Rating: 
Summary: Great information, not-so-great argument.
Review: This book provides an excellent presentation of how "childhood" has not always been part of our culture. The argument is fairly well presented and argued that print culture helped to create childhood by the time required to achieve literacy.The first chapters outline the emergence of how children emerged from where were once considered only "small adults." The argument that childhood is a product of the printed word and literacy holds together well. What doesn't hold together well are the arguments to preserve the secrets of the world of adults. Certainly there is reasonable concern for what is presented on television but much is omitted in Postman's arguments. But his idyllic late 19th century neglects many of the realities of time that were accepted, considered part of daily life (segregation, racism, abuse, death) and were not (could not) be hidden from children. In his introduction to this edition of the book, written in 1994, he admits he has no answers to the situation. This is partly because he remains focused in McLuhan's "rearview mirror" and does not accept that a new definition of children and adults has long been underway and could very well be a good thing. For example that "children" can, and do, start successful careers in areas such as computer programming --or at least can come to know more than their teachers should suggest that education has to change. Postman seems tied to the many of the outdated tenants education that helped fuel the industrial revolution but are anachronisms in the present day. The fact that the homogenous, structured curriculum of public education doesn't fit the growing range of possibilities of today or that is increasingly focused on testing not thinking. Bottom line... This is another enjoyable work, though not as great as its reputation, especially for those interested in cultural history or the effects of print (literacy) on society.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting subject if viewed as media effect
Review: This book provides an excellent presentation of how "childhood" has not always been part of our culture. The argument is fairly well presented and argued that print culture helped to create childhood by the time required to achieve literacy. The first chapters outline the emergence of how children emerged from where were once considered only "small adults." The argument that childhood is a product of the printed word and literacy holds together well. What doesn't hold together well are the arguments to preserve the secrets of the world of adults. Certainly there is reasonable concern for what is presented on television but much is omitted in Postman's arguments. But his idyllic late 19th century neglects many of the realities of time that were accepted, considered part of daily life (segregation, racism, abuse, death) and were not (could not) be hidden from children. In his introduction to this edition of the book, written in 1994, he admits he has no answers to the situation. This is partly because he remains focused in McLuhan's "rearview mirror" and does not accept that a new definition of children and adults has long been underway and could very well be a good thing. For example that "children" can, and do, start successful careers in areas such as computer programming --or at least can come to know more than their teachers should suggest that education has to change. Postman seems tied to the many of the outdated tenants education that helped fuel the industrial revolution but are anachronisms in the present day. The fact that the homogenous, structured curriculum of public education doesn't fit the growing range of possibilities of today or that is increasingly focused on testing not thinking. Bottom line... This is another enjoyable work, though not as great as its reputation, especially for those interested in cultural history or the effects of print (literacy) on society.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent well-informed read
Review: This book tells it as it is - although written over 15 years ago, the issues covered are as important today as they were then - even more so. I definitely gained a great deal from reading this book and will be reading more by Postman at a later date (I will be starting his technopoly next.) I would recommend this book to all.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent well-informed read
Review: This book tells it as it is - although written over 15 years ago, the issues covered are as important today as they were then - even more so. I definitely gained a great deal from reading this book and will be reading more by Postman at a later date (I will be starting his technopoly next.) I would recommend this book to all.
Rating:
Summary: Vale Neil Postman - Your Books Will Always Provoke
Review: When browsing for other items I saw by happy accident that this book is still available. It's a pleasure to recommend this brilliant piece of argument - that the postmodern world of hyper-communication has erased the passage of development we have hitherto called childhood and replaced the child with the little adult, with access to all the "secrets" of sexuality, risk and pleasurethat once were revealed in a series of steps over time as the young grew to maturity. Postman's message, that technology has not liberated but infantalized society, puts a frame around modern problems of education, child-raising, and loss of meaning. Whatever you make of this book you will not be neutral. It's a superb polemic, and one of my favourite books. Unreservedly recommended to everyone contemplating the raging "culture wars" with confusion.
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