THE SCHOOLS WE NEED

The author is well known for his 1980’s polemic, Cultural Literacy, which advocated a content-based education for America’s students. This book furthers that argument and tells why our present critical-thinking craze is misguided, even ruinous, for our nation. Anna Fields’s voice is clear, informative and well suited to Hirsch’s words; she makes his arguments easy to follow. But her performance is very uneven. At times she sounds like she’s speaking through clenched jaws. This happens at odd moments throughout the book and is very noticeable. In other places, usually when Hirsch is repetitive or boring, she loses focus and reads in a monotone. Fields quickly recovers, but it does take away from the text. R.I.G. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]