Against Education

First and most obvious, setting up schools requires that learning take place in a defined place at a defined time. It brings together a group of people who do not necessarily have anything in common apart from their ignorance, and requires them to learn a subject through a sequence of arbitrarily defined attendance slots in a physical setting selected for the convenience of time-table administration rather than any but token consideration of how people naturally learn.
The experience of schooling throughout their childhood has usually taught students not only what to expect in practical terms, but also created a emotional mind-set towards the learning environment, for better or for worse. The last thing many people want to feel is that “I have to learn this…”. They would rather feel they were doing something, and “learning as I go along”. But the former message is the one which is received most strongly.
Source: ATHERTON J S (2003) Doceo: Against formal education [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.doceo.co.uk/heterodoxy/education.htm Accessed: 18 September 2006