The End of Education

Postman suggests that the current crisis in our educational system derives from its failure to supply students with a translucent, unifying “narrative” like those that inspired earlier generations. Instead, today's schools promote the false “gods” of economic utility, consumerism, or ethnic separatism and resentment. What alternative strategies can we use to instill our children with a sense of global citizenship, healthy intellectual skepticism, respect of America’s traditions, and appreciation of its diversity? In answering this question, The End of Education restores meaning and common sense to the arena in which they are most urgently needed. 

“Informal and clear. . . . Postman’s ideas about education are appealingly fresh.” —The New York Times Book Review

Table of Contents

Part One
1. The Necessity of Gods
2. Some Gods That Fail
3. Some New Gods That Fail
4. Gods That May Serve

Part Two
5. The Spaceship Earth
6. The Fallen Angel
7. The American Experiment
8. The Law of Diversity
9. The Word Weavers/The World Makers

Epilogue