centuries. He reminds us, for instance, of the concept of tabula rasa: “Locke
wanted education to result in a rich, varied, and copious book; Rousseau wanted
education to result in a healthy flower. … Children are [today seen as] neither blank
tablets nor budding plants. They are markets; that is to say, consumers whose needs for
products are roughly the same as the needs of adults.” Children are not seen as members
of society with special requirements, but just another market segment.
Postman looks at how the nature of education has changed; he points out some
serious short-comings he finds in contemporary educational practices. Viewed from a
slightly different perspective, children are not simply a market segment but a largely
passive audience for an expanding use of technology. And education’s own increasing
reliance on technology poses a serious short-coming. He writes, “Before the printing
press, children became adults by learning to speak, for which all people are biologically
programmed. After the printing press, children had to earn adulthood by achieving
literacy, for which people are not biologically programmed. This meant that schools had
to be created. … And it is my contention that with the assistance of other media such as
radio, film, and records, television has the power to lead us to childhood’s end. … There
is no need for any preparation or prerequisite training for watching television … .
Watching television requires no skills and develops no skills. That is why there is no
such thing as remedial television-watching.”
Public Comment