Amusing Ourselves To Death

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The Effects of Combining Enterainment and Education Adam Genie English 1 March 29, 2012 In chapter 10 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman stresses the negative effects that television has not only had on American society as a whole, but on our educational system and especially the younger generations in America. Throughout the chapter, Postman carps about how schools today are bringing the television into a school setting, making teaching certain subjects easier for students to enhance comprehension and absorb the material. However, Postman argues that instead of improving their methods of teaching students, schools are combining education and entertainment into one. According to Neil Postman, the effect of television in America has impacted the way schools and parents teach their children, rendering television to be an essential component in education and the household. By involving television in education, it is becoming detrimental to the mind of the youth due to the fact that schools are taking something that is solely made to entertain and placing it into an educational setting. In chapter 10 of Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman reviews examines the three supposed commandments that shape and make up television educational standards. The first principle of television education is to have no prerequisites. In other words, television’s goal is to eliminate the concept of consistency and order in education. Unlike the classroom, television allows for individuals to watch any show, in any point in time, without giving any warning that they may not understand the background story of the program. Therefore, individuals are able to watch the show without having any prior knowledge of it in the first place. The second commandment is to provide no hint of complexity for the individual
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