The most innovative thinkers are
labeled as “stupid” or “lazy” simply because their standards don’t meet the
requirements that public schools create through demanding grades and rejection
of creative minds. Public schools isolate free thinkers from their peers, and
prevent others from thinking innovatively as well. Postman’s narrative of Consumership
and Economic Utility are the culprits for the lack of critical thinkers in the
public school system.
The main idea of the god of Consumership
is for the public educational system to create some type of tangible item for
students to think of as a goal; the only way to achieve this goal is to follow
an endless list of rules and memorize key terms that, odds are, the students
will never see again. Postman describes the god of consumership’s intentions as,
"Whoever dies with the most toys, wins." (Postman 33). Teaching these
students to live at least the first thirteen years of their lives as academic
robots for the sake of having something that proves their dominance to others
causes the students to eventually stop living up to their initial life goals,
subsequently following the long, bland path that their educators laid out in
front of them.
The god of Consumership is closely
related to the god of Economic Utility. Postman states, “[the god of Economic
Utility] postulates that you are what
you do for a living,” (Postman 33). One thing that the public school systems
tend to put into these adolescences’ heads is the idea that a person cannot be
happy without financial success. A three
year old does not want to become a doctor in order to learn how to repair the
fibula; they want to live up to the successful standards they are presented
with throughout their lives.
The public educational system inhibits
students from learning for the sake of gaining knowledge, and instead implants
the idea that financial success is the equivalent of happiness.
Works Cited
Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the
Value of School. New
York: Knopf, 1995. Print.
I like how you related the gods of Economic Utility and Consumership to such an important issue in a large portion of American schooling. I obviously agree with your points you make throughout your blog post, but I especially appreciated your final statement. This sort single minded idea of how our futures are going to play out is so dangerous and unfortunately something so many kids in our generation fall guilty of. We're often times expected to want to aim for some form of career that will bring us high income. However, in reality some of the most successful people in the future will most likely be those achieving their own personal goals that they've set for their own happiness rather than goals set by a random individual in their high school education system.
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