Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)

Ivan Illich · c. 1971

Ivan Illich did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Schools teach poor students to confuse process with substance

Their wordsMany students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance.
Our reading
Schooling teaches pupils to confuse teaching with learning and a diploma with competence

Their wordsThe pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.
Our reading
Universal education through schooling is not feasible

Their wordsUniversal education through schooling is not feasible.
Our reading
Most learning comes from taking part in a meaningful setting, not from instruction

Their wordsMost learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.
Our reading
School is an advertising agency for society as it is

Their wordsSchool is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.
Our reading
Most learning, even intentional learning, happens casually rather than through programmed instruction

Their wordsMost learning happens casually, and even most intentional learning is not the result of programmed instruction.
Our reading
Schooling's hidden curriculum teaches that scientific bureaucracies are efficient and benevolent

Their wordsEverywhere the hidden curriculum of schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent.
Our reading
People are taught that skills count only if they come from formal schooling

Their wordsThe public is indoctrinated to believe that skills are valuable and reliable only if they are the result of formal schooling.
Our reading
Equal educational opportunity is a good goal, but equating it with compulsory schooling is a confusion

Their wordsEqual educational opportunity is, indeed, both a desirable and a feasible goal, but to equate this with obligatory schooling is to confuse salvation with the Church.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.