Rating: 
Summary: Interesting perspective!
Review: Postman uses an ambiguous title that reflects the meaning of his book. The "end" may be construed as the purpose or reason for education or the end may represent his concern over the future of public education. For Postman, the survival of public education rests upon its purpose. He suggests that early purposes of education such as democracy, the melting-pot concepts, and Protestant work ethic have been lost. In addition, the "gods" of consumerism and technology have also failed. He suggests that the reader consider his five purposes for education as a means for its survival. These include his belief that education should exist so individuals become responsible for the planet earth. Another is that educators must enable their students to view knowledge in terms of a past and a future. Students must learn that mistakes are a source of learning rather than a fatality. Another is to extend the notion of the "American experiment." A love of country must be taught, and the foundation and arguments upon which this country were built should continue. Schools should teach and respect diversity; diversity should be a point of unification, not division. An understanding of language and its creation of a worldview is another purpose of education. While I found his purposes interesting, I question their being embraced and actually upheld by educators across the country. Nevertheless, Postman presents an interesting perspective!
Rating: 
Summary: Of means and ends : Education redefined
Review: The blurb of the book is interesting enough to make one want to pick it up. And when one does begin the voyage, one realizes immediately that the author isnt talking about the end of education in terms of its being finished, rather he is speaking of the Purpose of education. Once this distinction is made, Postman brilliantly argues about how all of today's educational initiatives in the US are more about the means, and hence do not address any root change in the learning process. He then goes on to categorically define the problems in the first part of the book, and his ideas quite almost leap out of the pages in the second part of the book as he boldly architects a probable scenario of the future of education, in terms of its driving purpose.
In doing so, the author gives numerous examples to illustrate his points of view, while all the while admitting that the book is not an exhaustive list of ideas, rather an exhaustion of his mind! Quite a brilliantly written book that cannot but stop and make the reader think. It would be a very different world if every teacher in high school read this book and implemented just even a small part of it in their teaching and actions. In no ways a negative, it must be noted that Postman's religious beliefs and admiration for the US is thrown into sharp relief in his writings.
Lastly, this book gave me 13 books and 7 authors as a potential list to read up on, the book is verily a rich source of ideas and allows the reader to make his own reading list to explore some of the ideas in depth and reach his/her own path.
Rating:
Summary: The Purpose, or the Termination?
Review: The title End of Education is not as cynical as I had
expected. I had interpreted "End" to mean "finish" although
the book is really more about the "purpose" and
priorities of our schools. Postman makes a well-argued
case for profound changes in our approach to public
education. "The question is not Does or doesn't public schooling
create a public? The question is, What kind of public does
it create?" For me that is the most important premise
in this book, because people who don't understand our
history and our constitution, and who have no critical
thinking skills, are not going to be effective
participants in our democracy. Another important point deals with multiculturalism vs.
cultural pluralism. Postman argues for a "constructive
and unifying use of diversity." American schools need
to create Americans, who appreciate the various cultural
backgrounds that make up our society, but divisiveness
created in the name of multiculturalism is counter-
productive. The first half of this book discusses "gods" or narratives.
"...Teachers must have a god to serve, or, even better
several gods... Without a narrative, life has no meaning.
Without meaning, learning has no purpose." For example,
the god of Consumerism has been partially responsible
to steering our schools off course. Personally, I think
the god metaphor was belabored. "Public education does not serve a public. It creates
a public." That's why schools play a critical role
in the future of our economy and our democracy.
And that's why this is such an important book.
Rating:
Summary: The Purpose, or the Termination?
Review: The title End of Education is not as cynical as I had
expected. I had interpreted "End" to mean "finish" although
the book is really more about the "purpose" and
priorities of our schools. Postman makes a well-argued
case for profound changes in our approach to public
education. "The question is not Does or doesn't public schooling
create a public? The question is, What kind of public does
it create?" For me that is the most important premise
in this book, because people who don't understand our
history and our constitution, and who have no critical
thinking skills, are not going to be effective
participants in our democracy. Another important point deals with multiculturalism vs.
cultural pluralism. Postman argues for a "constructive
and unifying use of diversity." American schools need
to create Americans, who appreciate the various cultural
backgrounds that make up our society, but divisiveness
created in the name of multiculturalism is counter-
productive. The first half of this book discusses "gods" or narratives.
"...Teachers must have a god to serve, or, even better
several gods... Without a narrative, life has no meaning.
Without meaning, learning has no purpose." For example,
the god of Consumerism has been partially responsible
to steering our schools off course. Personally, I think
the god metaphor was belabored. "Public education does not serve a public. It creates
a public." That's why schools play a critical role
in the future of our economy and our democracy.
And that's why this is such an important book.
Rating:
Summary: Profound Thoughts on Path of Education
Review: This profound thinker and writer on some of contemporary culture's hottest issues, i.e. tv, technology and now education, has some very abnormal approaches to viewing the educational scene. He begins by dividing education into a metholodological and a philosophical element, with the methodology gaining all the attention. So, he shifts this, proclaiming that the motivation for education is lacking and this is the problem. We hear little, especially from the educational profession, about why education? We only hear the how. Postmas offers some alternative narratives that would bring this motivation back. He unloads each of them: spaceship earth, fallen angel, american experiment, law of diversity and word makers-world creators. Each of these is profound and intense. Seems to this reader that Postman raises a significant question here, one that not too many others talk about --- why educate in the first place?
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