Republic of Noise

“The variety of available technologies has affected expectations of how information is delivered and consumed. These expectations have privileged the efficiency of knowing a bit about many things over the time necessary to delve deeply into ideas, their history, and their lessons. Using a variety of sources from Sophocles to E. B. White, as well as examples of programming used in public school systems, The Republic of Noise examines the role of noise—understood as the means through which multitudinous information bombards an individual—and the need for solitude as one develops in and out of the public sphere. Special attention is given to how the cacophony of information inundating students in pre-K-12 education makes it difficult, if not impossible, for young people to experience the power of deep engagement with ideas and individuals while learning, and how this affects the development of a sense of self and connection to others. For Senechal, living a meaningful life is not simply having the choices resulting from infinite access to information. Rather, a meaningful life develops from having the time to read, think, and consider, alone and with others. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.”

—Choice (American Library Association)

“Diana Senechal's Republic of Noise is an unusual book. It asks the reader to step back from the tumult of electronic gadgets, the online websites that tell us what to like, the buzz of activity that surrounds us at every moment and to do something extraordinary: think, reflect, ponder. She raises profound questions about our inability to discern our own thoughts, to know ourselves. This is an unsettling book and a very important book.”

—Diane Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education; author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System

“Republic of Noise is a searching exploration of the loss of solitude in contemporary society. As such, it takes its place within a distinguished American tradition of spiritual independence, the tradition of Emerson and Thoreau, suspicious of the buzz of the crowd and listening always for the small, still voice within. Senechal's best argument for the value of solitude is her own style of thought: patient, careful, compassionate, humane, and rooted in her experience not only as a teacher but as a self—or as she defiantly puts it, a soul. She thinks things through for herself, and from the ground up. Unlike just about everyone else who writes on education, she grounds her arguments in literary and philosophical sources, not studies and statistics, itself an act of courage and a vindication of the solitary mind. Her book can help us return solitude to a central place in the education of children and the conduct of life.”

—William Deresiewicz, author of “Solitude and Leadership” and A Jane Austen Education

“Combining erudition with first-hand observation, Diana Senechal offers invaluable insights from the front lines of education—the classroom—about the ways in which both learning and teaching are obstructed by America's culture of distraction. Her most crucial point is that the quality of learning in America has eroded through overreliance on everything from the digital technology of interruption to fad-driven teaching methods that discourage the sustained individual concentration required to foster both creativity and logical thinking. This book will and should disturb everyone who understands that our educational system will remain broken unless and until we take on the task of repairing our attention spans—as individuals and as a culture.”

—Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason and Never Say Die

“This profound and poetic book is a much-needed counterpoise to the frantic, accusatory atmosphere of current writings on educational reform. Diana Senechal agrees that students need a rich and coherent curriculum, but in our world of constant chatter and distraction they also need moments of undirected calm and, yes, even solitude. So do we all!”

—E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of The Making of Americans and Cultural Literacy; founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation

“Diana Senechal's Republic of Noise is a rare find. A fine thinker whose own well-schooled intellect allows her to work nimbly through examples from literature, poetry, philosophy, mathematics, science, theology, technology and music—practicing ‘solitude’ before our very eyes—Senechal, while sometimes lyrical in tone, never compromises the authority of her insight. Most people write about education as if it were conducted in a vacuum, with only cursory statistics alluding to social trends. Senechal puts education—both the idea and the daily practice—in the larger context of the culture out of which it is born and which it influences immeasurably. The use of ‘solitude’ as her enduring image opens up the souls of both schools and the culture at large.”

—Claudia Allums, director of the Cowan Center for Education at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture

“Republic of Noise is a meditation on solitude. What happens when constant communication replaces thoughtful reflection? How can deep learning take place in beehive-like environments? Why are we so afraid of being alone? Diana Senechal offers answers to these and other questions that aren't asked often enough in our plugged-in world. She warns that as our lives become ‘noisier and more fragmented’ we seem to be losing the ability to look inward, to think for ourselves, and—heaven forbid—to be alone. Though it may sound paradoxical, Senechal posits that solitude can actually improve collaboration. ‘In order to do anything of substance, we need a place that is relatively still, not giddy with updates, not caught up in what others think. This place varies from person to person and from situation to situation, but it needs tending, as do the things in it.’ Both erudite and eminently readable, Republic of Noise offers nourishing food for thought for teachers, parents, and policy-makers. Best consumed in solitude.”

—Carol Jago, past president, National Council of Teachers of English; author of With Rigor for All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students