Teaching as a Conserving Activity

I am a veteran public high school teacher with National Board Certification. Neil Postman is brilliant. Everyone should read this book.

I presume that this book could be read more widely if it had a different title; "conserving" is too close to conservative, and admitting that your are conservative before teachers is like admitting you are a vegetarian during Thanksgiving dinner. Getting past the title, the book provides a thoughtful message that should not be neglected.Postman's thesis regards a thermostat. Just as a thermostat is regulated to provide feedback, countering with heat to stop the chill before too much time passes, so education provides a counter to general culture. Postman calls the education that the general culture provides an individual the First Curriculum. Schools provide the Second Curriculum, the feedback to regulate and to balance the swing of the First Curriculum. In this light, his thesis has great merit.Each of his chapters regard different aspects of education: the classroom, evaluations, media, language, and such. I found several practical ideas from this book and recommend it to anyone involved in education in any way.