Book Report: Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman
APRIL 15, 2008 - GET FREE UPDATES OF NEW POSTS HERE
With so much discussion about my education post last week on education I thought many people would enjoy reading my summary of Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman. I got this book from Jared and must say it’s one of my favorite books of all-time. I included a lot of details because there was so much juicy stuff from this. If you make it all the way through I promise you it’ll be worth it. (A SECOND BLOG post appeared a week earlier)
CLICK HERE to read the full reportThe poster here is inspired by an incident.
Isa Greppi's son texted this message to her in 2012 go tohttp://www.50YearsofsubversiveTeaching.blogspot.com and download the free ebook. www.TINYURL.com/postmanquestions
These questions appear in Chapter 5 of Postman's book
Reflect on these questions - and others that these can generate. Please do
not merely react to them.
What do you worry about most?
What do you worry about most?
What are the causes of your worries?
Can any of your worries be eliminated? How?
Which of them might you deal with first? How do you decide?
Are there other people with the same problems? How do you know? How
can you find out?
If you had an important idea that you wanted to let everyone (in the
world) know about, how might you go about letting them know?
What bothers you most about adults? Why?
How do you want to be similar to or different from adults you know when
you become an adult?
What, if anything, seems to you to be worth dying for?
How did you come to believe this?
What seems worth living for?
How did you come to believe this?
At the present moment, what would you most like to be - or be able to do?
Why? What would you have to know in order to be able to do it? What would you have to do in order to get to know it?
How can you tell 'good guys' from 'bad guys'?
How can 'good' be distinguished from 'evil'?
What kind of a person would you most like to be? How might you get to
be this kind of person?
At the present moment, what would you most like to be doing?
Five years from now? Ten years from now? Why? What might you have to
do to realize these hopes? What might you have to give up in order to do some or all of these things?
When you hear or read or observe something, how do you know what it means?
Where does meaning 'come from'?
What does 'meaning' mean?
How can you tell what something 'is' or whether it is?
Where do words come from?
Where do symbols come from?
Why do symbols change?
Where does knowledge come from?
What do you think are sane of man's most important ideas?
Where did they come from? Why? How? Now what?
What's a 'good idea'?
How do you know when a good or live idea becomes a bad or dead idea? Which of man's ideas would we be better off forgetting? How do you
decide?
Can any of your worries be eliminated? How?
Which of them might you deal with first? How do you decide?
Are there other people with the same problems? How do you know? How
can you find out?
If you had an important idea that you wanted to let everyone (in the
world) know about, how might you go about letting them know?
What bothers you most about adults? Why?
How do you want to be similar to or different from adults you know when
you become an adult?
What, if anything, seems to you to be worth dying for?
How did you come to believe this?
What seems worth living for?
How did you come to believe this?
At the present moment, what would you most like to be - or be able to do?
Why? What would you have to know in order to be able to do it? What would you have to do in order to get to know it?
How can you tell 'good guys' from 'bad guys'?
How can 'good' be distinguished from 'evil'?
What kind of a person would you most like to be? How might you get to
be this kind of person?
At the present moment, what would you most like to be doing?
Five years from now? Ten years from now? Why? What might you have to
do to realize these hopes? What might you have to give up in order to do some or all of these things?
When you hear or read or observe something, how do you know what it means?
Where does meaning 'come from'?
What does 'meaning' mean?
How can you tell what something 'is' or whether it is?
Where do words come from?
Where do symbols come from?
Why do symbols change?
Where does knowledge come from?
What do you think are sane of man's most important ideas?
Where did they come from? Why? How? Now what?
What's a 'good idea'?
How do you know when a good or live idea becomes a bad or dead idea? Which of man's ideas would we be better off forgetting? How do you
decide?
What is 'progress'?
What is 'change'?
What are the most obvious causes of change? What are the least apparent?
What conditions are necessary in order for change to occur?
What kinds of changes are going on right now? Which are important? How
are they similar to or different from other changes that have occurred? What are the relationships between new ideas and change?
Where do new ideas come from? How come? So what?
If you wanted to stop one of the changes going on now (pick one), how
would you go about it? What consequences would you have to consider?
Of the important changes going on in our society, which should be encouraged and which resisted? Why? How? What are the most important changes that have occurred in the past ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? In the last year? In the last six months? Last month? What will be the most important changes next month? Next year? Next decade? How can you tell? So what?
What would you change if you could? How might you go about it? Of those changes, which are going, to occur, which would you stop if you could? Why? How? So what?
Who do you think has the most important things to say today? To whom? How? Why?
What are the dumbest and more dangerous ideas that are 'popular' today? Why do you think so? Where did these ideas come from?
What are the conditions necessary for life to survive? Plants? Animals? Humans?
Which of these conditions are necessary for all life
Which ones for plants? Which ones for animals? Which ones for humans? What are the greatest threats to all forms of life? To plants? To animals?
To humans?
What are some of the 'strategies' living things use to survive'? Which unique to plants? Which unique to animals? Which unique to
humans?
What kinds of human survival strategies are (1) similar to those of animals
and plants; (2) different from animals and plants?
What does man's language permit him to develop as survival strategies that
animals cannot develop?
How might man's survival activities be different from what they are if he
did not have language?
What other 'languages' does man have besides those consisting of words?
What is 'change'?
What are the most obvious causes of change? What are the least apparent?
What conditions are necessary in order for change to occur?
What kinds of changes are going on right now? Which are important? How
are they similar to or different from other changes that have occurred? What are the relationships between new ideas and change?
Where do new ideas come from? How come? So what?
If you wanted to stop one of the changes going on now (pick one), how
would you go about it? What consequences would you have to consider?
Of the important changes going on in our society, which should be encouraged and which resisted? Why? How? What are the most important changes that have occurred in the past ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? In the last year? In the last six months? Last month? What will be the most important changes next month? Next year? Next decade? How can you tell? So what?
What would you change if you could? How might you go about it? Of those changes, which are going, to occur, which would you stop if you could? Why? How? So what?
Who do you think has the most important things to say today? To whom? How? Why?
What are the dumbest and more dangerous ideas that are 'popular' today? Why do you think so? Where did these ideas come from?
What are the conditions necessary for life to survive? Plants? Animals? Humans?
Which of these conditions are necessary for all life
Which ones for plants? Which ones for animals? Which ones for humans? What are the greatest threats to all forms of life? To plants? To animals?
To humans?
What are some of the 'strategies' living things use to survive'? Which unique to plants? Which unique to animals? Which unique to
humans?
What kinds of human survival strategies are (1) similar to those of animals
and plants; (2) different from animals and plants?
What does man's language permit him to develop as survival strategies that
animals cannot develop?
How might man's survival activities be different from what they are if he
did not have language?
What other 'languages' does man have besides those consisting of words?
What functions do these 'languages' serve? Why and how do they
originate? Can you invent a new one? How might you start?
What would happen, what difference would it make, what would man not be able to do if he had no number (mathematical) languages?
How many symbol systems does man have? How come? So what? What are some good symbols? Some bad?
What good symbols could we use that we do not have?
What bad symbols do we have that we'd be better off without?
What's worth knowing? How do you decide? What are some ways to go
about getting to know what's worth knowing?
It is necessary for us to say at once that these questions are not intended to present a catechism for the new education. These are samples and illustrations of the kinds of questions we think worth answering. Our set of questions is best regarded as a metaphor of our sense of relevance. If you took the trouble to list your own questions, it is quite possible that you prefer many of them to ours. Good enough. The new education is a process and will not suffer from the applied imaginations of all who wish to be a part of it. But in evaluating your own questions, as well as ours, bear in mind that there are certain standards that must be used. These standards may also be stated in the form of questions:
Will your questions increase the learner's will as well as his capacity to learn?
Will they help to give him a sense of joy in learning?
Will they help to provide the learner's with confidence in his ability to learn?
In order to get answers, will the learner be required to make inquiries? (Ask further questions, clarify terms, make observations, classify data, etc.?)
Does each question allow for alternative answers (which implies alternative modes of inquiry)
Will the process of answering the questions tend to stress the uniqueness of the learner?
Would the questions produce different answers if asked at different stages of the learner's development?
Will the answers help the learner to sense and understand the universals in the human condition and so enhance his ability to draw closer to other people?
If the answers to these questions about your list of questions are all. Yes, then you are to be congratulated for insisting upon extremely high standards
What would happen, what difference would it make, what would man not be able to do if he had no number (mathematical) languages?
How many symbol systems does man have? How come? So what? What are some good symbols? Some bad?
What good symbols could we use that we do not have?
What bad symbols do we have that we'd be better off without?
What's worth knowing? How do you decide? What are some ways to go
about getting to know what's worth knowing?
It is necessary for us to say at once that these questions are not intended to present a catechism for the new education. These are samples and illustrations of the kinds of questions we think worth answering. Our set of questions is best regarded as a metaphor of our sense of relevance. If you took the trouble to list your own questions, it is quite possible that you prefer many of them to ours. Good enough. The new education is a process and will not suffer from the applied imaginations of all who wish to be a part of it. But in evaluating your own questions, as well as ours, bear in mind that there are certain standards that must be used. These standards may also be stated in the form of questions:
Will your questions increase the learner's will as well as his capacity to learn?
Will they help to give him a sense of joy in learning?
Will they help to provide the learner's with confidence in his ability to learn?
In order to get answers, will the learner be required to make inquiries? (Ask further questions, clarify terms, make observations, classify data, etc.?)
Does each question allow for alternative answers (which implies alternative modes of inquiry)
Will the process of answering the questions tend to stress the uniqueness of the learner?
Would the questions produce different answers if asked at different stages of the learner's development?
Will the answers help the learner to sense and understand the universals in the human condition and so enhance his ability to draw closer to other people?
If the answers to these questions about your list of questions are all. Yes, then you are to be congratulated for insisting upon extremely high standards
in education. If that seems an unusual compliment, it is only because we
have all become accustomed to a conception and a hierarchy of standards
that, in our opinion, is learner's simultaneously upside-down and irrelevant.
From Neil Postman's book Teaching as a Subversive Activity
From Neil Postman's book Teaching as a Subversive Activity
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Welcome to the Online Conference to Celebrate 50 Years of Subversive Teaching. Please send suggestions to ManyPosters@gmail.com. Download the workbook to help your students answer Neil Postman's questions http://www.TINYURL.com/boiseworkbook2