Deschooling, the rejection of an economy of educational scarcity, of coercive education, of accreditation and experts, of controlling bureaucracy and the colonial mentality, has much good in it. And, like most things, this good is made clearest, most present, and most pressing outside of the decadence of the privileged.
Deschooling at its best isn’t a nice thing, isn’t a humanitarian thing, isn’t a choice, it is a demand, a freedom, a revolution. In this it is unmediated, a revolution of doing, of living out the world as it can be, centered on the path of passion and struggles against injustice[1].
This book is good insofar as it allows these possibilities to assert itself even as it centers other audiences and ends with the naïve pluralism of a preaching child, and that it presents, again and again the necessity of developing community resources and relationships, that are open, community owned, and that build power as a common good.
If deschooling is to be relevant it needs to be placed within the context of necessity and as such reject this ludicrous, modern, capitalist idea of childhood, which much of deschooling eats up as a counterpoint to its oversimplified rejection of coercion.
With such a rejection, childhood then becomes a realm of freedom outside of the necessities foisted upon us by the world, a paradise where we slowly develop into the challenges of the world, and find our niche within them as opposed to a negotiated enacting of revolution in the world.
How do we account for coercion in a system of necessity? If necessity itself is the enemy, where lies the path to liberation via abundance? What understandings must we have to take this upon ourselves?
There is nothing objectionable about creating a time of relative safety and separation for our young. There is however no justification for the intentional maintenance of ignorance, whether justified in the innocence of children or the self-development of the freed mind.
The ignorance of our schooling—or deschooling, that is living—enacts the legitimated violence of our system, denies our collective responsibility, and fails to get us where we need to be going…
[1] The centrality of the following quote to this entire movement (via Paul Goodman) well demonstrates its essence: “Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society you wanted. How would you live, you personally in that society? Start living that way now! Whatever you would do then, do it now. When you run up against obstacles, people or things that won’t let you live that way, then begin to think about how to get over or around or under that obstacle, or how to push it out of the way, and your politics will be concrete and practical”.
