Neil Postman

At 72 years old, Neil Postman physical status not available right now. We will update Neil Postman's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Neil Postman (1931-September 5, 2003) was an American author, scholar, and cultural critic who is best known for his 20 books, including Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), Conscientious Objections (1992), and The End of Education: Redefining the Value of Education (1995).

On education

Postman collaborated with New Rochelle educator Alan Shapiro in the establishment of a model school based on the principles of Teaching as a Subversive Activity in 1969 and 1970. Postman and co-author Charles Weingartner's Teaching as a Subversive Activity report that many schools have curricula that are unnecessary and irrelevant to students' lives. The result of Postman and Weingartner's analysis of Teaching as a Subversive Activity was the "Program for Inquiry, Involvement, and Independent Research" at New Rochelle High School. This "open school" experiment lasted for 15 years, and in subsequent years, many programs following these principles were introduced in American high schools; current survivors include Walter Koral's language class at the Village School in Great Neck, New York;

In a 1973 address, "The Ecology of Learning," at the Conference on English Education, Postman proposed seven changes for schools that expand on his theories of Teaching as a Subversive Function. First, Postman suggested that schools be "convivial societies" for learning rather than places that try to monitor students by judgement and punishment. Secondly, he suggested that schools should either abandon or significantly alter grading policies that result in school competition rather than a culture of learning. He also recommended that homogeneous student groups that perpetuate socioeconomic and economic injustice, uniformed assessments that foster learning, and permanent student records that are used to discipline and monitor students be banned. Prosecutors, he said that businesses and vocational schools, rather than K-12 schools, should establish criteria for selecting students, and that schools should concentrate on civic education, which instills citizenship.

Postman shifted from teaching as a Subversive Activity later in his career with the publication of Teaching as a Conserving Activity. Schools should act as a counter to popular culture dominated by television, according to Postman, who argued for a strong emphasis on literacy education. In addition, a postman suggested that teachers must be differentiated from students in terms of clothing and speech, as well as providing an alternative role model for children. The Postman was worried about the demise of the culture caused by technology, and saw education as a way of preserving core cultural beliefs.

In a television interview conducted in 1995 on PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Postman discussed his resistance to the use of personal computers in classrooms. Schools, according to him, were a place to learn as a group and that no such technology could be used for personalized learning. A postman was also concerned that the personal computer would deviate from people socializing as citizens and human beings.

Source