Table Of ContentMcLUHAN
City as Classroom
HUTCHON
Understanding Language and Media McLUHAN
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City as
Classroom
Understanding
Language and Media
Marshall McLuhan
Kathryn Hutchon
McLuhan
Eric
The Book Society of Canada Limited
Agincourt, Ontario
Copyright © McLuhan Associates Limited fortheservices of:
Marshall McLuhan/Kathryn Hutchon/Eric McLuhan, 1977
Acknowledgements
Wewishtothankthefollowingauthorsand theirrepresentativeswhohavekindlypermit-
ted thereproductionofcopyright material: Noel B. Gerson: BecauseILovedHim: TheLife
and Loves of Lillie Langtry. William Morrow & Co., Inc. New York. © 1971. Marshall
McLuhan: "Inside on the Outside, or the Spaced-Out American." The Annenberg School
of Communications: journal of Communication and McLuhan Associates Ltd. © 1976.
HenryReed: "NamingofParts"inAMapofVerona.JonathanCapeLtd.London. KennethR.
Schneider: Autokindvs. Mankind. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. NewYork © 1971.
It is an infringement of the author's rights and a violation of the Copyright Law to repro-
duce or utilize in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, electrostatic copying, recording or by any information storageand retrieval sys-
tem or any other way passages from this book without the written permission of the
publishers.
NOTE
It is essential that users of this book
study Chapter One first, as it explains
and develops the method of analysis
used throughout the book.
ISBN 0-7725-5020-4
CanadianCataloguinginPublicationData
McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-
Cityasclassroom
Bibliography: p.
ISBN 0-7725-5020-4 pa.
I. Communication. 2. Mass media—Social aspects.
3. Technology—Social aspects. I. Hutchon, Kathryn.
II. McLuhan, Eric. III. Title
P90.M252 301.16 C77-001283-3
Printed in Canada
2 3 45 6 7 8 9 84 83 82 81 80 79 78 77
48
Contents
Introduction: What's in a school?
1 Training Perception
1. Noticing accurately 7
2. Figure/ground: atechnique forseeingthe whole situation 8
3. How useful is figure/groundanalysis? 1
4. Hidden grounds: how they affectour perception 1
5. Figure/ground analysis: a way to discover meaning 21
2 Properties of the Media
Introduction 31
1. Motor Cars 33
2. Newspapers 38
3. Magazines 46
4. Books 52
5. Light Bulbs 59
6. Photographs 61
7. Films 64
8. Television and Videotape 70
9. Radio 87
10. Audiotape 92
11. Telephone 100
12. Clocks 105
13. Computers 109
14. Airplanes 113
15. Satellites 116
16. Money 117
.
3EffectsoftheMedia: aNew Culture
Introduction 119
1 Motor Cars 122
2 Newspapers 126
3 Magazines 128
4. Books 129
5. Light Bulbs 132
6. Photographs 133
7. Films 134
8. Television 135
9. Radio 137
10. Telephone 138
11. Clocks 140
12. Computers 141
13. Airplanes 142
14. Satellites 143
15. Money 144
16. Media Trials 145
4 The City as Classroom
1 What you already know about your society 149
2. Updating your knowledge outside the classroom:
continuing education 151
3. Getting to know your culture through maps and exhibits 155
4. Exploring your culture through its advertising 157
5. Learning about your own culture through others 161
5 How to Relate to Your Own Time
1. How to remain aware 165
2. Slang 166
3. Popular Culture 170
4. What good is it to be aware? 171
Ml
General Bibliography
General Reference 183
Introduction:
What's a school?
in
Let us begin by wonderingjustwhatyou aredoing sitting there at
yourdesk.
Here are some questions for you to explore. We suggest that you divide
yourselves into research teams of not more than four people, and when
you have worked out answers to the questions, present yourfindings to
the other teams for general discussion.
The questions and experiments you will find in this book are all con-
cerned with important, relatively unexplored areas of our social environ-
ment. The research you choose to do will be important and original. If
you'd like to share your research with our team of three authors, send us
a note in care of the publisher.
As students in a school, do you think you have come to work?
1. Is school supposed to be a place of work? Is the work done by the
students, or the staff, or both? Look up the root meaningof the word
'school' (schola < Greek ox oA rj ).
When you are at school, are you separated from the community?
If so, are you separated physically or in otherways?
Does the community want you to be separated from the work
force? Ask local leaders in business and education.
2. Could you join the work force before you reach school-leaving age?
Contact local labor union leaders and ask for their opinion of the
school-leaving age. Ask your teacher to explain the legislation gov-
erning school-leaving age in your area. Can you discover the reasons
behind the legislation? Ask yourvice-principal to explain the relation
between school funding and school attendance.
Do you and yourfellow students tend to regard the classroom as
a kind of prison?
3. Do the days of your school life seem like 'doing time' until you are
eligible for the labor market?
Do you consider that real education is outside the classroom?
2 Cityas Classroom
Do you find thatwhat you learn inside the classroom is as usefulas
what you learn outside the classroom?
How do classrooms affectyour learning experience?
4. In order to discover what effect your present classroom has on your
experience of learning, try holding a class in another room. For ex-
ample, go to the teachers' lounge where you can arrange yourselves
in a circle in comfortable chairs. Hold a regular class. Toward the end
of the class period, take a few minutes to talk about the differences
between your experience in the lounge and your experience in a
regular classroom. Ask:
• Was it easier in the lounge to grasp points presented by your
teacher?
• Did you enjoy your teacher's presentation more or less in the
lounge?
• Did you find it easier or harder to become involved in discussion
with one another in the lounge?
• Was it easier or harder to relate what you were learning to your
own daily experience when you were out of yourclassroom?
• Which of the two settings did you find the more comfortable?
• Which of the two settings was the more congenial to learning?
• Did your teacher find the different setting an advantage or a
disadvantage?
• Did your teacher find a change in the group's attitude either to
students or to the subject?
• What differences did your teacher notice in responses from indi-
vidual students and in the responsiveness of the class generally?
• How did the different setting and its effects change your learning
experience?
Discuss the different meanings of 'noise' in the classroom and in
the lounge. Is 'noise' in the classroom 'noise' in the lounge?
5. Ask your drama teacher how theater 'in the round' changes the
relationship between audience and actors.
Ask your teacher to discuss with you changes in the method of
presentation for teaching 'in the round'. Ask whether the classroom
today has been placed in a new kind of 'round'.
From the answers to these questions can you draw any conclu-
sions about the sorts of activities that classrooms inhibit or exclude,
and the kinds of activities that they encourage?
