The Cultural Literacy Challenge No. 1

Over the years, I have watched, with no small amount of dismay, the "Jaywalking" feature of The Tonight Show, hosted by Jay Leno. Mr. Leno goes out on the street and stops people to find out if they can answer some questions about science, politics. history... well you get the idea. Sadly, nine out of ten times, these people can't answer these questions. The thing is that when we watch Mr. Leno and these rather culturally clueless folks, we laugh at them. If you stopped to think about our reaction, you might well ask yourself, why are laughing?

I have often written that from my perspective the United States is one of the best countries in which one can live today. Its greatness derives from the unique form of democracy that forms the basis for our government and the truly extraordinary freedoms that we enjoy. But for this kind of democracy to survive and thrive in the United States over the long haul, the folks here in our country need to have a level of cultural literacy high enough that they can read the paper or listen to the rantings of our politicians and be able to understand/interpret what they are reading or hearing.

Let's define cultural literacy for the record. The idea here is that there has to be a body of knowledge about our culture, our society, our political system, and our cultural heritage that we are all reasonably familiar with. For us to have meaningful discussions about human cloning, abortion, immigration, civil liberties and the role of the arts, we all have to sort of be on the same page, with regard to a basic general level of knowledge about these things. If we aren't, then our discussions are not very meaningful. If we aren't, the decisions we make as a community about our society, the sciences or our politcal issues will turn out to be a bit less than informed.

What kind of knowledge am I talking about? Here are some examples. For instance, if I were to ask you who we call the father of our country, you should be able to answer George Washington. If I were to ask you when the Civil War was fought, you should be able to answer: 1860 to 1864. If I were to ask you what important social movement Martin Luther King was associated with, you should be able to answer: the civil rights movement. When we watch Jaywalking, it becomes painfully clear that too many people lack the sort of cultural literacy about which we are talking.

So what can we do about this situation? We can start with ourselves, by increasing our cultural literacy one fact at a time. Okay, I'll make it easier for you to be proactive about this. With this post, I am inaugerating a new feature called The Cultural Literacy Challenge. Every few days, I will challenge you to identify a person or an event or an issue about which I am giving you important clues. Hope you enjoy this new feature of my blog.

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Cultural Literacy Challenge No. 1

I was born in England. I started out in English vaudeville and then came to the United States. I was cast in some of the Max Sennett silent films. I went on to direct and star in my own silent films and created the famous character, the Little Tramp. Among my most notable films were The Gold Rush, Modern Times and City Lights. I lived out the last years of my life in Switzerland.

Who am I? [The next CLC will contain the answer to this challenge.]