Schooling, Ivan Illich says, is one modern manifestation of the -mystery of evil-. The essays in Thoughts out of School are observations of what happens to children and teachers-in-training as they go through the peculiarly modern institution of schooling. -Schools are so large in our lives that some of us never escape their reasoning or their practices-, Arney writes. But through acute observation and by taking the reader back to the historical roots of commonplace terms like -development- and -character-, Arney offers a way to think about schools, on the one hand, and about true...

The development of modern medicine is on a very steep trajectory upward--a rise that began only about a hundred years ago. This rise is certainly quantitative, but it is accompanied by qualitative changes in the way we understand and deliver healthcare. This book begins with a look at three recognized periods of medical development--from 1900 until World War II, from the war until about 1980, and the period since 1980.

While the common response is to celebrate these developments, this book suggests that perhaps we should also be wary, especially of the qualitative changes. Since World War...