A New Beginning

Throughout every year of a person’s career in school, they encounter a new atmosphere for the next one hundred eighty days. These days are spent in a variety of ways from person to person, however each undergoes the creation of a new environment, one that builds a family-like environment in some schools. In smaller, k-12 schools, each student is lumped with the same grade largely for their whole stay at the school. Day in and day out that the students arrive and spend the next eight hours of their life associating with one another. Spending this much time with someone can bring out a variety of both positive and negative views. 

By spending all this time with each student, one is exposed to a variety of culture and diversity from person to person. As stated by Postman in his novel, The End of Education, Postman supports a negative view of all of this time spent, saying how the study, “…of aspects of culture… in truth, are likely to make students uncomfortable”(Postman 158). Postman writes about how the constant subjection of diversity actually dissuades people from appreciating other cultures and promotes a superiority complex to their own culture. However, even in the past twenty years since the publication of Postman’s book, toleration/acceptance of diversity has changed. As seen with events such as the legalization of same-sex marriage among others, people accept diversity and difference more. In actuality, many students such as I have felt a strong sense of home and family  even when I am surrounded by students everyday who are quite different from me. Even though a student may not know everyone at his/her school, the school environment is a great place for bonds and friendship to occur above the negativity. School gives students almost an hour to meet and talk with others with lunch, and many schools such as Lake Mary Prep put great value into letting new people and cultures feel welcome. A variety of programs usually exist in different schools, such as student ambassadors, who can help new students or different students meet and learn about each other. Not only does this expose children to diversity, but it also promotes a friendly aspect to it. I myself have made many friends through student ambassadors with people who don't look, talk, or think anything like me. 

Ultimately, Postman continues to push an idea of a flawed educational system due to a problem with diversity, however the truth can't be any further off. Some schools do take little approach to the diversity in the students, however these schools only need adjustments to overcome this hurdle. Schools that take very little approach could quite possibly fix any issues of intolerance with ideas which push communication between different people, not just learning about different people. It’s one thing to hate a culture based off a story in a book, but it’s another to hate the same culture after talking with someone in the culture for a hour or so. Possibly, if more schools took this approach to make their public a more friendly atmosphere, one of the “ends” of education Postman proclaims about will merely be a beginning. 

Works cited

Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print.