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Amusing Ourselves To Death: A Personal Reflection

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Entertainment; though only one word among our extensive AP vocabularies, it is a word that signals many red flags in the minds of those who read Amusing Ourselves to Death. While the concept of letting our valuable time and powerful minds go to waste sits on high alert on our radars, we will always often look for the little bits of fun in even the most boring of situations. Coming into junior AP English, I was not anticipating the numerous amounts of life changing perspectives and discussions that came our way; however, I can safely say that the teacher I received on my schedule managed to gracefully walk along the tightrope between educational and entertaining. The entertainment factor in the classroom setting personally assists me in grasping concepts and lessons quicker and easier than just sitting in a lecture hall, yet too much fun and games only results in frustration for the students in the top of their graduating class. Based on the given descriptions, the candidates listed for the senior AP English positions are not necessarily as good at walking along the fine line between learning all that we can and having a …show more content…

Bowman with different sets of experiences to expand his knowledge base. This in turn would allow him to have a higher potential of relating to any type of student at Andrew and a greater advantage of aiding his students on their road to success. His personal life experiences are more likely to draw the typical high school student in and result in them having a certain sense of comfort to be able to learn however they must. Additionally, senior year in essence heightens the necessity of learning life skills to be on our own after we leave the doors of Andrew. Most students are less concerned with learning the trigonometry functions and what chemical reacts with what than they are about learning how to give presentations and speak publically

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At the time it was fun, but now he sees that it was where “[he] realized what it felt like to propose a generalization, restate and respond to a counterargument, and perform other intellectualizing operations” (Graff, 2013, p.248). Although in school his intelligence was not recognizable, interacting socially and sports strategizing prepared him for life outside of school. His understanding of the conflicting classes in his neighbourhood and how to navigate them was a true test of intellect requiring skills not obtained behind a

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Mark Edmundson’s “Liberal Arts & Lite Entertainment” in his book Why Teach? develops an argument about the culture surrounding education. The university professor takes a stance on the problems that he has experienced both in his own classroom and observed on campus as well as others, and he assigns these problems—his claims—appropriate blames. Enough logic is used to make these “blames” more factual, and he often claims how things are and usually offers several reasons as to why. His essay, originally written in 1997, begins with his own university before branching out to all those across the country, and it is followed by a deduction of student culture and professors. He gives hope to the idea of the acceptance and praising of “genius” (as

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To begin with, it is extremely important that our educational system stops promoting false confidence and allowing students to unlearn their current outlook on life. Both Davidson and Twenge touch upon the flaws in the current education system. As Davidson describes, “Confidence in your ability to learn is confidence in your ability to unlearn, to switch assumptions or methods or partnerships in order to do better. This is true not only for you, as an individual, but for whole institutions” (Davidson 67). Davidson believes true confidence, allows one to not only learn important ideas, but also forsake the ideas that may harm him or her from reaching a goal; she also mentions that this notion does not apply just to an individual person, but also applies

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In Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, he argues that the old print-based culture's precision and complexity overwhelm the present focus on TV's simplicity and speed. Postman organizes his book chronologically, so the reader first sees the positives of the print era then the negatives of the transition into a world of visual screens. Through this sequence, he illustrates the difference between the abundant product information in the 1800s with the entertainment of television commercials. He compares the focused, favorable audience of the past with the current hyperactive television viewers, which the politicians notice and replace complex plans with single sentence quips. Towards the end of the book, he deeply analyzes the adverse futures

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In the reading “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman, the most surprising aspect is when he talks about how people do not remember anything they watched on television. According to Postman, Stern said 51 percent of viewers could not recall a single item of news a few minutes after viewing a news program on television” (p152). This is surprising because I believe that a lot of people could recall the news from television, especially when the anchor mention the news story more than once. One time before a commercial break and when the anchor is talking is about it. And when there is breaking news, the anchor spends most of the newscast talking about the topic.

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The thesis of Ashley Herzog’s College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid is that many university of a myriad of worthless classes for their students to take and that they should be avoided if possible. Her thesis is covered in both the first and second paragraphs. Along with the primary purpose of in informing people, particularly conservative college students, about pointless class Herzog has a secondary purpose entertainment. She uses satire to poke fun at the classes that she considers to be worthless. Herzog assumes her audience holds the same conservative view as the only time she actually makes a direct reference to her beliefs is in the title.

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The 19th century or typographic America was a time where modern media sources, such as television and radio did not exist. Therefore everything was either presented in written word or spoken word, by a source which could either be a book or a person. In Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman communicates that the people of the 19th century would endure very long hours of debates and speeches. These events were very long, but these people seemed genuinely interested in these events due to the fact that it would inform them on current political events. However many people began wondering how these people were able to maintain such interests in these events.

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Things like that is what student these days see and find unappealing. So let's take Adam Chapnicks’ advice and conceive and developed more way to appeal students to think about the liberal arts. Teacher should learn how to make it fun to learn. One thing Adam does not mention, which seem to be a great idea is that students should not be required to take intensive classes of liberal art. Once you enter high school you start to think about your career.

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Horace Mann’s idea of education being the great equalizer is a myth. Education only depends on race and your financial status. Education teaches limited skills and everyone gets where they are based on their own caliber. There were no public school systems before the 19th century. That should make people realize how much education has limited us these past centuries.

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Honestly I like writing and reading and hearing people’s take on a text. This class, which was filled with all of that, however I did not like and my attitude clearly reflected that. Every student learns differently and personally no matter how much I favor the subject, I vibe off of my environment. My table mates. The life of the class.

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In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman makes no secret of his contempt for television. It is easy to draw a parallel between that and Jon Stewart's disdain for CNN, which he expressed freely during appearances on Crossfire and Larry King Live. Similar to how Postman felt about television, Stewart felt about CNN: each man felt that that form of media (???? Figure out the right word choice here) was causing more harm to society than it was serving the public good. When Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980, he did so in order to occupy a niche that was not being filled by television programmers.

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Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a book that contends that we are living in the Brave New World that Aldous Huxley predicted in 1932. Postman states that television has become our “soma” and we rely on its instant gratification to comfort us instead of connecting with others to form meaningful, intellectual bonds. He says that it isn’t all of television that is the problem, the “junk” or entertainment for the sake of entertainment is just fine and is, in fact, the thing television does the best. Postman states that it is our immediate exposure to data, advertising and in-“televisible” things that cause a rift between viewer and culture. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World says that people will give up everything for synthetic, superficial happiness.

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As I sit in the basement of the Lilly Library, surrounded by friends who have become family in a few short months, covered in calculus and EQ notes, and listening to some Duke Ellington jazz music for my Music 101 class, I can’t help but reflect on what this year has meant to me and my development as a student, athlete, brother, friend, and person. I entered Wabash College not exactly sure what to expect; I knew it was going to be different, but I also knew that with change I wanted to keep an open mind that was ready to learn and grow. Freshman tutorial and especially enduring questions are two classes that have pushed my boundaries as a person, forcing me to question core beliefs and ideas that seemed previously engrained in my mind. Throughout

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We have experienced it at some point in our school years it comes to learning. We have some classes that grab our attention. Some classes just bored us to death. What makes a class dull and bland? Is it how the professors present the material or the students' lack of interests?

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Neil Postman in Chapter 1 of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" aims to show how the television can manipulate a person 's decision in politics, religion, education and turn those into entertainment. Even today Postman’s ideeas stand strong and it is true that if an information is entertaining the viewer will not look at the autenticity or what the origins of it are. Probably as expected, the more the technology advances, the more the manipulation from the television is taking place. This is done by: changing how people think, making their brain numb by not allowing them to have an opinion and interfering in their family life and in people decision-making process. The only way to save ouselves from living under the control of the television is simply

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