Deschooling Society

The book contains suggestions for changes to learning in society and individual lifetimes. For example, he calls (in 1971) for the use of advanced technology to support "learning webs".[1][2][3][4]

The operation of a peer-matching network would be simple. The user would identify himself by name and address and describe the activity for which he sought a peer. A computer would send him back the names and addresses of all those who had inserted the same description. It is amazing that such a simple utility has never been used on a broad scale for publicly valued activity.[5]

Illich argued that the use of technology to create decentralized webs could support the goal of creating a good educational system:[6]

A good educational system should have three purposes: it should provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and, finally, furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known.[7]

Illich posited self-directed education, supported by intentional social relations in fluid informal arrangements:

Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education – and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.[8]

In the last sentence, Illich suggests that the institutionalization of education is considered to institutionalize society and conversely that ideas for de-institutionalizing education may be a starting point for a de-institutionalized society.[9][10]

Developing this idea, Illich proposes four Learning Networks:

1. Reference Service to Educational Objects - An open directory of educational resources and their availability to learners.
2. Skills Exchange - A database of people willing to list their skills and the basis on which they would be prepared to share or swap them with others.
3. Peer-Matching - A network helping people to communicate their learning activities and aims in order to find similar learners who may wish to collaborate.
4. Directory of Professional Educators - A list of professionals, paraprofessionals and free-lancers detailing their qualifications, services and the terms on which these are made available.

• Unschooling

• Learning materials related to Deschooling Society at Wikiversity
• Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. ournature.org. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2008-08-26..
• MP3 version of the book, read for the Unwelcome Guests radio show
• Ivan Illichs “Deschooling society” verstehen oder mißverstehen?, June 1, 2016, Bertrand Stern (in German)