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Today we are studying, or perhaps vigorously over-reacting to, Postman's _Teaching as a Subversive Activity_. From Chapter One, "Crap Detecting":
As Alan Watts has noted: “Irrevocable commitment to any religion is not only intellectual suicide; it is positive unfaith because it closes the mind to any new vision of the world. Faith is, above all, openness-- an act of trust in the unknown.
Oh, really, Mr.Postman? And who is the next worthy authority you trouble to quote? Why, halfway down on the same page, you draw on the wisdom of Father John Culkin of Fordham University in summing up the communications revolution. How generous of you, Mr.Postman, to allow a professional "intellectual suicide" to contribute to your work.
Now, where shall we go from the words of Father John Culkin? Ah, you wish me to imagine "unplugging" my home in reverse order of technological development starting... with the tv? Ah, I see, you are writing in 1971. So I am supposed to unplug my home and then I am supposed to see that...
In short, you would have to be a totally different
person from what you are in order to survive for more than a day.
Mr.Postman, I am living forty years of technological gluttony forward of when you are writing, and you are still missing me by a mile. For one small thing, I am an observant Jew. I do this every week, and its the best day of the week-- even though I'm simultaneously refraining from knitting, decorative art, playing music, attending community performances and workshops, and half a dozen of the other totally electric free highlights of my life. Never mind the tech; you could take away standardized currency and I would still be the same person-- actually, with my skill-set, I might be better off.
I would like to cut you a little slack, to acknowledge the "you" you really mean-- but, Mr.Postman, we are talking about teaching here, with a hookline of subversive activity; if my life demonstrates that it's perfectly possible to be a hands-on capable individual in a technological rich environment, you should be talking about using education to make sure people like me become the norm, and so far that is not the direction I am seeing you take this.
...while there has been a tremendous increase in media, there has been, at the same time, a decrease in available and viable “democratic” channels of communication because the mass media are entirely one way
communication.
Ah. Perhaps we have been assigned to read you as an example of how much has changed?
Have you ever heard a man being interviewed say, “I don’t have the faintest idea,” or “I don’t know enough even to guess, ” or “I
have been asked that question before, but all my answers to
it seem to be wrong?”
Iran-Contra- ah, again, before your time. Yes, I think we must be reading you for historical context. Perhaps our instructor, or your next essay, will reveal how the world I am living in today where all these things are commonplace is a result of the tremendous influence of your work. Unfortunately, I am not certain that position would be an improvement on innocuously being a mile off the mark.
Have you ever heard of a student taking notes on the remarks of another student?
Yes. Me.
I have also had my remarks as a student taken down, photocopied, and passed out by the teacher.
If that was your influence, Mr. Peterson, then thank you.
Have yon ever heard of a student indicating an interest in how a textbook writer arrived at his conclusions?
Me again.
Have you ever heard of a student suggesting a more useful definition of something that the teacher has already defined?
Guess who? Mr.Peterson, was that your influence, too?
Asking questions is behavior. If you don’t
do it, you don’t learn it.
Congratulations, Mr.Peterson, with an attitude like this you just might keep up in a the type of study class traditional to those of us "intellectual suicides" known as Jews.
Friday, October 15, 2010
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