Teaching As a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman (PDF)

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A no-holds-barred assault on outdated teaching methods—with dramatic and practical proposals on how education can be made relevant to today’s world.Praise for Teaching As a Subversive Activity“A healthy dose of Postman and Weingartner is a good thing: if they make even a dent in the pious . . . American classroom, the book will be worthwhile.”—New York Times Book Review “Teaching and knowledge are subversive in that they necessarily substitute awareness for guesswork, and knowledge for experience. Experience is no use in the world of Apollo 8. It is simply necessary to know. However, it is also necessary to know the effect of Apollo 8 in creating a new Global Theatre in which student and teacher alike are looking for roles. Postman and Weingartner make excellent theatrical producers in the new Global Theatre.”—Marshall McLuhan “It will take courage to read this book . . . but those who are asking honest questions—what’s wrong with the worlds in which we live, how do we build communication bridges cross the Generation Gap, what do they want from us?—these people will squirm in the discovery that the answers are really within themselves.”—Saturday Review “Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner go beyond the now-familiar indictments of American education to propose basic ways of liberating both teachers and students from becoming personnel rather than people . . . the authors have created what may become a primer of ‘the new education’ Their book is intended for anyone, teacher or not, who is concerned with sanity and survival in a world of precipitously rapid change, and it’s worth your reading.”—Playboy “This challenging, liberating book can unlock not only teachers but anyone for whom language and learning are not dead.”—Nat Hentoff

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “A healthy dose of Postman and Weingartner is a good thing: if they make even a dent in the pious . . . American classroom, the book will be worthwhile.”—New York Times Book Review “Teaching and knowledge are subversive in that they necessarily substitute awareness for guesswork, and knowledge for experience. Experience is no use in the world of Apollo 8. It is simply necessary to know. However, it is also necessary to know the effect of Apollo 8 in creating a new Global Theatre in which student and teacher alike are looking for roles. Postman and Weingartner make excellent theatrical producers in the new Global Theatre.”—Marshall McLuhan “It will take courage to read this book . . . but those who are asking honest questions—what’s wrong with the worlds in which we live, how do we build communication bridges cross the Generation Gap, what do they want from us?—these people will squirm in the discovery that the answers are really within themselves.”—Saturday Review “Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner go beyond the now-familiar indictments of American education to propose basic ways of liberating both teachers and students from becoming personnel rather than people . . . the authors have created what may become a primer of ‘the new education’ Their book is intended for anyone, teacher or not, who is concerned with sanity and survival in a world of precipitously rapid change, and it’s worth your reading.”—Playboy “This challenging, liberating book can unlock not only teachers but anyone for whom language and learning are not dead.”—Nat Hentoff About the Author Neil Postman was a University Professor, the Paulette Goddard Chair of Media Ecology, and the chair of the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, all at New York University. Among his 20 books are studies of childhood (The Disappearance of Childhood); public discourse (Amusing Ourselves to Death); education (Teaching as a Subversive Activity and The End of Education); and the impact of technology (Technopoly). His interest in education was long-standing, beginning with his experience as an elementary and secondary school teacher. He died in 2003. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction THIS BOOK is based on two assumptions of ours. One, it seems to us, is indisputable; the other, highly questionable. We refer to the beliefs that (a) in general, the survival of our society is threatened by an increasing number of unprecedented and, to date, insoluble problems; and (b) that something can be done to improve the situation. If you do not know which of these is indisputable and which questionable, you have just finished reading this book. If you do, we do not need to document in great detail assumption (a). We do want, however, to remind you of some of the problems we currently face and then to explain briefly why we have not outgrown the hope that many of them can be minimized if not eliminated through a new approach to education. One can begin almost anywhere in compiling a list of problems that, taken together and left unresolved, mean disaster for us and our children. For example, the number one health problem in the United States is mental illness: there are more Americans suffering from mental illness than from all other forms of illness combined. Of almost equal magnitude is the crime problem. It is advancing rapidly on many fronts, from delinquency among affluent adolescents to frauds perpetrated by some of our richest corporations. Another is the suicide problem. Are you aware that suicide is the second most common cause of death among adolescents? Or how about the problem of “damaged” children? The most common cause of infant mortality in the United States is parental beating. Still another problem concerns misinformation—commonly referred to as “the credibility gap” or “news management.” The misinformation problem takes a variety of forms, such as lies, clichés, and rumors, and implicates almost everybody, including the President of the United States. Many of these problems are related to, or at least seriously affected by, the communications revolution, which, having taken us unawares, has ignited the civil-rights problem, unleashed the electronic-bugging problem, and made visible the sex problem, to say nothing of the drug problem. Then we have the problems stemming from the population explosion, which include the birth-control problem, the abortion problem, the housing problem, the parking problem, and the food and water-supply problem. You may have noticed that almost all of these problems are related to “progress,” a somewhat paradoxical manifestation that has also resulted in the air-pollution problem, the water-pollution problem, the garbage-disposal problem, the radioactivity problem, the megalopolis problem, the supersonic-jet-noise problem, the traffic problem, the who-am-I problem, and the what-does-it-all-mean problem. Stay one more paragraph, for we must not omit alluding to the international scene: the Bomb problem, the Vietnam problem, the Red China problem, the Cuban problem, the Middle East problem, the foreign-aid problem, the national-defense problem, and a mountain of others mostly thought of as stemming from the communist-conspiracy problem. Now, there is one problem under which all of the foregoing may be subsumed. It is the “What, if anything, can we do about these problems?” problem, and that is exactly what this book tries to be about. This book was written because we are serious, dedicated, professional educators, which means that we are simple, romantic men who risk contributing to the mental-health problem by maintaining a belief in the improvability of the human condition through education. We are not so simple and romantic as to believe that all of the problems we have enumerated are susceptible to solution—through education or anything else. But some can be solved, and perhaps more directly through education than any other means. School, after all, is the one institution in our society that is inflicted on everybody, and what happens in school makes a difference—for good or ill. We use the word “inflicted” because we believe that the way schools are currently conducted does very little, and quite probably nothing, to enhance our chances of mutual survival; that is, to help us solve any or even some of the problems we have mentioned. One way of representing the present condition of our educational system is as follows: It is as if we are driving a multimillion dollar sports car, screaming, “Faster! Faster!” while peering fixedly into the rearview mirror. It is an awkward way to try to tell where we are, much less where we are going, and it has been sheer dumb luck that we have not smashed ourselves to bits—so far. We have paid almost exclusive attention to the car, equipping it with all sorts of fantastic gadgets and an engine that will propel it at ever increasing speeds, but we seem to have forgotten where we wanted to go in it. Obviously, we are in for a helluva jolt. The question is not whether, but when. It is the thesis of this book that change—constant, accelerating, ubiquitous—is the most striking characteristic of the world we live in and that our educational system has not yet recognized this fact. We maintain, further, that the abilities and attitudes required to deal adequately with change are those of the highest priority and that it is not beyond our ingenuity to design school environments which can help young people to master concepts necessary to survival in a rapidly changing world. The institution we call “school” is what it is because we made it that way. If it is irrelevant, as Marshall McLuhan says; if it shields children from reality, as Norbert Wiener says; if it educates for obsolescence, as John Gardner says; if it does not develop intelligence, as Jerome Bruner says; if it is based on fear, as John Holt says; if it avoids the promotion of significant learnings, as Carl Rogers says; if it induces alienation, as Paul Goodman says; if it punishes creativity and independence, as Edgar Friedenberg says; if, in short, it is not doing what needs to be done, it can be changed; it must be changed. It can be changed, we believe, because there are so many wise men who, in one way or another, have offered us clear, intelligent, and new ideas to use, and as long as these ideas and the alternatives they suggest are available, there is no reason to abandon hope. We have mentioned some of these men above. We will allude to, explicate, or otherwise use the ideas of still others throughout this book. For example, Alfred Korzybski, I. A. Richards, Adelbert Ames, Earl Kelley, Alan Watts. All of these men have several things in common. They are almost all “romantics,” which is to say they believe that the human situation is improvable through intelligent innovation. They are all courageous and imaginative thinkers, which means they are beyond the constricting intimidation of conventional assumptions. They all have tried to deal with contemporary problems, which means they can tell the difference between an irrelevant, dead idea and a relevant, viable one. And finally, most of them are not usually thought of as educators. This last is extremely important, since it reveals another critical assumption of ours: namely, that within the “Educational Establishment” there are insufficient daring and vigorous ideas on which to build a new approach to education. One must look to men whose books would rarely be used, or even thought of, in education courses, and would not be listed under the subject “Education” in libraries. So, whatever else its shortcomings, this book will be different from most other books on education. It was not our intention to be different. It just worked out that way because there are so few men currently working as professional educators who have anything germane to say about changing our educational system to fit present realities. Almost all of them deal with qualitative problems in quantitative terms, and, in doing so, miss the point. The fact is that our present educational system is not viable and is certainly not capable of generating enough energy to lead to its own revitalization. What is needed is a kind of shock therapy with stimulation supplied by other, living sources. And this is what we try to do. For us, McLuhan’s Understanding Media, Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings, Rogers’ On Becoming a Person, Korzybski’s Science and Sanity, even Richards’ Practical Criticism (to name a few) are such sources. In other words, they are “education” books, and, in our opinion, the best kind. We mean by this that these books not only present ideas that are relevant to current reality but that the ideas suggest an entirely different and more relevant conception of education than our schools have so far managed to reflect. This is an education that develops in youth a competence in applying the best available strategies for survival in a world filled with unprecedented troubles, uncertainties, and opportunities. Our task, then, is to make these strategies for survival visible and explicit in the hope that someone somewhere will act on them. NEIL POSTMAN CHARLES WEINGARTNER New York, 1968 Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐See my blog review (also on Goodreads) at bit (dot) ly / 10uErbT [use a period for (dot) and no spaces).Very good book that teachers ought to read. Very stimulating, and though I disagree with some of its emphases and don’t agree with everything it says, particularly on merely “survival” and on being critical of everything because you must be right and authority must be distrusted, I do see that it is a good balance, for many follow blindly a failing curriculum/education paradigm. But for those already hyper-critical of any kind of tradition, one should, naturally be critical of being critical.However, the questions-based approach(es) in the book were well worth the price of admission. The last few chapters were good, though I was not as impressed with the last chapter, where Postman & Weingartner talk about survival as an end in itself, almost in a “Walking Dead” kind of way. We got to do whatever we can to survive, and while that is understandable, life is not just about “mere survival” but we must also address larger questions of purpose, value, morality, right and wrong (though of course, things are not always black and white, as Postman & Weingartner remind us – we don’t live in a binary world).I appreciate Postman & Weingartner’s practical approach, but we must not forget that pragmatics cannot be the only thing that governs how we live, learn, or teach. But to end on a positive note, Postman & Weingartner are right to insist that if students aren’t learning, then the teacher isn’t teaching. There is no such thing as “teaching” in a way that others cannot learn. The student should be the center/focus, not a syllabus or curriculum. And grading is just terrible.Teachers ought to read this and try the practical suggestions that Postman & Weingartner suggest at the end of the book.

⭐Some disciplines (like geology) are inherently geared towards teaching in such a way as to get the students thinking for themselves. Not knowing how to think for yourself has real repercussions if you are out in the field and can’t find your way out of or avert a dangerous situation. Critical thinking and getting students to find their own sense of reasoning is a must in teaching. I realize the term subversive may stir negative connotations, but the author does not mean it in a negative, mean, or harmful way. Rather it comes across as intended to question the teaching style of lecturing without interruption, questions, or feedback from students. A good read for instructors and evaluating how one’s teaching style could be more effective.

⭐Recommended by a friend, so I ordered it for kindle. Within a few pages, the writing style is notable for the use of “he” and “his” for all professionals. Turns out, the book was written in the 1960’s.While the overall thrust of the book is that kids should pretty much determine what they’re taught based on what they think is useful or important or interesting, there are occasional wise insights.Not quite sure it’s worth the time.

⭐If you are an educator or interested in education and/or cognition (and freedom), read this book. Period.

⭐This is a wonderful book for the transformation of life as we know it, on all levels. It should be read with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, and with the works of the Buddha, the Dalai Lama and Lao Tzu. It belongs with the grounding, guiding, orienting, foundational works of humankind. It is a book to be read again and again. Slowly. With underlining and comments in the margins. Seriously.

⭐An excellent critique of and solution for our industrialized educational institutions.It takes the reader/”student” through rediscovering involvement and survival in the “modern” world by asking questions and more questions and seeking answers/information together rather than passively accepting the “lessons” others prepare and then trying to regurgitate the acceptable “answers” on demand. This book proposes a different way to learn – a more natural, interactive and “student” centered approach that promises big results if the instutions are willing to let go of their centralized control and metrics.Following this path will take real courage because it does not fit with any of the popular “solutions” to our longstanding educational crisis, be it in public, private or parochial school systems.

⭐Why didn’t I read this book 10 years ago when I began teaching? Why didn’t enough other folks read this book in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond so that my school experience and my teacher training experience could have been more meaningful? I have marked up the pages of this one with so many thoughts. I will be reflecting, rethinking, and rereading for some time to come.

⭐As relevant today as when it was written over 40+ years ago. In clear, precise and compelling narratives the authors lay out the plan for truly teaching for understanding. As an educator with 45 years of experience in CA public education I can tell you that this text’s ideas worked from first hand experience. One thing I know about teaching and that is that empathy and relationships make for successful and enriching teaching experiences. Without these two variables, teaching is reduced to telling students what to do and what to think! If this is what we want from our public education system, then have at it!

⭐This seems as fresh today as when it was written way back in 1968. It’s about letting students take control of their learning, because if you try and force people to do things they don’t want to, or don’t find useful, it’s a continual uphill struggle. Instead, work with them. It’s people in authority who stop this happening though. They’re scared to give people power.

⭐It is a great read for all those who want to know what is wrong with our modern education system, even though it was published more than 40 years ago.

⭐En los años 70, este lilbro que cuestionaba la utilidad de lo que nos enseñan en las aulas, y proponía un currículum alternativo basado en conocimientos y habilidades que tuvieran un valor real para la vida de los ciudadanos, fue rompedor. Y su originalidad sigue vigente. Toda ministra de educación que se precie debería leerlo y reflexionar sobre lo que propone. Que la palabra “subversivo” no llame a error, en la época el concepto, incluso el mismo cuestionamiento del sistema educativo establecido, era, en efecto, muy subversivo.This is the book that started me off in education and coming back after many years is still so relevant, confusing, stimulating and challenging.

⭐Very good read and as always very relevant even today after years

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