A classic in the philosophy of education, considering the fundamental
purpose and function of schools, translated into English for the first
time.
This classic 1971 work on the fundamental purpose and function of
schools belongs on the same shelf as other landmark works of the era,
including Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy
of the Oppressed, and John Holt's How Children Fail. Nils Christie's
If School Didn't Exist, translated into English for the first time,
departs from these works by not considering schooling (and
deschooling) as much as schools and their specific community and
social contexts. Christie argues that schools should be proving grounds
for how to live together in society rather than assembly lines producing
future citizens and employees.
Christie presents three examples of schools in different settings--a
French village school that became the bedrock of its community; federal
government-run schools for Native Americans that facilitated the
experience of inferiority; and a British secondary school that
reinforced class stratification. He considers the school's function as a
storage space (for an unproductive segment of society), as a means for
differentiation (based on merit), and as distributor of knowledge. He
introduces the idea of the school-society, a self-governing body of
students, teachers, parents, and community; and he offers a vision of a
society based on normalizing the needs and values of local communities.
