Jim McGee references Ivan Ilich: McGee is lightyears ahead of where I could hope to be in this space.
The planning of new educational institutions ought not to begin with the administrative goals of a principal or president, or with the teaching goals of a professional educator, or with the learning goals of any hypothetical class of people. It must not start with the question, ‘What should someone learn?’ but with the question, ‘What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?’
It’s not the new environment that needs to be thought about this way: the old ones should be examined as well. After all, schools — all schools — are made to serve transient populations, and their needs evolve as the subject matter itself does. Shouldn’t the tools and environment do so, as well?