Teaching As a Subversive Activity

A dud. Postman matured immensely between 1969 when this book was published and 1985, when "Amusing Ourselves to Death" was published. Even in 1967 he could still write a few isolated good paragraphs, though. A later book, "The End of Education", published in the '90s, is far more a typical Postman book.

Whoops! This book made me think about how I ought to have taught the last time I was employed to teach, so it wasn't a dead loss.

Postman takes aim at education, proving that education has been terrible since the 60s and, from my experience, has possibly gotten worse. I wish I was still teaching so that I could implement his theories. Though the administrative authorities and boards would dislike it because it might make their jobs irrelevant.

So sensible it's still radical almost 40 years after publication, this is a provocative read for anyone interested or involved in education. The authors' model stresses the importance of children learning to think for themselves in a wide range of ways, instead of learning material by heart in a vacuum of context and meaning.

Reviewed by Mr. Janda (Social Studies)
Feel like things are going wrong in the world of public education? Want to create a revolution, or at least reform? Want some ideas for how to completely change things in your classroom? This book is a must-read. I read it for the first time almost 10 years ago and re-read it this summer. Amazing how much hasn’t changed.

A new educator must be centrally concerned with the hearts and minds of learners: teach them how to ask, and answer, questions they find important. That is what learning is for.

As a recruiting book, this does have the snappy title for the late 1960's. And, so far as i remember it...it does explain what does happen, for good or ill, in classrooms.

Required reading for Eckerd College freshmen entering 1975.