Neil Postman | |
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| Born | (1931-03-08)March 8, 1931 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | October 5, 2003(2003-10-05) (aged 72) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, professor |
| Education | State University of New York at Fredonia Columbia University |
| Period | 1959–2003 |
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| Spouse | Shelley Ross |
| Children | 3, includingMarc |
Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, educator,media theorist andcultural critic, who eschewed digital technology, includingpersonal computers andmobile devices, and was critical of the use of personal computers in schools.[1] He is best known for twenty books regarding technology and education, includingTeaching as a Subversive Activity (1970),The Disappearance of Childhood (1982),Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985),Conscientious Objections (1988),Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992) andThe End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).
Postman was born in New York City, where he spent most of his life.[2] In 1953, he graduated from theState University of New York at Fredonia and enlisted in the military but was released less than five months later.[3] AtTeachers College, Columbia University, he was awarded a master's degree in 1955 and anEd.D. (Doctor of Education) degree in 1958.[4] Postman took a position withSan Francisco State University's English Department in 1958.[3] Soon after, in 1959, he began teaching atNew York University (NYU).[4]
In 1971, at NYU'sSteinhardt School of Education, he founded a graduate program inmedia ecology. He became the School of Education's only University Professor in 1993, and was chairman of the Department of Culture and Communication until 2002.[4]
Postman received an honorary doctorate from Brigham Young University in 2000.[5]
Postman died at age 72 of lung cancer at a hospital inFlushing, Queens, on October 5, 2003. At the time, he had been married to his wife, Shelley Ross Postman, for 48 years. They had three children and were longtime residents of Flushing.[4]
| External videos | |
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 "Life and Career of Neil Postman", January 14, 1988,C-SPAN |
Postman wrote 20 books and more than 200 articles in academic and popular publications includingThe New York Times Magazine,The Atlantic Monthly,Harper's Magazine,Time,Saturday Review,Harvard Educational Review,The Washington Post,Los Angeles Times,Stern andLe Monde. He was the editor of the quarterly journalETC: A Review of General Semantics from 1976 to 1986. In 1976, Postman taught a course for NYU credit onCBS-TV'sSunrise Semester called "Communication: the Invisible Environment".[6] He was also a contributing editor atThe Nation. Several[citation needed] of his articles were reprinted after his death in the quarterly journal,ETC: A Review of General Semantics as part of a 75th anniversary edition in October 2013.[7]
In 1969 and 1970, Postman collaborated with theNew Rochelle educatorAlan Shapiro on the development of a model school based on the principles expressed inTeaching as a Subversive Activity.[8] InTeaching as a Subversive Activity, Postman and co-author Charles Weingartner suggest that many schools have curricula that are trivial and irrelevant to students' lives.[9] The result of Postman and Weingartner's critiques inTeaching as a Subversive Activity was the "Program for Inquiry, Involvement, and Independent Study" withinNew Rochelle High School.[8] This "open school" experiment survived for 15 years and in subsequent years many programs following these principles were developed in American high schools; current[when?] survivors include Walter Koral's language class at theVillage School[10] inGreat Neck, New York.
In a 1973 address, "The Ecology of Learning", at the Conference on English Education, Postman proposed seven changes for schools that build on his critiques expressed inTeaching as a Subversive Activity.[11] First, Postman proposed that schools should be "convivial communities" for learning rather than places that try to control students through judgment and punishment. Secondly, he suggested that schools should either discard or dramatically change grading practices that lead to competition in school rather than an attitude of learning. He also proposed getting rid of homogeneous groupings of students that reinforce social and economic inequalities,standardized tests that promote competition and permanently kept student records that are used to punish and control students. Proactively, he suggested that industries and professional schools, rather than K-12 schools, should develop criteria for selecting students and that schools should focus oncivic education that teaches students their rights as citizens.[12]
Later in his career, Postman moved away from his work inTeaching as a Subversive Activity with the publication ofTeaching as a Conserving Activity.[13] In it Postman calls for schools to act as a counter to popular culture dominated by television and highlighted the need for an emphasis on literacy education.[14] Postman also argued for the need of teachers to separate themselves from students in dress and speech, offering an alternative role model for children. Postman was concerned with the degradation of the culture caused by technology and saw education as a means of conserving important cultural ideas.
In a television interview conducted in 1995 onPBS'sMacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Postman spoke about his opposition to the use of personal computers in schools. He felt that school was a place to learn together as a cohesive group and that it should not be used for individualized learning. Postman also worried that the personal computer was going to take away from individuals socializing as citizens and human beings.[15]
One of Postman's most influential works isAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. InAmusing, Postman argued that by expressing ideas through visual imagery, television reduces politics, news, history and other serious topics to entertainment.[3] He worried that culture would decline if the people became an audience and their public business a "vaudeville act". He also argued that television is destroying the "serious and rational public conversation" that was sustained for centuries by theprinting press. Rather than the restricted information inGeorge Orwell's1984, he claimed the flow of distraction we experience is akin toAldous Huxley'sBrave New World.
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| External videos | |
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| Booknotes interview with Postman onTechnopoly, August 30, 1992,C-SPAN |
In his 1992 bookTechnopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology, Postman defines "technopoly" as a society which believes "the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment ... and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts".[16][page needed]
In aC-SPAN interview, Postman describedTechnopoly as "the tendency in American culture to turn over to technology sovereignty, command, control over all of our social institutions."[17]
Postman argued that the United States is the only country to have developed into a technopoly. He claimed that the U.S. has been inundated withtechnophiles who do not see the downside of technology. This is dangerous because technophiles want more technology and thus more information. However, according to Postman, it is impossible for a technological innovation to have only a one-sided effect. With the ever-increasing amount of information available, Postman argues that: "Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of even mundane problems."[16]: 80
Postman was not opposed to all forms of technology. InTechnopoly, he agrees that technological advancements, specifically "the telephone,ocean liners, and especially the reign ofhygiene", have lengthened and improved modern life.[16]: 7 In his words, this agreement proves that he is not a "one-eyed technophobe".[16]: 7
InTechnopoly, Postman discussesLuddism, explaining that being aLuddite often is associated with a naive opposition to technology. But, according to Postman, historical Luddites were trying to preserve their way of life and rights given to them prior to the advancement of new technologies.
| External videos | |
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| Presentation by Postman onBuilding a Bridge to the 18th Century, December 1, 1999 |
