need to master some simple elements before they can move on to other complex material. He insists that all children should learn vital content regardless of the method that will be used to teach it. He rejects the inquiry-based learning approach because he believes that such students will ultimately not own any content. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Hirsch's works are compellingly among the most influential pieces in education. Hirsch improves the way learning is perceived. For example, I think I need to change the way I read. I should focus more on the.