How to educate a citizen : the power of shared knowledge to unify a nation / E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. The decline of the common school. When our schools abandoned commonality, we became a nation at risk ; The child-centered classroom ; "Nobody leaves": the dazzling success of shared-knowledge schools ; The problem starts at our teacher-training institutes -- Part II. Science debunks a child-centered education. Culture, not nature, knows best-- says nature ; The lessons of educational failure and success around the world -- Part III. American ethnicity: will the common school make a comeback? Commonality in a multiethnic nation ; How to improve the "common core" ; Patriotism: shared knowledge and kindness -- Afterword: What can be done right now?

Addresses the failures and consequences of America's early education system, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum that provides an educational foundation for all students to strengthen American unity, identity, and democracy. Hirsch addresses the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise. He advocates 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. 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.