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A child's mind is hungry for knowledge, stimulation, and the excitement of learning which school should provide--yet most American schools fall far short. From kindergarten through high school, our public educational system is among the worst in the developed world. In disdaining content-based curricula for abstract (and discredited) theories of how a child learns, our schools have done terrible harm to America's students. Instead of preparing them for the highly competitive, information-based economy in which we now live, our school practices have severely curtailed their ability--and desire--to learn. But research has shown that if children are taught in ways that emphasize hard work, the learning of facts, and rigorous testing, their enthusiasm for school will grow, their test scores will rise, and they will become successful citizens of the information age.

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., is a professor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and the author of the bestselling Cultural Literacy and the The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. He is also president of the nonprofit Core Knowledge Foundation, whose curriculum is followed by more than two hundred schools. Recent independent research on these schools has documented significant progress by both disadvantaged and advantaged students.

Anna Fields (1965-2006), winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award in 2004, was one of the most respected narrators in the industry. Trained at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, she was also a director, producer, and technician at her own studio, Cedar House Audio.