The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, by NEIL POSTMAN. NY: Vintage Books, 1996. xi+209pp, USD 12.

看過Neil Postman的Amusing Us to Death 後，我就深信他寫的書一定值得看。在一片熱鬧的IT教育改革氣氛下，讀一讀他怎樣看教育的本質可以使人頭腦清醒，可惜我們的所謂教育改革家只懂獨沽一味催谷電腦，已把「教育是什麼」這些本質問題拋諸腦後。

作者認為教育是要讓學生知道"narrative", "one that tells of origins and envisions a future, a story that constructs ideals, prescribes rules of conduct, provides a source of authority, and above all, gives a sense of continuity and purpose." (pp.6-7)

作者概歎這種narrative在現代教育中已經失落了。他在"Some gods that fail"一章中指出，Economic Utility, Consumership等是不濟事的，不應成為narrative。至於"Some new gods that fail" 一章中則批判了Technology這個新偶像也不濟事。作者指moral guidance, a sense of continuity , explanations of the past, clarity to the present, hope for the future (pp.61-61)才是最需要的。

全書金句摘錄：

"There is no one who can say that this or that is the best way to know things, to feel things, to see things, to remember things, to apply things, to connect things and that no other will do as well. In fact, to make such a claim is to trivalize learning, to reduce it to a mechanical skill." (p.3)

按：我們的所謂教育改革家卻認為用了PowerPoint後教學效果必定大躍進。

"Specialized competence can come only through a more generalized competence, which is to say that economic utility is a by-product of good education. Any education that is mainly about economic utility is far too limited to be useful, and, in any case, so diminishes the world that it mocks one's humanity." (p.31)

按：現代社會所謂教育改革家、家長、教師、學生大合奏要剷除文科，特別是中史，不正是因為中史不能搵食嗎？這種功利心態 "mocks one's humanity".嗚呼！哀哉！