Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education--and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.
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 life. Our universities have become recruiting centers for the personnel of the consumer society, certifying citizens for service, while at the same time disposing of those adjudged unfit for he 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 civilization from its headlong rush toward the violence which frustrated expectations will certainly unleash so long as the school myth is allowed to persist.
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