Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Outline Ivan Illich's critique of compulsory education.

Ivan Illich had a very progressive view of education back in the 1970s. He had the radical idea to de-institutionalize the majority of the school system, essentially creating a crowdsourced platform for education that would enable more people to get sufficient education and would encourage freedom and flexibility in the areas of concentration. Illich was surprisingly prescient, and many of his ideas are now coming to fruition in some shape or form. There are three points to his plan.
First, Illich wants to de-institutionalize the schooling system, moving to the then-emerging internet. This would empower everyone to access whatever learning and information they want at any time in their lives, so that education would always continue for those who are interested.
Second, he desired to offer a platform where people could share whatever information they wanted so long as it was factual and educational. His desire was that anyone could be both an educator and a learner, much like the Montessori school system where older students help in the education of younger ones.
Finally, he wanted to create a platform where anyone who had a conflict or disagreement could speak in an open forum and get their issues heard. This, and the other ideas, have all begun to develop as the internet has allowed K-12 schools and colleges offer free online courses in any subject area, and organizations like Wikipedia have made information free and available to all.

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