In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
Ivan IllichRead
In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take up predetermined problems in a ritually defined setting. The most radical alternative to school would be a network or service which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern with others motivated by the same concern.
Interpretation
The quote critiques traditional education systems and suggests a more flexible approach to learning.
Ivan Illich argues that formal education often focuses on a select few individuals addressing predetermined issues within a structured environment. He proposes a radical alternative where individuals can connect and share their concerns in a collaborative network, fostering a more inclusive and relevant learning experience.
In practice
In a discussion about educational reform, this quote could be used to highlight the need for innovative learning environments.
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.
School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught. Once this lesson is learned, people lose their incentive to grow in independence; they no longer find relatedness attractive, and close themselves off to the surprises which life offers when it is not predetermined by institutional definition.
The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.
The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of the belief in life everlasting.
Effective health care depends on self-care; this fact is currently heralded as if it were a discovery.
As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit
Students deserve great teachers. And teachers deserve the support they need to become great.
I think kids in every minority need to see people like themselves in books; that's an acknowledgment of their existence on this planet and in this society.
Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.
Your task, O preacher, is to make sure that you are faithful to the text, that you are faithful to the proclamation of that gospel, that you are faithful to set forth the whole counsel of God, and then step back and let it happen.
After years of finding mathematics easy, I finally reached integral calculus and came up against a barrier. I realized that this was as far as I could go, and to this day I have never successfully gone beyond it in any but the most superficial way.
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