Ivan Illich
Philosopher and Catholic priest (1926 to 2002) whose Deschooling Society (1971) argued that compulsory schooling confuses teaching with learning and that education should rest on open networks instead.
Ivan Illich did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsMany students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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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.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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Their wordsUniversal education through schooling is not feasible.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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Their wordsMost learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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Their wordsSchool is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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Their wordsMost learning happens casually, and even most intentional learning is not the result of programmed instruction.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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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.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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Their wordsThe public is indoctrinated to believe that skills are valuable and reliable only if they are the result of formal schooling.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book
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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.
↗Deschooling Society (Harper & Row, 1971)archive.org All 9 from this book