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Ivan Illich: De-schooling theory
He is an Austrian philosopher and Roman Catholic priest noted for his extreme polemics, in which he claimed that many contemporary technology and social structures had only temporary benefits and, further, damaged people’s autonomy, independence, and dignity. He blamed both the contemporary medical establishment and mass education for institutionalizing and controlling fundamental areas of life.
Illich, who was raised in a multicultural environment, had a Croatian father and a Sephardic Jewish mother. He was born in Vienna. Illich was highly educated in classical languages and spoke various current dialects with ease from a young age. He enrolled at the University of Florence in Italy after beginning his official studies in Vienna. Illich attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 1942 until 1946. Arnold Toynbee, a British historian, was the subject of his dissertation for his doctoral work at the University of Salzburg.
De- Schooling:
Deschooling is an educational approach that supports giving kids the opportunity to decide for themselves what they would like to study. Very precisely, it describes the transition a student makes from regular education to home learning and the duration it takes for them to get adjusted to it.
Illich developed his most well-known and important theories regarding education and schooling in Deschooling Society (1971), his best-known and most significant work. Illich “presented schools as places where consumerism and obedience to authority were paramount and genuine learning was replaced by a process of advancement through institutional hierarchies” along with the absorption of largely meaningless credentials. Illich drew on his training in history and philosophy as well as his years of experience as a teacher. Illich argued that it could be desirable to embrace a paradigm of education where information and skills are communicated through the networking of unstructured and spontaneous interactions as opposed to mandatory mass education.
Key elements:
Furthermore, teachers must also deschool in addition to pupils. This concept suggests that instructors should abandon a worldview that is solely intellectual in favor of one that emphasizes student evaluation.
Families are also a crucial component of this deschooling process since many of them place the same emphasis on academic achievement as educational institutions do. Society must realize that the school must adapt because “our current school’s model is more in crisis and losing value.” It has to be changed thoroughly. Partial changes, band-aid fixes, and agreements to maintain the status quo of the school have us more unhappy. “
