The Public School Has Become The Established

I Intend To Discuss Some Perplexing Issues Which Are Raised Once We Embrace The Hypothesis That Society Can Be Deschooled; To Search For Criteria Which May Help Us Distinguish Institutions Which Merit Development Because They Support Learning In A Deschooled Milieu; And To Clarify Those Personal Goals Which Would Foster The Advent Of An Age Of Leisure (schole) As Opposed To An Economy Dominated By Service Industries.

Schools Are Designed On The Assumption That There Is A Secret To Everything In Life; That The Quality Of Life Depends Upon Knowing That Secret; That Secrets Can Only Be Known In Orderly Successions; And That Only Teachers Can Properly Reveal These Secrets. An Individual With A Schooled Mind Conceives Of The World As A Pyramid Of Classified Packages Accessible Only To Those Who Carry The Proper Tags.

The Most Important Thing You Learn At School Is That Learning Only Happens By Being Taught.

Most People Acquire Most Of Their Knowledge Outside School, And In School Only Insofar As School, In A Few Rich Countries, Has Become Their Place Of Confinement During An Increasing Part Of Their Lives.

It Takes More Time And Effort And Delicacy To Learn The Silence Of A People Than To Learn Its Sounds. Some People Have A Special Gift For This. Perhaps This Explains Why Some Missionaries, Notwithstanding Their Efforts, Never Come To Speak Properly, To Communicate Delicately Through Silences. Although They "speak With The Accent Of Natives" They Remain Forever Thousands Of Miles Away. The Learning Of The Grammar Of Silence Is An Art Much More Difficult To Learn Than The Grammar Of Sounds.