If you’re online (or live in the Northeast and by a radio) at 1pm ET this afternoon, E.D. Hirsch will be on WAMC-FM/Albany the Northeast’s NPR station talking about his new book The Making of Americans. Listen here. There’s also a Hirsch essay on “How Schools Fail Democracy” in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Too many Americans are in the linguistic shadows now—possibly close to a majority. Despite intense efforts driven by the No Child Left Behind Act, the language abilities of our 17-year-olds have remained stuck at the steeply declined levels of the 1970s, while the language gap between white students on one side and black and Hispanic students on the other remains distressingly and immovably large. This language gap represents more than a civic disability that prevents full participation in a democracy. It also represents a bar to general prosperity and social justice.
