Ivan Illich

“Most people acquire most of their knowledge outside school, and in school only insofar as school, in a few rich countries, has become their place of confinement during an increasing part of their lives.”

In the 1970s, Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich wrote the radical text, Deschooling Society, in which he argues that the school system is an institution that stifles learning, rather than facilitating it. Illich foreshadowed CL with his suggestion to create learning networks with the technologies of the time, utilizing a network of tape recorders “even in remote villages” (Illich, 1971, p. 55).

He also predicted a time when educators would drug students to make them into better pupils and students would drug themselves to “gain relief from the pressures of teachers and the race for certificates” (p. 36). Eerily, in 2008, Ken Robinson echoed these concerns with this observation:

“It seems to me it’s not a coincidence totally that the incidence of ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of standardized testing…These kids are being medicated as routinely as we had our tonsils taken out.” (2008, p. 2)

When Deschooling Society came out, Illich’s ideas were dismissed as too radical, idealistic and impractical. Although he created a very successful language learning center based on his educational approach, his ideas never gained traction outside of anti-establishment circles.

 Read the following quotes from Deschooling Society to see how Illich was making a case for Connected Learning over forty years ago:

Personalised (interest powered)

“Opportunities for skill-learning can be vastly multiplied if we open the “market.” This depends on matching the right teacher with the right student when he is highly motivated in an intelligent program, without the constraint of curriculum.” P.14

Collaborative (Peer Supported)

“Creative, exploratory learning requires peers currently puzzled about the same terms or problems. Large universities make the futile attempt to match them by multiplying their courses, and they generally fail since they are bound to curriculum, course structure, and bureaucratic administration.” p.16

Authentic

“Most learning happens casually, and even most intentional learning is not the result of programmed instruction. Normal children learn their first language casually, although faster if their parents pay attention to them.” p.12

Interconnected

“Our present educational institutions are at the service of the teacher’s goals. The relational structures we need are those which will enable each man to define himself by learning and by contributing to the learning of others.” p.50

Equitable

“In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting. The most radical alternative to school would be a network or service which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern with others motivated by the same concern.”

“What are needed are new networks, readily available to the public and designed to spread equal opportunity for learning and teaching.” p. 55

 

Questions for thought

• Now that we have the technological capability to make Illich’s ideas a reality, how much structural change to school administration would be required to  facilitate its implementation?

• Is Illich still too radical?

• Is it conceivable that our education systems relinquish, even partially, some of their control over the education of our children in order to enhance it?

These questions are only for reflection. You don’t need to respond to them in the discussion.

 

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