A thought-provoking book. It is not a “thorough academic argument” in the sense of being filled with data & evidence. But it is an evocative essay that makes me want to learn more about certain aspects of his argument. I may not agree with everything he says, but I am thoroughly inspired.

Neil Postman remains oddly prophetic regarding the progress(or regress) of the education system. Though this is almost 30 years old, he presents a disheartening view of the ways in which our system is failing our kids(and it doesn't end in 12th grade). He also presents several solutions that it would be interesting to try(particularly the no- textbook solution).

His disgust for the typical classroom makes me wonder if he practiced what he preached.

I can’t recall what prompted me to pick up this book in the first place. It’s out of date, with a copyright of 1995, but in reading it, I am reminded that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The trends in education he discusses have only become exaggerated. The book is a bit all-over-the-place and doesn’t always seem to stick to the point. That said, his theme seems to be that public education must have a purpose, a narrative, a moral goal of sorts and that the modern gods of education (collectivism, technology, and economic utility) are insufficient purposes. If public education does not find a sufficient sustaining purpose, it will be supplanted by private education, subsumed by technology, or taken over by corporations. Public education must provide moral guidance, a sense of community, and explanation of the past, clarity to the present, and a sense of hope for the future. He’s less clear about how public education should do that.

Postman emphasizes that the thirst for absolute knowledge (which he means as something like dogmatism) is bad for education. But so too is the ethnic separatism that was being encouraged in the 90s and has only grown today. “Every school,” he writes, “save those ripped asunder by separatist ideology, tires to tell a story about America that will enable students to feel a sense of national pride. Students deserve that, and their parents expect it. The question is how to do this and yet avoid indifference, on the one hand, and a psychopathic nationalism, on the other….I propose, then, the story of America as an experiment, a perpetual and fascinating question mark.”

Almost tangentially, he proposes improving teaching by getting rid of all textbooks (this has more or less happened in my kids’ schools, and I don’t see that it has led to improvement in their educations) and by having science teachers teach English and history teachers teach math and such for an experimental period because they’ll have a better idea of what it’s like to be a student struggling to learn a subject if it’s not their subject. That’s a nice idea in theory but in practice it would probably be disastrous.

Very amazing and so insightful. At times I felt overwhelmed by information. It's a must read for students, teachers, educators, and parents.

Reading this post-Covid pandemic internet online learning is an interesting experience- he absolutely hits the nail on the head on the deficits of a “technologically “ driven education.
The more I’m with youngsters in education the more I believe the point of school is to create humans who can try to get along with each other while gaining some understanding of themselves and the world around them.

this book has some good points but it kind of just gets lost and you lose what the author is really trying to say.

Another postman book. Can't say I'm as impressed by this as by Amusing Ourselves to Death or Technopoly, but this was still a valuable read, especially as I may be in education myself one day.

This book has two parts. The first makes the case that we need a teleology of education (i.e. the why). I agree with this, and it would be weird not to. After all, that's 18-22 years of life that we're taking from the young in our society. There has to be a good reason for that. Then Postman argues that the current dominant teleology, of preparing men and women for productive work doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I tend to agree with this: if I was being prepared for a specific career (biologist), my undergraduate and late-highschool education would have been better served as an apprentice in lab. However, I also think that in addition to this problem, the education system doesn't really know what it's teleology is. In highschool especially I heard many mixed messages from teachers as regards to this.

In the second part, Postman has some concrete suggestions as to what the teleology of education should be. I generally liked these and don't have much to say about their content.

So why the four stars? Postman is very in favor of "public" education, and I'm not really sure how much value such a system has. Not everyone in society is either fit or willing to be interested in art, music or philosophy. I think a platonic system where everyone has their own natural place, and thus different form of education would be much better suited to our society.