Some examples of this cultural literacy movement get commercialized.  Look at the books at Sam’s Club.  Often, they feature those What Your Second Grader Needs to Know About Math sorts of titles.  They are invariably pushed by conservatives whose assumption that we are fallen away from a better state that must have existed in the past is a claim, not a fact.

Selling cultural literacy reflects the idea that, for every thing that we teach, we choose not to teach something else.  Several somethings, actually!  So even what we choose not to do matters as educators.  Here are some reflections on the ideas opened up by the notion of cultural literacy:

• I question the creators of lists of what’s essential to know. Why I question it is that the lists are created by others, leave out useful items, and assume that what’s not on the list is less worthy.
• Judgments and evaluations are always coming from somewhere, so if I create a list of must-read books, I am probably hiding all sorts of assumptions that went into its creation.
• Conservatives often love these ready-made lists because they hearken back to a past (constructed) that they think “was” that actually “wasn’t like they think.”
• These lists are often biased against inclusiveness with regard to gender or race or class.
• They assume a norm from which anyone “different” diverges.  I believe that even young children are more flexible than this.
• Often, the morals that are being taught are WASP artifacts and the assumption is that they are the heart of what it means to be American.  There are plenty of assumptions in that which I find disturbing, give our history.

Now, many may value and find comfort in those lists of essential knowledge.  And I’m not saying they have no value.  Telling us what the virtues are (William Bennett) may be a useful exercise in classification, but it can do real harm when it is foisted on people.  Look up a term like essentialize and one can see the ugly history–still with us–in such terms.

As we will see in the class, there are many terms that, in practice, mean exactly the opposite of what they say: right to work state and cultural literacy are two.  Sometimes, even education reform means the “businessification” of education by private interests for specific political purposes.  Typically, there is someone who would step in (paid, of course) to decide that set of cultural facts people would need to know.  Usually, they don’t share their agenda or their heuristics–their methods for decision.  And decide, remember, translates as de (“away,” “from”) and cide (“cut,” “kill”).  So someone is doing that cutting.  To counter these sorts of texts or fads, educators can use critical thinking and questions like “Who benefits?”

Look into the bias of approaches or products—especially if students are going to be subjected to them.