Deschooling Society was primarily a call for disestablishment — not only of school, but of the institutions which we believe do us good simply because we have come to believe — falsely — that they necessarily embody and fulfil the original stated purpose of the beneficial function we attribute to them. Our failure is that we have abdicated to the ‘experts' who work in those institutions our personal responsibility for thinking and acting in our own lives. Their failure is the failure to consider the unintended consequences, the elements of human action and human nature which foil all best-laid plans and systems, especially the well-intentioned ones.
Illich would have argued, however, that we cannot and should not even attempt to plan, program and control life in this way: instead, we should relish and prepare ourselves for the surprises that life brings.