Summary of Neil Postman's The End of Education

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 A god to serve does not necessarily mean the God who is supposed to have created the world and whose moral commandments are presented in sacred texts. In the Western world, beginning in the thirteenth century, God was sufficient justification for the founding of institutions of learning.
#2 We cannot do without gods. We are the god-making species. Our genius lies in our capacity to make meaning through the creation of narratives that give point to our labors, exalt our history, and give direction to our future.
#3 The most comprehensive narratives are found in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita. But beginning in the sixteenth century, there began to emerge narratives of a different sort, such as inductive science.
#4 The science-god is a powerful god that has given people a great deal of control over their lives. It is, however, imperfect. Its story of how everything began is, to say the least, unsatisfying. And its moral instruction is silence.

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Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822506343
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Neil Postman's The End of Education
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

A god to serve does not necessarily mean the God who is supposed to have created the world and whose moral commandments are presented in sacred texts. In the Western world, beginning in the thirteenth century, God was sufficient justification for the founding of institutions of learning.

#2

We cannot do without gods. We are the god-making species. Our genius lies in our capacity to make meaning through the creation of narratives that give point to our labors, exalt our history, and give direction to our future.

#3

The most comprehensive narratives are found in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita. But beginning in the sixteenth century, there began to emerge narratives of a different sort, such as inductive science.

#4

The science-god is a powerful god that has given people a great deal of control over their lives. It is, however, imperfect. Its story of how everything began is, to say the least, unsatisfying. And its moral instruction is silence.

#5

All gods are imperfect, even dangerous. If you don’t have any gods to serve, you may commit suicide, encase yourself in an impenetrable egoism, or take whatever pleasure is to be found in random violence.

#6

The proliferation of theme parks is a response to the lack of meaning in modern life. It allows people to live out their fantasy of being in a world where a powerful narrative once held sway, and gives them a reason to live in the absence of that narrative.

#7

There have been other narratives that have served to give guidance and inspiration to people, and especially to give purpose to schooling. One of them is the Protestant ethic, which claims that hard work and a disciplined capacity to delay gratification are the surest path toward earning God’s favor.

#8

The American school I went to taught me the American Creed, but also the Jewish one. The American stories I learned did not conflict with the Jewish ones, and they were both shared by my tribal family.

#9

The melting pot metaphor was not entirely satisfactory, as it was argued in 1915 that America was being enriched by the contributions of immigrants, but that they would not abandon their tribal identities.

#10

Public education, in its essence, is the creation of a public. And in creating the right kind of public, the schools contribute toward strengthening the spiritual basis of the American Creed.

#11

The last century has not been good for gods. Darwin revealed that we are not the children of God, but of monkeys. Freud showed that the god of Reason, whose authority was certified by the Age of Enlightenment, was a great imposter.

#12

America’s better gods have been badly wounded. America has moved toward being an empire, and its great story of liberal democracy has lost much of its luster.

#13

The American dream is a nightmare for many African Americans, who continue to believe in America’s promises and its great narratives. Too many other groups, however, have been blocked from sharing in the promise of America because of their race or native language.

#14

The god of Consumership has failed to provide us with a sense of transcendental responsibility, archetypal wisdom, good taste, courage, and faith. We are searching for new gods who can provide us with these things.

#15

The decline of sacred symbols is especially visible in the trivial uses to which they are put in America. The majority of educators have ignored the question of how this affects the education system, focusing instead on the engineering of learning.

#16

The first narrative is the god of Economic Utility, which believes that the purpose of schooling is to prepare students for competent entry into the economic life of a community.