Charles Leadbetter on Ivan Illich

Dougald Hine has left a comment on my recent posting on Internet schools. It points us to an article on Ivan Illich by Charles Leadbetter that was published in Prospect in January.

Leadbetter writes:

Ivan Illich's genius was to realise, 30 years ago, that this would be not just desirable but would become a necessity. A tax-funded public sector built around passive consumers cannot hope to keep meeting people's rising expectations for tailored services.

The only way to personalise services to different needs, on a grand scale and at affordable cost, is to motivate and equip the users to become players, not spectators. Imagine an education system built around the participatory principles of Wikipedia, or a social care system that was as simple to take part in as eBay. In future we will need public services produced by the masses, not just for the masses.

Dougald's School of Everything is worth investigating too.