Ivan Illich

(1926 - 2002)

The priest and philosopher Ivan Illich went to serve a parish in Washington Heights in New York City in 1951; he later went to positions in Puerto Rico and Mexico before leaving the priesthood—his line of thinking usually too radical for the Vatican—to teach at universities and write books, including his highly influential 1971 work Deschooling Society, which said that the best education happens outside traditional classrooms—where deference to authority is a main lesson—among more informal personal networks.