Postman Ch. 1-4

Neil Postman introduces the theme for the entire book which is that schools are a way for a means, but not an end. He agrees with Nietzsche’s philosophy, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." This "meaning" Postman describes as a god or a narrative (he uses this two word interchangeably throughout the book).

Chapter 2: Gods That Fail
In this chapter, Postman identifies gods that have existed and have failed. Specifically he mentions the god of utility, "You are what you do for a living," which is defined as the willingness to succeed or to make a living. Coupled with the god of utility, is the god of consumership, which he describes as "whoever dies with the most toys wins," and "You are what you accumulate." Clearly, Postman identifies these gods as reasons that have failed. The god of utility is presented repeatedly as parables in commercials; it is told and retold as the reason to why children should go to and stay in school. More importantly, it emphasizes the reason why schools should receive more public support. Parents, however, see schools as training grounds for future employees. However, Postman refutes these positions by saying that there is no strong proof that lucrative and stimulating employment will be available for students upon graduation.

We both agree about how the gods were defined. On the other hand, we both felt that these gods do provide a motivation for schooling. Students do attend school with aspirations to become somebody. Schools facilitate this by sponsoring programs such as Career Day and mentorships with local businesses.

Chapter 3: Some New Gods That Fail
The major focus of this chapter encompassed the gods of Technology and of Multiculturalism.
Postman references several people’s thoughts on the gods of Technology:
Dr. Ravitch who presents us with little Eva as the ideal little girl who is sleepless and decides to tune into a channel to learn Algebra and young John who decides he would like to learn the history of Japan. Postman disagrees with this ideology, as he believes that Dr. Ravitch is full of crap because little Eva and young John would never wake up yearning to learn more but instead want to tune into SkinaMax, (just kidding, the Disney Channel) since both their parents are asleep. Ravitch believes that this mode of education offers equal access to all, however, Fulghum’s book refutes this because he identifies skills not addressed in this type of learning: sharing, playing fair, flushing, and not hitting people. Postman half-heartedly disagrees by commenting that children don’t learn all these skills in kindergarten but throughout several years of schooling. Thus, the reason children should not learn in isolation.
Hugh McIntosh: Presented three scenarios, which envision those who are tired of reality and move toward virtual reality.
· Chatting with a scientist to receive expert assistance for science class/homework
· Virtual labs
· Computer simulation to design life forms
Postman disagreed with the views of McIntosh and believed a technology solution to a psychological problem is more like “therapy.”

Bottom line to this chapter is that the information is out there, the desire to gather the most information is present, and however, people don’t know what to do with it.

This chapter was the most interesting to us as it dealt a great deal with technology. We agreed with several points made, however, they were all made by different people. Those points included:
· Learning should not take place in isolation
· Technology does allow for equal access to more people
· Schooling provides the learning of skills needed by children over a period of years
On the contrary, we do believe that there are those children who possess an innate desire to learn without being directed to, and, therefore, can learn independently. It’s not necessarily a new species of child.
Concluding point: There is a lot of technology out there, using it in moderation is key.

Chapter 4: Gods That May Serve
“Why do birds suddenly appear…?” (Did anyone else think of this song when you read the first line of this chapter?)
Postman identifies and describes 5 narratives in this chapter.
1. Spaceship Earth: the responsibility of taking care of earth. “The caretakers of a vulnerable space capsule.”
2. Fallen Angel: we are born imperfect. The example given was the concentration camp of Auschwitz, Poland; when man aspires to possess the knowledge of the gods, or arrogance and dogmatism overpowers man, it leads to evil deeds.
3. American Experiment: Is described as continuous question to help form, maintain, and preserve a nation. Students are taught in school to take part in the great experiment by learning how to argue, learning to decide which questions are worth arguing about, and learning what happens when the arguing stops. Postman mentions that when arguing halts, blood flows.
4. Law of Diversity: This narrative emphasizes the common core of knowledge about other people thus creating intelligent humans.
5. The Word Weavers/The World Makers: This chapter discussed the importance of language and the role it plays in identifying our moral standing. Postman also sees language as a way to transform the world. (However, here he mentions that America is more apt to adopting other words or creating new words quite often, while other nations are not necessarily following suit).

When considering this last chapter, we asked ourselves a question posed in the Postman reading: Can we use them to provide an end - that is, a purpose - to schooling? We tend to agree with only a couple of the narratives. The American Experiment and the Law of Diversity had for us the most solid cases. Word Weavers/World Makers had some valid points. We felt that the American Experiment and the Law of Diversity encouraged a deep craving for learning and questioning what has already been established as fact. If indeed, we settle on accepting what has been established as fact, and then all we do is memorize those facts. If we learn to question and investigate, we continue to grow and to discover. This applies to the Law of Diversity, as well, as we discover the greatness of the world around us and the people in it. In the Word Weavers/World Makers narrative language is referred to as “God’s greatest gift to humanity.” We believe that language is a gift, and that it helps to make us who we are and should therefore be a basis for schooling.

Final thoughts (Not just Jerry gets those): We felt that Postman had many valid points presented, however, his support tended to be a bit far fetched and ludicrous at times. Therefore, just at the point when we both felt he was leading towards something concrete and substantial, he would lose us at the mention of a spaceship or a child from Mars. We both felt that his arguments were disjointed and discombobulated making us feel that way while reading his book.

Marcy and Kerri

Welcome

This semester in ET690 Educational Technology Seminar at Loyola College, two grdauate students will be blogging about the readings, which include three books by authors who are critical of technology in the classroom. I invite everyone to respond to their blog entries with civil and respectful posts in an attempt to promote a dialogue about appropriate and inappropriate uses of technology in the classroom. The three books that we are reading this semester are:

Postman, Neil. (1995). The end of education: Redefining the value of school. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Oppenheimer, Todd. (2004). The flickering mind: Saving education from the false promise of technology. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Roszak, Theodore. (1994). The cult of information: A neo-luddite treatise on high-tech, artificial intelligence, and the true art of thinking, 2nd Ed. New York: Pantheon.

I hope that this blog will help to launch a broad discussion on the issues discussed in these books.

For more information about the seminar, please visit the class Web site at: http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/facstaff/marcovitz/Et690/

Sincerely,

David Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education
Loyola College in Maryland
http://www.marcovitz.com/