Concept
Philosophically, it refers to the belief that schools and other learning institutions are incapable of providing the best possible education for some or most individuals. Some extend this concept beyond the individual and call for an end to schools in general. This is based on the belief that most people learn better by themselves, outside of an institutional environment, at a self-determined pace. This is the meaning of the term as used by Illich.
Another common criticism is that institutionalized schooling is used as a tool for the engineering of an ignorant, conformist working class through constant schedules and prearranged time blocks and one-size-fits-all teaching methods.
Practical alternatives arising in place of institutionalized learning have been free schools, unschooling at home and forming networks with other deschooling families and individuals.
Read more about this topic: Deschooling
Famous quotes containing the word concept:
“Every new concept first comes to the mind in a judgment.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
—Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)
“There is a concept that is the corrupter and destroyer of all others. I speak not of Evil, whose limited empire is that of ethics; I speak of the infinite.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)