Ivan Illich.
Deschooling Society.
Marion Boyars Publishers. 1970
Schools have failed our individual needs, supporting false and misleading notions
of ‘progress’ and development fostered by the belief that ever-increasing production,
consumption and profit are proper yardsticks for measuring the quality of human life.
Our universities have become recruiting centres for the personnel of the consumer society,
certifying citizens for service, while at the same time disposing of those judged unfit
for the competitive rat race. In this bold and provocative book,
Illich suggests some radical and exciting reforms for the education system.
The measures suggested in Deschooling Society, he argues,
are necessary to turn civilisation from its headlong rush towards the violence
that frustrated expectations will certainly unleash so long as the school myth is allowed to persist.