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Deschooling Society By Ivan Illich

I found this idea around schools no longer being as important as they once were very interesting especially due to the increasing access to technology being a cause of this. Ivan Illich's idea to deschool society is very radical as the educational system is a very old institution which has always been held in the highest of regards shown in the policies making everyone have the right to go to school. I thought this made his ideas of an alternative way to education very intriguing.

Topic paragraph:

The main issues I wanted to address in my Wikipedia article is whether schools are still important and if not what could be an alternative to it. Additionally, I would like to explore more into Ivan Illich and where his ideas originated from and who he took inspiration from to come up with such a extreme idea. Schools are one of the biggest and most important institutions in society as it leads to growth and development not only in outer society but the individual people. This makes his ideas so controversial as all the governments around the world have policies solidifying how important education is and this is just accepted by everyone as its such a normal part of society. The increasing technology has made education different and less reliant on teachers or books which is part of Ivan's argument however there is still no proper alternatives that would ensure that education is done fairly and regulated.

Annotated Bibliography:

Reimer, E.R. (1971) School is dead: An essay on alternatives in education Harmondsworth: Penguin

Reimer is a friend of Illich and after a conversation with him he decided to write this book to include his opinions and ideas on the deschooling society book by Ivan Illich. It includes what schools do, how they are funded, his own opinion of schools and then how revolutionise education. this would be a good source to back up the ideas of Illich as they both agree on the matter but also shows more ideas of how to actually deschool society.

Gintis, H. (1972) 'Towards a political economy of education: A radical critique of Ivan Illich's Deschooling society', 42(1), https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.42.1.h2m4644728146775

This would be a good article to evaluate the book with as it gives a different point of view as Gintis doesn't agree with Illich's main theory that schooling is there to shape consumer demands and expectations. He argued that the inequalities in education are in order to keep up the supply of workforce that would fit the capitalist production.

Sukarieh, M. Tannock, S. (2020) 'Deschooling from above', 61(4), https://doi-org.ezproxy.sussex.ac.uk/10.1177/0306396819889294

They have similar views to Illich but have applied it to contemporary society showing that his views are still relevant today. They argue that this idea of deschooling is good as it would be moving with the times and the new technology available. But they also said it would cause lots of problems like the socialisation children get from the school set up.

Jandric, P. (2014) 'Deschooling Virtuality', 1(1), pp.84-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/23265507.2014.965193

This article argues that technology and the internet have the ability to carry out Illich's deschooling. This could be backed up by a real life example of the switch to virtual learning in the Covid-19 pandemic. This has made a shift into considering Illich's theory more and showing that it could actually work.

Links for peer review:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Solar782/sandbox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Azaciel/sandbox#Societal_Transformation

Improvements to article:

I need to add in more details to every section and also add more references. I also need to add a see also section and external links in order to give more information.

Deschooling society by Ivan Illich

Deschooling society is a book written by Ivan Illich in 1971. This book critiques education in modern society and suggests it isn't as successful as it could be due to it being institutionalised and therefore regenerating inequality through teaching hierarchy and consumption which help capitalism to continue. There have been many people who have developed this idea and related it to society. However, it has also received a lot of criticism as education is a very big part of society not only to educate but socialise the youth of today, so it could be to radical. This article will also look into the ideas of Illich and what he would do to revolutionise the education system with in order to fulfil his ideas surrounding 'deschooling', for example how he would use the new technology to develop the education system as he writes about in his book. Illich had a very comfortable upbringing with his father being a civil engineer and was able to travel and learn about the world from a young age. This means he was opened up to lots of different cultures and been able to build up a good view of wider society from a young age.

Deschooling Society

Author	Ivan Illich
Language	English
Published	1972
Publisher	Harper & Row
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	116

His Influence:

Illich has had a lot of influence of people through his ideas especially with this book which has made many people look at education differently and use his ideas in their own work. It has allowed for his ideas to be linked to society now and in different countries with him being from Austria. For instance his ideas have been linked to contemporary society, discussing how the book had a resurgence in the 1990s with it being republished and it being caused by a not only the 'radicals' wanting a change from the education system in place but also political elites who want to change the traditional curriculum based education system. The idea around deschooling has been linked to the new technology available in contemporary society which would make it easier to change the education system from being institutionalised but still large-scale and this would mean less inequality as argued by Illich. One of Illich's friends Reimer wrote a boom after having a conversation with him about the education system and this lead to him writing his own book on it and detailing his views on schools and how they should be changed sharing similar views to Illich. This gives more ideas in order to develop Illich's theory.

Criticisms of Illich:

Illich's ideas and views surrounding education are radical and his books died out a lot and were only brought back by them being republished and this was due to lots of people not agreeing with what he was arguing. Most people see education as an important part of society that shouldn't be changed as it has been made such a vital part of society shown through the policies making education compulsory. There has been criticism against Illich by other Marxists arguing the reasoning for the education system isn't in order to control consumer demands but to generate the next labour force through education and manipulating the next generation to follow capitalism. The education system also regenerates inequality as having a national curriculum is biased towards pupils with English as their first language as all the education is focussed on English literature and history putting others at a disadvantage. Others would argue that having a national curriculum is the only way of making education fair as it ensures that everyone is doing the same thing and it can be regulated. Illich argues that school is mirrored by society so therefore it is prepping children to fit into society and consume whatever society has to offer but others see school as an extension of social order however Illich presents a lot of parallels with school and society like teachers 'schooling' students much like government 'ruling' society. However his views surrounding education are strong and it is hard to see a more successful and well run education system without the institution as it brings it all under control and easier to control and understand it.

Illich's solutions for education:

Illich made a follow up book published a year after deschooling society, where he goes into more detail into what he believes should be replaced by the traditional institutionalised education system. Illich argues that institutions "create needs faster than they can create satisfaction" so they are constantly wanting more and are never happy with what they've got, defining a capitalist society of the competition to push forward and hold power. The main focus of Illich is to use the new technology that is being developed to help decentralise education and make is better not being so universal. This has become very relevant in contemporary society due to Covid-19 pandemic which meant that all education was moved online using the technology for nearly a year. This has made Illich's argument much more strong for many people as we know it could happen quite easily as it was done overnight. Illich also suggests using more educational websites which would provide a more personalised and free of judgements from teachers as it would be anonymous therefore making it more fair. However, it could be argued that these ways of education would mean youth would miss out on very important things which is hidden in the school curriculum like social interaction and also it would be harder to motivate yourself without the pressure of a teacher. Illich argued that if education was de-institutionalised then so would society as a whole and then capitalism would be damaged as a result as it cant be used to altered consumption ideals.

See also:

• Ivan Illich
• Unschooling

External Links:

• https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/09/guardianobituaries.highereducation This gives a good overview of Illich and his backstory.

• https://monoskop.org/images/1/17/Illich_Ivan_Deschooling_Society.pdf This is the whole book online for free.