Postman was born in New York City, where he would spend most of his life.^[1] In 1953, he graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia.^[2] At Teachers College, Columbia University he was awarded a master's degree in 1955 and an Ed.D (Doctor of Education) degree in 1958.^[3] Postman took a position with San Fransisco State University's English Department in 1958.^[4] Soon after, in 1959, he began teaching at New York University (NYU).^[3]

In 1971, at NYU's Steinhardt School of Education, he founded a graduate program in media ecology.^[3] He became the School of Education's only University Professor in 1993, and was chairman of the Department of Culture and Communication until 2002.^[3]

He died of lung cancer in Flushing, Queens, on October 5, 2003.^[3]

In 1969 and 1970 Postman collaborated with New Rochelle educator Alan Shapiro on the development of a model school based on the principles expressed in Teaching

In 1969 and 1970 Postman collaborated with New Rochelle educator Alan Shapiro on the development of a model school based on the principles expressed in Teaching as a Subversive Activity. In Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Postman and co-author Charles Weingartner suggests that many schools have curricula that is trivial and irrelevant to students' lives.^[5] The result of Postman and Weingartner's critiques in Teaching as a Subversive Activity was the "Program for Inquiry, Involvement, and Independent Study" within New Rochelle High School.^[6] This "open school" experiment survived for 15 years, and in subsequent years many programs following these principles were developed in American high schools, current survivors include Walter Koral's Language class at the Village School^[7] in Great Neck, New York.

In a 1973 address, "The Ecology of Learning," at the Conference on English Education, Postman proposes seven changes for schools that build on his critiques expressed in Teaching as a Subversive Activity. First, Postman proposes that schools should be "convivial communities" for learning rather than places that try to control students through judgement and punishment.^[8] Secondly, Postman suggests that schools should either discarding or dramatically changing grading practices that lead to competition in school rather than an attitude of learning. Postman also proposes getting rid of homogeneous groupings of students that reinforce social and economic inequalities, standardized tests that promote competition, and permanently kept student records that are used to punish and control students.^[8] Proactively, Postman suggests that industries and professional schools, rather than K-12 schools, should develop criteria for selecting students and that schools should focus on civic education that teaches students their rights as citizens.^[8]

In a television interview conducted in 1995 on PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Postman spoke about his opposition to the use of personal computers in schools. He felt that school was a place to learn together as a cohesive group and that it should not be used for individualized learning. Postman also worried that the personal computer was going to take away from individuals socializing as citizens and human beings.^[9]

External videos
Presentation by Postman on Building a Bridge to the 18th Century, December 1, 1999

• Television and the Teaching of English (1961).
• Linguistics: A Revolution in Teaching, with Charles Weingartner (Dell Publishing, 1966).
• Teaching as a Subversive Activity, with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1969).
• "Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection" – speech given at National Convention for the Teachers of English (1969)^[10]
• The Soft Revolution: A Student Handbook For Turning Schools Around, with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1971).
• The School Book: For People Who Want to Know What All the Hollering is About, with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1973).
• Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: How We Defeat Ourselves By the Way We Talk and What to Do About It (1976). Postman's introduction to general semantics.
• Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979).
• The Disappearance of Childhood (1982).
• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985).
• Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education (1988).
• How to Watch TV News, with Steve Powers (1992).
• Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992).
• The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).
• Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future (1999).
• MacNeil, R. (Writer/Host).Visions of Cyberspace: With Charlene Hunter Gault (July 25, 1995). Arlington, Virginia: MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.

• The Section "On Education" seems underdeveloped. Although it mentions the K-12 initiatives that Postman was involved with, it does not actually delve into Postman's thought about K-12 education.
  • I plan to add a section about Postman's thought on K-12 education pulled from his address, "The Ecology of Learning" that was addressed to the Conference on English Education.
    • Here is a proposed bibliography of works that discuss some of Postman's thought on education:
      • Postman, Neil (1974), "The Ecology of Learning", The English Journal, The English Journal, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Apr., 1974) (4): 58–64, doi:10.2307/813650, JSTOR 813650.
      • Postman, Neil; Weingartner, Charles (1969), Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Delacorte Press.
      • VanderStaay, Steven (2004), "Subvert the Subversives (But Keep Their Inquiry)", The English Journal, The English Journal, Vol. 94, No. 2, Subversive English (Nov., 2004) (2): 49–54, doi:10.2307/4128773, JSTOR 4128773.
      • Wardhaugh, Ronald (1970), Review: Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner, vol. The School Review, Vol. 78, No. 3 (May, 1970), pp. 429–343, JSTOR 1084165.
        • Postman is concerned with the ecology, environment, or conditions that surround a student's education. He critiqued school practices that seek to judge or punish students students in order to control their behavior in school. Instead, Postman suggested a seven changes in K-12 school organization that would turn schools into "places where people are trusted, accepted, and encouraged, as against places where they are controlled, judged, and punished"^[11].
        • His seven proposals to improve K-12 schools are:
          • The first change is the one mentioned above about changing the environment of schools.
          • Change or get rid of traditional grading practices since they lead students to compete with each other rather than motivating them to pursue academic aims.
          • Break up homogeneous groupings of students in schools that reinforce preexisting differences in social or economic class.
          • Stop making students take standardized tests since that practice also leads to making education a competition rather than a personal pursuit of knowledge.
          • Stop keeping permanent records on students since Postman views this as an invasion of privacy.
          • Have professional schools and various industries develop their own ways of selecting students instead of having K-12 school themselves work on that job.
          • Have students understand their civil rights are as expressed in opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
• The "Biography" section is missing some of Postman's teaching history.
  • I plan to add the fact that Postman's first teaching job was at San Francisco State University.
• The "Selected Bibliography" could include more of Postman's works.

• Evaluating Content
  • The lead for this article seemed to be a bit long since this is an overview article for the topic of Carthage.
    • Specifically, it got into details that seemed like they would fit better under specific topic headings in the article itself or in the linked topic pages to particular topics about Carthage.
  • The organization of the article was good since it went from an introduction of Carthage's topography to a more or less chronological sweep of ancient Carthage, Roman Carthage, and modern Carthage in the country of Tunisia.
    • That being said, talking about the topography of Carthage was not really talking about the general topography of that area. Instead, it was talking particularly about the topography of ancient Carthage. Thus, it seems like it would be better to have a section that talks about general land features that are (more or less) common across time periods and include topographical details specific to individual time periods within the sections about the individual time periods.
• Evaluating Tone
  • There are several sections in the article that cover highly contestable claims. In most instances, the treatment of the issue was neutral in tone.
    • For example, in the section discussing child sacrifice in ancient Carthage, the article makes sure to include the detail that this is a hotly debated issue. Additionally, the article does not take a stance on whether, in fact, child sacrifice actually did take place. This is an instance where the tone of the article seemed quite appropriate.
    • That being said, there was not a specific section of the article that discussed evidence for or against child sacrifice. Thus, there was not much information relating to the claim. Because of that, it almost sways the reader to assume that child sacrifice did occur since the claim is made but there is no mention of the content of arguments that try to refute the claim. This made the argument seem a bit one-sided.
• Evaluating Sources
  • The section for "topography" seemed rather weak on sources and citations. In a paragraph that contains claims about geography, trade, and physical features of the city, there do not appear to be any citations.
    • Also in the "topography" section, an author claims that the architecture of the city is "typical or even stereotypical." However, there does not appear to be anything to say it is "typical" of (much less stereotypical). My question would be, "typical of what other ancient civilization or stereotypical of what?" Additionally, there was no citation for this claim.
  • The section "Roman Carthage" also appears to be lacking citation.
    • The opening paragraphs in this section make claims about how Tiberius Gracchus sought to use the site where Carthage used to stand as land for impoverished farmers, however there are no citations for this. That type of claim certainly seems like it could be contestable, so I would expect some citation for the claim.
• Checking the "Talk" Page
  • There was an extended discussion on the talkpage about whether to list dates in BC/AD or in BCE/CE. It was surprising to see users seemingly getting upset at other users for their edits or for how they changed material on the page. It did not seem to be a perfectly amicable conversation.
  • The other main feature of the talkpage was a discussion about the scope of the article.
    • Since this article is supposed to be an overview article, most of the discussion centered on whether or not certain topics should be included in the overview of splintered off onto another page relating to specific topics.

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