| Deschooling Society | |
| Publisher: | Harper & Row |
| Pages: | 116 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pub Date: | 1972 |
| Subject: | Education |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | United States |
| Author: | Ivan Illich |
Deschooling Society is a 1971 book written by Austrian priest Ivan Illich that critiques the role and practice of education in the modern world.
Deschooling Society begins as a polemical work that then proposes suggestions for changes to education in society and learning in individual lifetimes.[1] [2] For example,he calls for the use of advanced technology to support "learning webs",[3] [4] [5] [6] which incorporate "peer-matching networks", where descriptions of a person's activities and skills are mutually exchanged for the education that they would benefit from.[7] Illich argued that, with an egalitarian use of technology and a recognition of what technological progress allows, it would be warranted to create decentralized webs that would support the goal of a truly equal educational system:[8]
Illich proposes a system of self-directed education in fluid and informal arrangements, which he describes as "educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring."[9]
Furthermore, he states:The final sentence, above, clarifies Illich's view that education's institutionalisation fosters society's institutionalisation, and so de-institutionalising education may help de-institutionalize society. Further, Illich suggests reinventing learning and expanding it throughout society and across persons' lifespans.
Once again, most influential was his 1971 call for advanced technology to support "learning webs":According to a review in the Libertarian Forum, "Illich's advocacy of the free market in education is the bone in the throat that is choking the public educators."[10] Yet, unlike libertarians, Illich opposes not merely publicly funded schooling, but schools as such. Thus, Illich's envisioned disestablishment of schools aimed not to establish a free market in educational services, but to attain a fundamental shift: a deschooled society. In his 1973 book After Deschooling, What?, he asserted, "We can disestablish schools, or we can deschool culture."[11] In fact, he called advocates of free-market education "the most dangerous category of educational reformers."[12]
Developing this idea, Illich proposes four Learning Networks: