Deschooling

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Freeing a person or society from the assumptions and habits that formal education has instilled, so that learning can happen outside institutions
2. The process of undoing the effects of compulsory schooling and encouraging independent, self-directed learning in its place
3. Dismantling the dependence on institutional education, as proposed by critics who believe learning should be open, voluntary and community-based

Etymology: Ivan Illich, the Austrian-born social critic, popularised the term in his 1971 book "Deschooling Society," where he argued that compulsory schooling should be dismantled and replaced with learning networks people could join freely. The word itself is a plain formation: the prefix "de-" (from Latin "de", meaning "away from" or "undoing") attached to "schooling," the verbal noun of "school." "School" itself goes back through Old English "scol" and Latin "schola" to the Greek "skholē," which originally meant leisure or spare time, a sense that survives in the idea that learning was once a pursuit of the unhurried. "Deschooling" therefore means something close to "undoing schooling," and the verb "deschool" appears in English in the same period of the 1970s, following Illich's usage. The prefix is productive in English, as in "decentralise" or "deregulate," so the formation needed no special invention; Illich's contribution was giving the term its critical, programmatic sense.

Synonyms: unschooling

Antonyms: schooling