In Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich spoke of a system he felt would help society disconnect from its dependence on schools. He rejected the idea of relying on an elite few allowed to teach and control the people. Instead, Illich proposed ideas for making society a more supportive learning environment. His system focuses on networks (learning webs) that promote learning in ways that make it more relevant and more accessible. Illich spoke of how technology could be put to use in his system:

• “The operation of a peer-matching network would be simple. The user would identify himself by name and address and describe the activity for which he sought a peer. A computer would send him back the names and addresses of all those who had inserted the same description. It is amazing that such a simple utility has never been used on a broad scale for publicly valued activity.”

In a decade when it was little more than a concept, Ivan Illich had effectively described the internet. The internet might not fit every term of his proposal, but it fits the role all the same. Read Deschooling Society’s chapter on learning webs here.

In the past 20 years, the internet has revolutionized communication, news, and marketing, and affects the everyday lives of people all across the globe. It’s created a world wide peer network that can communicate in seconds. Because of the internet, a wealth of information is now accessible to billions. It’s the perfect tool for self-directed education, and that is exactly the kind of activity the internet promotes.

A recent infographic analyzed the searches and amount of information that went through Google search. The numbers are staggering: 87.8 billion searches go through Google a month. That’s almost 90 billion requests for information. People are learning on the internet every day.

The internet isn’t perfect: anyone can have a website, and say whatever they want. However, the same can be said of publications outside of the internet. There is always a responsibility held by the reader (or viewer, or listener) to process the information they receive, and question it. The lies that cause us not to trust everything we hear should make us more resourceful, not fearful. Instead of being fed information we do not question, we’re able to form our own judgments and are encouraged to find more than one source of information.

Organizations, universities, publications, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs around the world have given us all the information we would ever need, in an accessible way. The internet has a resource out there for anything you would ever need to know, and you can find what you need through a simple search box.

I consider the internet an invaluable resource. It has brought thousands of things to my attention that I would’ve otherwise been unaware of: documentaries, movies, books, people, history, philosophies. Without the internet, I wouldn’t have the self-education community I do.

How has the internet helped you?

“If the networks I have described could emerge, the educational path of each student would be his own to follow, and only in retrospect would it take on the features of a recognizable program. The wise student would periodically seek professional advice: assistance to set a new goal, insight into difficulties encountered, choice between possible methods.” – Ivan Illich

Self-education (i.e. autodidacticism/autodidactism, unschooling, self-directed learning, self-learning) is a concept new to many of today’s individuals. Despite the natural prominence of self-directed learning, modern schooling is widely accepted as being the best method of education. But before the wide-spread establishment of schools, it’s safe to say that self-education was the norm. That has changed.

Certain disciplines, such as the sciences and religion, have a long history of academic institutions, but modern schooling began 250 years ago. In the 18th century, Prussia declared education a responsibility of state. Within thirty years, all schools and universities in the Kingdom of Prussia were state institutions. Compulsory education spread across the world, and in 1918 Mississippi was the last state in the US to pass a compulsory attendance law.

In 1960, less than 50 years after Mississippi declared compulsory attendance, Paul Goodman published Growing Up Absurd, in which he criticized compulsory education. The book became the first among many during what is now called the deschooling movement.

Ten years later, Ivan Illich published Deschooling Society. Illich supported the idea of self-directed education, and he criticized the ineffectiveness of modern schools.  He wrote that school confuses teaching with learning, diplomas with competence, and processes with substance. He also argued that schools prevent students from realizing their natural curiosity and instead make students focus on delivering what the teacher wants. One of his main points was that creative and exploratory learning can’t be forced, and requires an individual’s own initiative. Much of his writing can be found online, along with Deschooling Society.

John Caldwell Holt, an educator and prominent critic of compulsory schooling, said that compulsory education violates every individual’s right to freedom of thought. His first book, How Children Fail, was published in 1964, and was based off his first decade of teaching. His radical assertion that children failed not despite of schools, but because of them, brought him to public attention. After publishing Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better (1976), Holt came into contact with families educating their children at home, and became an advocate for homeschooling. Holt was clear that as a whole, he felt schools were fundamentally flawed. He was of the opinion that coercion was not required in education, and that children will learn if given the freedom and the resources. His line of thought is now known as unschooling.

Another educator, John Taylor Gatto, was a teacher for nearly 30 years and appointed New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991 before he retired. Gatto argued that schools are designed to provide an obedient, working population. He claims that real education in not school’s purpose, since a well-educated population would be difficult to maintain. Gatto has published a thorough analysis of the American school system and its history in the book The Underground History of American Education. The book can be found online.

Today’s rising interest in self-education is supported by the evidence brought forward by dozens of critics of modern schooling. The growing number of critics and lack of success in schools have opened up the opportunity for people to discover an alternative to compulsory education. Many critics have the same solution: people can learn on their own, without instructors.

Each of us have a personal history that brought us to the decision to unschool. What’s your story?