Deschooling by Destructuring
Illich made a lot of interesting comments in “Deschooling Society”. I primarily liked his discussion about the problems with schools these day. I agree that people learn practical knowledge and knowledge essentials just by going through everyday life. I feel like the most difficult part about schooling is how you are forced to conform to a structure. For example, tests that require you to spit back the information just as the teacher has taught them to you. This prevents students from grasping the information and relating them to other things or new ideas. I really liked Illich’s line: “we can depend on self-motivated learning instead of employing teachers to bribe or compel a student to find the time and the will to learn.” I think that it is true that when people become interested in the material that they are learning they have more motivation. We were actually discussing this concept in my business class today. We were talking about theories and techniques that managers use in companies to get their workers to do what they want. In class we were discussing how one company we studied gave workers stock options after they worked for one year. According to my teacher, this was a bribe given by the owner. According to some of my classmates, having a say in the company helped to further motivate the workers. Wherever people find their motivation, it is imporant that they find it…whether its in the classroom or at the work place.
