Is it just me, or is it really depressing being an education major?

      In the first five chapters of their book Teaching is a Subversive Activity, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner propose a number of interesting ideas. They begin by discussing how rapidly the world is changing and how slowly the education system is adapting and responding to these changes. This idea is not new to me as an education major; I have heard this sentiment echoed in every one of my classes repeatedly to no end, almost to the point where I am numb to it. What is astonishing, however, is the fact that Postman and Weingartner wrote about the need for this change in 1968 and it still hasn’t happened! The fact that this book’s message is still relevant 45 years later terrifies me.

            Postman and Weingartner argue that our society is plagued with a number of life threatening problems that must be solved as soon as possible—needless to say, 45 years later is not as soon as possible! In fact, 45 years is a disconcerting response time. Even more sickening is the fact that there has been little to no response to address these society-threatening issues such as mental illness, suicide, child abuse, drugs, civil rights, etc. America is like a hamster, frantically running on its wheel, but never progressing, never moving forward. At first, I was put-off by the fact that this text was so old, but the more I reflect on it, the more relevant it becomes, the more its messages resound within me. If we want to put an end to the cycle, we have to recognize the cycle. We have to wake up. Our response time cannot go on hold any longer. We must take a step off the hamster wheel and not just marvel at those still on it, but pull them off of it, too. One of the best places to start this process is with our students. If our society has any hope of survival, we must make educate our students in a manner that teaches them to not only question the wheel, but in a manner that also encourages them to re-invent it. But how?

            If we want to fix our society (and our students), we must first fix ourselves by becoming subversive “crap detectors.” We must question everything. We must doubt. We must challenge the status quo, the norms, and all aspects of society, particularly those aspects of the classroom. We should learn (and then teach) values that aren’t stressed in other institutions in the culture. For instance, in our rapidly changing world, we must ensure that all of our students possess skills of media literacy, technological fluency, and flexibility. As teachers, we must also acquire and master these skills for ourselves. We cannot bluff these essential skills. Additionally, we must ensure that our message is catered to our medium. Thus, whatever we want our students to learn must be reflected in what they do in our classrooms. If we want to teach them to question, we must be open to them questioning our methods. Therefore, we must equip them with the “What is it good for?” perspective that Postman and Weingartner encourage. We cannot create a classroom of future shocked students. We must help them to predict what is around the curve. More importantly, perhaps, we help them create what is around the curve. We can no longer rely on the traditional frameworks of the school system. We must rebuild the environment in a manner that encourages questioning and active criticism and that discourages recall and rote memorization. We must also teach that not all questions have answers and the fact that that is okay.

            Overall, we have a lot of work to do as future educators. Postman and Weingartner bring up a number of ideas that we must consider if we hope to be highly effective educators. We have our work cut out for us, but I am confident that we are being equipped with the tools to handle the problems Postman and Weingartner discuss. Above all, we must strive to become subversive, crap-detecting educators.