Chapter 10: The Great Symbol Drain

In Chapter 10, Postman argues the in the United States education is just another institution that prepared students to be good works of the technopoly era; it is an instrument of economic policy. He also argue there is a “symbol drain”, another problem of information overload, caused by the over exposure to images and symbols being used in the media and in sales ads. We see the same thing over and over and it is starting to lose its effectiveness. Previously symbols were used to connect, support, and add effect to something; today they are just something we see, they have lost their value to emphasize progress, efficiency, and technical capability. Postman said, “no culture can flourish without narratives of transcendent origin and power” (172). Postman also stated that the point of business is to make the consumer feel valuable, not make products of value, something he calls “pseudo-therapy”. I big question from this chapter is, where is education going? We are so caught up in everything else and the things we use and the results that come out of our classrooms, I don’t think we are doing our students any justice.