Bull. Sci. Tech. Soc., Vol. 16, Nos. 5-6, pp. 262-267, 1996. Printed in the USA. 0270-4676196. Copyright © 1996 STS Press. RECONTEXTUALIZING ILLICH'S Leonard J. Waks I. The Cultural Setting Deschooling Society addressed the specific social and cultural concerns of the late 1960s (social and racial inequality, psychological impotence, and the environmental crisis) in their own terms. Illich's formulations were filled with the new awarenesses, apprehensions, enthusiasms - and perhaps even foolishness - of that special period. The colleges were rocking with protest demonstrations and off-campus experiments in living. The Whole Earth Catalog established a new landmark in publishing as Earth Day One was celebrated in 1970, the year .lk.s£.hooling Society was published. The Catalog's innocent sounding sub-title, "access to tools," was softly subversive; for while it focused on do-it-yourself information, the very word "tools" implied things held in one's hand, and brought under personal control in order to endow utilitarian activities with a larger, self- expressive purpose. A lifestyle of "tools" was thus contrasted with the individuality-destroying, "mega- machine" technology of the "military-industrial complex" which supported the cold war "system" responsible for racism, impotence, and ecocide. The Ideology of Schooling and School Ideologies That the school system would be called upon by liberal educators to meliorate these the above three social problems should come as no surprise; because since the system of schools and colleges was set in place, Americans have regarded it as a panacea. Because social skills grow from the awarenesses, attitudes, imaginations, and skills of the people, it is plausible to think that education can cure them. This kind of thinking is also convenient because the putative problem-resolutions are expected in the indeterminate future, thus causing no immediate social disruptions. Economic disparities can be addressed by expanding higher education to improve access to professional roles. Racist attitudes can be ameliorated through multi- cultural causes; alienation, through affective counselling, and ecocide, by environmental education. This "panacea-thinking" re-frames current social problems in terms of educational programs, and the late 1960s saw a flowering of educational ideologies. We may divide these into those offering prescriptions for school improvement, and those making critiques of the institution of schooling. The improvers, despite their differences, shared the assumption that major social problems could be resolved by improvements in education. The "deschooling" slogan corralled the improvers and made them a visible target by challenging explicitly their shared core assumption. The critics stepped beyond school improvement, and it was Illich who integrated their insights. In the early 1970s it was frequently said that while there were no new elements in Illich's critique, he had re-configured elements of existing critiques into a "new whole." II. Deschoolim: Society: The Text Illich organized an alternative education "paradigm" around the deschooling concept. He had read, admired and quoted Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and saw himself as offering a new template for educational and social studies. He hoped to resolve anomalies in the competing ideologies of late industrial society while suggesting new lines of inquiry and practice. The most daring and paradoxical aspect of the new paradigm was that it took the system of schools and colleges to be the prime cause of the social dilemmas of 262