ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that cultural literacy cannot be viewed as simply the acquisition of Western heritage values aimed at safeguarding our so-called common culture. This view endorses the reproduction of Western cultural hegemony. The notion of a "common" cultural Western heritage sustains an ideology that systematically negates, rather than makes meaningful, the cultural experiences of members of the subordinate cultural groups. Cultural literacy must be seen as a medium that constitutes the historical and existential moments of lived experience that produce a subordinate or lived culture. Hence, it is an eminently political phenomenon and must be analyzed within the context of a theory of power relations and an understanding of social and cultural reproduction and production. The mechanisms of poisonous pedagogy are a part of our educational system that is designed to instill obedience so as to require students to "willingly do as they are told, willingly refrain from doing what is forbidden, and accept the rules for their sake".
