Deschooling Society

Well, this text has had quite the effect on me, it has been roaming around in my head for the past few days and I have to say, I still disagree with Illich.

I have to say I actually enjoyed going to school for the most part. Don’t consider me a nerd, as the majority, I didn’t really care too much for the homework part. Unless it was a logical problem or something that could pass as a game.

But looking back, even though I resented studying vocab in the afternoon, there usually came a point with about every subject I studied later in life where it suddenly clicked and I was glad someone had encouraged or forced me to continue.

So to me deschooling doesn’t make any sense. Another example that comes to my head is the way I was raised concerning food. Me and my sibblings had to eat whatever was served and a healthy serving of it. We had to stay on the table until we finished our plate and if time didn’t permit that we had to finish it for dinner. (Lunch is the big meal in Germany) We had to keep trying the foods every time, no matter if we had determined we didn’t like onions or mushrooms or tomatoes. My parents insisted that taste develops and changes with time and they kept telling us we might be surprised some day we like it. And they were right. But believe me, we weren’t happy campers all the time being forced to eat whatever was served. Would I raise my kids the same way? May not quite as extreme, but YES! Would I encourage them to study Spanish on top of French and English even though they think those languages are hard enough? Definately!

Also in a society that is as competetive as the one we live in, I can not imagine deschooling at all!

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