A finalist on American Idol on site in Hawaii watched military planes fly overhead and commented that that there seemed to be more military planes in Hawaii than in the skies over his home in New York state. His companion said, “The Pearl Harbor base is nearby”. Without hesitation, the contestant said, “I though that was a movie”.
The historian in me winced. This man should know the stories of Pearl Harbor and “the Day in Infamy”. How could he not?
The educator in me wondered. What is the relevance of details from US History, the story of Pearl Harbor and what occurred 50 years before his birth, to a man in his mid-20s scratching a living as a vocal instructor in Phoenix, AZ?
Background knowledge is the residual content information of what we learn and experience. Our ability to access background knowledge is the glue that allows us to participate in the conversations of our lives. Relevance is the stickiness in our personal glue. How does a person build personal relevance for the retention of cultural literacy? Is relevance universal? And, the laws of forgetfulness tell us that if we don’t access our memory of content information, over time we will lose it regardless of its original relevance.
What Do We Know
More and more stuff happens everyday. Just observe the breaking news pop-ups on your personal device. Listen to the news on broadcast media. News, news everywhere and none that is newsworthy enough to demand that we remember it. (Does that line bring back Coleridge’s “Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink” from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?) Absent a national event like 9/11 or a local event involving disaster, death or economic upheaval, most people do not practice the intellectual filtering that sifts the daily events to isolate the few events that will affect their lives. Most current events are background noise not background knowledge. A good overstatement – without filters, the daily bombardment of news is background noise not background information. So, what should we know?
We each have developed our built in filters that alert us to information that is important to us. As we pay attention to sirens blaring and lights blazing of emergency vehicles, specific types of information immediately catch our attention while other information is just traffic. These preconditioned sensors perk up if we are highly interested in sports scores, the stock market, national politics, local events or the lives of celebrities. Our preconditioned sensors quickly analyze what we hear, see and experience and connect this immediate information to what we already know.
Background information or cultural literacy also must be refreshed and nourished if it is to be retained in our memory. One of the several purposes of a public K-12 education is to build background knowledge and cultural literacy in our population. The sequencing and spiraling of school curriculum is designed to build up content knowledge. That is why children learn US History in 5th, 8th and 10th grades in most schools and why mathematics builds its algebraic ladder for solving problems with unknown values.
On the plus side, 84.1% of the children in each year’s K-12 cohort (entering kindergarten and passing on to 12th grade in 13 years) graduates from high school. The diploma verifies the accomplishment of a background knowledge.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/data-us-graduation-rates-by-state-and.html
Then, life happens. Without reinforcement, 85% of the information we learn in school will be forgotten by the time of our 20th high school class reunion. This is a fact and it is irrefutable. Without accessing what we once learned, we forget it.
In terms of how well our background knowledge of US history and government persists over time, the result is this: Only four in ten (40%) citizens in the US can pass a citizenship test of multiple choice questions surveying United States history and government, the informations we learned in 5th, 8th and 10th grade plus senior government. Reverse the numbers. 60% of US citizens cannot pass a US citizenship test.
https://woodrow.org/americanhistory/
Take Away
Relevance is situational and relevance is significant. Line up ten people and ask them what is important to them and you will find that each has a set of personally relevant topics and a depth of knowledge about these topics. Relevance is personal, interest-building and self-reinforcing for each of us. Ask the same ten people to take the citizenship test and only four will pass. The detail of citizenship information has little daily impact on how most engage in their world although the principles of US history and government are what make that engagement possible. Relevance is the lynch pin to accumulating and renewing background knowledge.
In the bigger scheme of things, Jeopardy-winning knowledge is not necessary for every day life. While we marvel at the recall speed and breadth of knowledge displayed by Ken Jennings, king of Jeopardy game winners, most people will identify Judge Judy before they will name a member of the US Supreme Court and usually only those who have appeared will know the name of a local district court judge. Naming the moons of Jupiter or the elemental number of magnesium are not common knowledge and easily forgotten, if learned.
Relevance of details diminish over time as the relevance of major issues increases over time. As we are exposed to millions of details, we need to pay attention to the larger questions. It is easy to argue about the truth and accuracy of minutia and those arguments often cause us to abandon our attention to the major issue. Global warming is caught in this dilemma. Those who want to argue that daily weather patterns are just trends that come and go every several years will not conceptualize the changes to our ecosphere. Start large and work to the small. If we start with major climactic changes, such as why our grandchildren will not see glaciers in Glacier National Park, then we can work backwards through the reasons for this.
Why Is This Thus
Nothing is more relevant than a heart attack (or fill in your health crisis of choice). Persons who experience a health crisis quickly seek information and learn to sort through the relevance of all the information available about cardiac care. Cardiac arrest, cancer, stroke, pulmonary disease, paralyzing injury all get our attention and keep it.
Short of a life-threatening event, how we seek and build adult background knowledge is idiosyncratic and susceptible to on-demand change. Career choices point us toward relevancy. I read voraciously in educational topics. The interests of our spouses and mates point us toward their relevancies. I read along with my wife’s strong interest in religion. The needs and developmental choices of our children make their relevancies ours. Our grandchildren are competitive ice skaters, swimmers, gymnasts, soccer and baseball players. Because of grandchildren I can recognize a triple axel, understand the dynamics of a butterfly stroke, and the controlled tension of performing on the balance beam. Next year, their interests may change and tug my attention in their wake. Such is life.
Life focuses what we need to know and expands the opportunities of what we want to know. When I meet with people in my township, the immediate interests focus on road maintenance and property taxes. When I talk with other golfers, we focus on golf club technology and whatever advantage swing dynamics can give us on our scorecards. When I talk with fellow retirees, everyone focuses on the better places to eat and health care. Each pool of people causes me to invest in knowing something about our common interests so that I can remain in the conversation.
General knowledge allows us to connect enough informational clues to be in the conversation. If there are no clues, the conversation is meaningless. The Idol contestant was immediately out of the loop if the conversation moved from planes overhead to December 7, 1941. We tend to avoid meaningless conversations. Hence, the cycle of personal relevance self-perpetuates what we want to know and lack of relevance shuts us off from what we might know.
To Do
As educators, we can assist the children we teach by:
Engaging in frequent reviews of what children have learned. We cannot assume “once learned, always known”. Take the time to review the most significant facts and concepts that children will need to know to be conversant in their educational future and post-school life. Frequency means a review session at least every four weeks or after every two units of study; at least every quarter of the school year; and, before the end of the school year. A review is more than just a “drive by” of what was learned; it is a discussion of concepts supported by facts. If it was important to learn in the first place, it is important to review with frequency for recall.
Slow down the speed of things. The amount of curriculum is not static, it grows with time. However, increased quantity should not mean less quality. Spend quality time in the study of the most enduring information. The number of each amendment to the Constitution is good to know, but not as enduring as a sound learning of the principles of the Bill of Rights and an understanding of the freedoms we enjoy.
Reading is essential for building background knowledge. Reading accesses stories from the past and from distant places that the reader cannot personally experience. Use class time for reading as a balancing and primer for children to continue to read after school. Discuss what is read. Ask children two fundamental questions: What do you think about this? How do you feel about this? These two questions build intellectual relevance.
Travel and personal experience builds visual and sensory connections with information. School field trips have value. We believe that all children in Wisconsin are familiar with farms, yet 80% of children have not set a foot on farm land. An understanding of the importance of agriculture to the state economy becomes relevant when school children go to a farm and talk with a farmer. The same is true of manufacturing and e-commerce. Personal experience builds relevance.
Suggest subjects for exploration for all children. As the adult in the room, teachers have an objective perspective of how a child approaches a new subject. Many times, if the subject is not exciting for a child’s friends, it is not exciting to the child. A teacher who observes a personal connection can overcome the group mentality and ignite a child’s personal passion.
Lastly, every now and then check what you think you know and what you may have forgotten. E. D. Hirsch made a splash in the 90s speaking about cultural literacy and what every person should know. Take a cultural literacy test (keep the results to yourself). If you find that unreinforced information has slipped away from your memory or lost its accuracy, relearn it.
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know, E. D. Hirsch (1998)
Background knowledge is important for everyday living. However, it is not sacred nor is it self-labeling if a person does not know a fact or detail. Relevance is the key how a person addresses what they know and what they want to know. While we specialize it what we need to know, generalizing in what can know helps us to participate in the conversations of our life and times.