A friend who wished to start a school of his own approached me the other day with a request: “Please draft a vision and a mission for the school.” “The vision: Earn profit,” I said; “The mission: Earn more profit.” Being familiar with my cynicism, he said without batting an eyelid or even smiling, “Of course, you’re absolutely right... I’m here to get a vision and a mission that’s different from the ones we usually see on websites...” I drafted something which I can’t recollect now! [You can guess how serious I was about what I wrote.] Education today is another commercial enterprise. Students as well as their parents want it that way too; they have been “schooled” to want it that way! In 1971, in his book, Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich blamed the education system for institutionalising values. He argued that the schools put undue emphasis on process rather than substance . “Once these become blurred,” wrote Illich, “a ...
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