Contributor

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Former University of Virginia Professor of Education and Humanities; Author

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., is the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers Cultural Literacy, and The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Other books by E. D. Hirsch on related subjects are: The First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and the Core Knowledge Series: What Your First - Sixth Grader Needs to Know, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them, and most recently, The Making of Americans. These works have influenced recent educational thought and practice in the United States and other countries. Mr. Hirsch is a graduate of Cornell University, and holds masters and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He began his teaching career at Yale, specializing in Romantic Poetry and Literary Theory, and in 1966 became Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he served twice as chairman of his department. Before his retirement in 2000 he held the position of University Professor of Education and Humanities. In 1977, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1997 to the International Academy of Education. He is the recipient of several honorary degrees, has been a Fulbright and a
Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a Humanities Fellow at Princeton University, a fellow at the Australian National University, and an honoree of the Royal Dutch Academy, and of the NationalAcademy in Rome. He received the biennial QuEST award of the American Federation of Teachers in 1997, the Fordham Award for Valor in Education in 2003, and the James B. Conant Award of the Educational Commission of the States in 2012. He has served on many advisory boards including the National Council on Educational Research. E. D. Hirsch is founder and Chairman of the Board of the non-profit Core Knowledge Foundation, an organization that is exercising a growing influence on American educational reform, with Core Knowledge schools in 47 states.