In a society which emphasizes teaching, children
and students – and adults – become passive and unable to think or act
for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a
society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching. . . . the educational system so radically decentralized becomes congruent with the urban structure itself. People of all walks of life come forth, and offer a class in the things they know and love . . . Living and learning are the same. . . Therefore:
Instead of the lock-step of compulsory schooling in a fixed place, work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city: workshops, teachers at home or walking through the city, professionals willing to take on the young as helpers, older children teaching younger children, museums, youth groups traveling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, old people, and so on. Conceive of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process; survey all these situations, describe them, and publish them as the city's "curriculum"; then let students, children, their families and neighborhoods weave together for themselves the situations that comprise their "school" . . . Build new educational facilities in a way which extends and enriches this network.
Above all, encourage the formation of seminars and workshops in people's homes . . .
– Christopher Alexander (1977)