February 16, 2023

Expectations of teachers grow. Expectations of schools grow. How we learn, and how we deliver what we want to teach have evolved in the past couple of years. The pandemic has changed how everyone learns and how everyone lives, and we would be very foolish to ignore this lesson. However, we would also be very foolish not to see this change as an opportunity to examine what we do, how we do it, and how it has been done before.

In 1970, Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society was first released. This book criticizes society’s institutionalized education because it constrains when we learn to a brief period of our lives. Considered radical at that time, Deschooling Society was once essential reading in education courses during the 1980s. In his opening chapter, Illich outlines why we must disestablish schools and explains that schooling should not be confused with education as well as teaching with learning. Although it is not an easy read, it is still relevant since Deschooling Society addresses many of the same issues that concern educators today. 

In the table below, we show how ideas from Deschooling Society still relate: