Deschool

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To release a person from the mindset, habits and expectations that formal schooling has instilled so they can learn in other ways
2. To undo the lasting influence of institutional education on how someone thinks, behaves and approaches learning
3. To remove the conventional school-based structures and assumptions that shape how a person or society acquires knowledge

Etymology: "Deschool" is a formation from the prefix "de-", meaning "remove" or "undo", attached to "school." Its literal sense is to remove the effects of schooling, or to take someone out of the institutional habits and assumptions that formal education instills. The prefix does the work here: "de-" in English often signals reversal or removal, as in "decentralize" or "deforest," so the coinage reads as an undoing of school itself rather than a simple absence of it. The base word carries the bulk of the history. "School" descends from Latin "schola," which came from Greek "scholē," originally meaning leisure or spare time, the sense that underlies "scholar" as one who has time to study. The Greek sense of freedom from labour is a surprising starting point for a word now tied to compulsory classrooms, and it is the idea that "deschool" turns on its head, since the term implies that schooling has taken over time that might otherwise be free.

Synonyms: unschool

Antonyms: school, educate