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thesis entitled

EDUCATION AS A FUNCTION OF COMMUNITY:
PAUL GOODMAN'S CONCEPT OF THE
EDUCATIVE CITY

presented by

Mark R. Penta

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph . D . degree in Education

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Date Sept. 2: 1972

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ABSTRACT

EDUCATION AS A FUNCTION OF COMMUNITY:
PAUL GOODMAN'S CONCEPT OF THE
EDUCATIVE CITY

BY

Mark R. Penta

It was the intention of this study to organize and
clarify Paul Goodman's prOposals and plans for a Utopian
Community. In order to gain some perspective on Goodman's
work as a community planner the Radiant City Plan of
Le Corbusier and the Broadacres City Plan of Frank Lloyd
Wright were reviewed. The Radiant City Plan was presented
as an example of the modernist approach to city planning.
The Broadacres City Plan was chosen as representational of
the decentralist-functionalist approach to planning.

Goodman criticized Le Corbusier's plan because it
was a plan to maintain the social, political, and economic
status quo. Goodman's criticism of Wright's Broadacres
was that it was not a city plan at all, rather it was a
rural plan. Wright's plan was geographically decentralized.
Goodman, on the other hand, plans for sociological and

political decentralization.

Mark R. Penta

Goodman perceives the city as the physical back-

ground against which human activity occurs.

A city plan

must be one which is conducive to healthy human growth.

Therefore, it must be a plan which considers the selection

and use of technology, political and economic

institutions,

the education of peOple and the physical plant.

The main concern of this study was to

explicate

Goodman's notion of education as a function of community.

Goodman prOposes an educative city as the appropriate

arena in which the education of our youth can

Goodman's view was that any city plan
facilitate the develOpment of community would
the following criteria. First, it would have
the selection and use of technology. It must
technology which is efficient in human terms.
must provide for an economic arrangement that

local autonomy with national interdependence.

occur.

that would

have to meet
to consider
have a
Second, it

allows for

Third, it

must provide a physical plant which is catalytic to face-

to-face contact without pressure or manipulatibn. Fourth,

it must encourage local and national political initiation

and discourse. And last, it must provide a city which is

open to the self-initiated experimentation and inquiry of

its youth.

EDUCATION AS A FUNCTION OF COMMUNITY:
PAUL GOODMAN'S CONCEPT OF THE

EDUCATIVE CITY

BY

Mark R. Penta

A THESIS

Presented to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Secondary Education
and Curriculum

1972

F’ i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express appreciation to all those
people who aided me so greatly in the preparation and
production of this work. Special appreciation is expressed
to my Doctoral Guidance Committee: Dr. Marvin Grandstaff,

Dr. Keith Anderson, Dr. Dale Alam, and Dr. Louise Sause.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWI-‘EDGMENTS O O O O O O O O O O O O O i i
Chapter

I. CITY PLANNING AS A VANTAGE POINT FOR

EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT . . . . . . . . . 1

Introduction to the Study . . . . . . . 1

Two City-Planning Perspectives . . . . . . 3

I I O TECHNOLOGY I O O O I O O O O O O O 3 0

III. POLITICS, WORK, AND DOMESTIC LIFE . . . . . 48
IV. GOODMAN'S EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE . . . . . 65

V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . 87

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

iii

CHAPTER I

CITY PLANNING AS A VANTAGE POINT FOR

EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT

Introduction to the Study

 

If we want to understand and appreciate human
behavior we must observe dynamic human action against its
"static" background. People and places are interwoven
into the fabric of society. Hence when we undertake to
study a society or any of its operative parts or institu-
tions, we are faced with the problem that we cannot isolate
an institution from peeple or the people from the place--
place being not only the immediate physical (both natural
and artificial) surrounding but also the accumulation of
history. As Goodman has said, we accept "the man-made
background itself as the inevitable nature of things; we
do not realize that somebody drew some lines on a piece of
paper who might have drawn otherwise. But now as engineer
and architect once drew, pe0ple have to walk and live."1
Once we have this statement in mind it becomes easier to
understand the thrust of Paul Goodman's social criticism

and the purpose and direction of his so-called "Utopian"

proposals.

Paul Goodman's analysis of education has been
pervasive. He has not only challenged teaching methods,
administrative organization, competency of teachers, and
lack of equal educational opportunity, but also our basic
concept of how to educate our citizens. Goodman has
criticized the public school system as a social institution.

Contrary to an all too commonly held notion, Goodman
is concerned with the building and renovation of our
institutions and our cities, and not just their abandon-
ment. He has proposed numerous plans and methods for
drawing up plans. Goodman's largest efforts have been in
the planning of cities with special concern for the educa-
tional Opportunities in them. This thesis will be con-
cerned with Paul Goodman as planner, builder and educator.
It is the intent of this thesis to organize and clarify
his concept of what education should and can be. In order
to do this we must consider the context in which learning
occurs. Goodman does not limit his proposals to formal
education. When he does deal with the more formal aspects
of education he does not necessarily mean within the walls
of a school building. Education, formal and informal, is
an ongoing life experience. Hence, to understand and
appreciate Goodman's comprehensive and UtOpian educational
proposals we must first gain an understanding of the

physical and social context. The background upon which we

perceive the foreground is the idea of education as a
function of community.

In an effort to understand the city and the city
as community, this chapter will recapitulate some of the
major ideas of city planners and architects who have had
an important influence on American city planning. In
chapters two and three, Goodman's "Utopian City" and
social organization will be discussed. Specifically,
Chapter II will deal with the nature and use of tech-
nology and economics; Chapter III with politics, concepts
and practice of work and domestic life. Education is
interwoven with these ideas and practices, and educational
themes will be evident throughout. Chapter IV will deal
specifically with education, while Chapter V will serve for

summary and conclusions.

Two City-Planning Perspectives

City planning, as an at least quasi-social science,
has a history of only two centuries. During the eighteenth
century some thinkers began to recognize that man's forms
of thought, work, leisure and even of existence importantly
were conditioned by his physical surroundings. The general
assumption of city-planning can be roughly stated thus:
The characteristics of physical environments--quantitative
and qualitative--are reflected in all aspects of both
individual behavior and, more broadly, culture. Sometimes

that assumption is given a "hard" reading, leading to a

rigid environmental determinism, but, more often (and more
prOperly) the characteristics of physical environments are
construed as contributing, and not exclusively determining,
variables in the culture-shaping process.

The importance of physical environment to education
has been recognized for a long time, at least since Dewey
placed the purchase of movable furniture high on his
priority list for the University of Chicago Laboratory
School. Attention has been given to the aesthetic quality
of the learning environment and, more recently (due partly
to the influence of the ideas of Marshall McLuhan) to the
effects of the media environment on learning style and
efficiency. For the most part, investigation of the
relationship between physical environment and learning
has been conducted on what might be called the micro
level--that is, it has centered on the classroom environment.
The working supposition of this thesis is to the effect
that learning can also be looked at from a macro perspec-
tive, through an inquiry into the literature of city
planning.

That supposition has been explored in some depth
by Paul Goodman, and it is Goodman's thought on city-
planning and education that is the point of departure for
this study. The city as an educational environment is a
recurrent theme in Goodman's work. Indeed, his large
novel, Empire City, which Goodman himself considered to

be his most important work, has the educative effects of

the physical environment as a major thematic concern.
These remarks aim at an exposition, systematization and,
perhaps, a clarification of Goodman's views on that topic.
In order to place Goodman in a disciplinary perspective,
however, it should be helpful to consider first the posi-
tions of two other major figures in the history of city
planning--Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.

As a reaction to the growing ugliness which
accompanied the industrial progress of the nineteenth
century, several city planners and architects turned
their attention to the formulation of "Garden City" plans.
Basically Garden City plans are those designed to segregate
the industrial area from the living area of a city. These
plans called for the establishment of a protective area
of land which separates industrial and commercial centers
from agricultural and domestic sectors. These plans called
for a very low population density and therefore put the
people great distances from their work.

One of the most important critics of the Garden
City was the architect Le Corbusier.2 He reasoned that the
Garden City plans were not city plans at all; they were
suburban plans. Garden City plans did not deal with the
problems of how, in our increasingly technological society,
areas of high population density could be beautiful and
livable. Le Corbusier believed that city planning must

reflect and account for the functions that occur within

large cities. To Le Corbusier a city plan must accept
political and economic realities, while it seeks to make
life in the city more convenient and pleasurable. He
looked upon all decentralized city plans as attempts to
regress to times past. His plans on the other hand were
attempts to find beauty, efficiency, and human value in
the new cities.

Greenbelt and Garden City plans were attempts to
conform with the geography of the area. Le Corbusier, to
the contrary, believed that "the city is man's grip upon
nature."3 This operation is one in which man seeks to
control nature to the extent of establishing the "conditions
of nature" in the heart of the city. The main approach in
achieving this goal.was to free the land, that is to build
upwards rather than horizontally.4

The challenge to make large industrial cities more
livable was seen by Le Corbusier as the most important task
of the time. The severity and urgency of the problem is
attested to in his writing. In 1927 Le Corbusier offered
the following as the root cause of the social upheaval of
the day:

The various classes of workers in society today

no longer have dwellings adapted to their needs;
neither the artisian nor the intellectual. It is

a question of building which is at the root of the 5
social unrest of today; architecture or revolution.

Le Corbusier's solution to the problem:
Economic law unavoidably governs our acts and our
thoughts. The problem of the house is the problem
of the epoch. The equilibrium of society depends
on it. . . . We must create the mass-production
spirit. The spirit of construction of mass-
production houses; the spirit of living in mass-
production houses. The spirit of conceiving
the mass-production houses. . . . [If we do this
with an] objective point of view we shall arrive
at the House-Machine.6
He wanted to completely overhaul architecture and city
planning to reflect the geometry of machine forms which
he felt reflected the new technology.

Le Corbusier arrived at these conclusions on the
basis of his analysis of the change from pre-technological
man to the technological man of today and tomorrow. In
1927 Le Corbusier reasoned that the unrest of modern man
was partly due to the disilluSion of family life and the
frustration which man felt as a result of the absence of
the application of the machine to domestic life. He sees
the history of man as having evolved extremely slowly
until the late 19th century. At that time the presence
of the industrial revolution was being felt. Historically,
man worked with simple tools and his hands. He worked
at home, decided how to work, on what to work and when to
work. His family was always around him. His children
worked with him and, under his guidance, became craftsmen.

Work and family were harmonious. When this was so, society

was stable and exhibited little change. But as of the middle

of the nineteenth century this stability--the result of
"work organized within the family unit"--began to falter.
Industrialization brought intricate machinery to man's
work. Specialization and centralization became common-
place. It was no longer the case that a man could work
with and train his sons. Instead men were selected for
jobs by bosses who were interested exclusively in
efficiency. Mass assembly line production resulted in a
man making only a small part of a product. Le Cobusier
realized that the pride of the craftsman had disappeared.7
Add to this the fact that man has more leisure time (in
1927 the eight hour day was widely initiated) and Le
Corbusier saw the demise of the family. What would man
do with his time? He has a home which provides lodging
but nothing else. Le Corbusier felt that the workers'
houses (apartments) were so hideous that once within its
walls man was so demoralized that he could not relate to
his family nor could he wisely or creatively make use of
his new found leisure time.

Men work with machines and see their value and
benefit. But they are unable to take advantage of the
machine for their personal lives. As for the intellectuals,
they suffer the same fate. Because the high degree of
precision and technology to which they have become

accustomed at their jobs is lacking in their homes.8

The new technology and the machine aesthetic were
the answers for Le Corbusier. Man must realize the beauty
and the benefit that will accrue from the machine and apply
these in order to liberate his humanity. Le Corbusier
reasoned that only a highly centralized and capitalistic
society could take full advantage of technology. There-
fore, he planned cities which were centralized, mass-
produced and large; yet he felt that they kept human-scale,
were harmonious with nature, and efficient.

An example of a Le Corbusier city plan will
illuminate his ideas. It must be kept in mind though,
that with few exceptions he was satisfied with the
political and economic institutions of his day. The
"captains of industry" were model citizens to Le Corbusier.9

Business has modified its customs; it bears

a heavy responsibility today; cost, time, solidity
of the work. Engineers in numbers fill its
offices, make their calculations, practice the
laws of economy to an intensive degree, and seek
to harmonize two opposed factors: cheapness and
good work. Intelligence lies behind every initia-
tive, bold innovations are demanded. The morality
of industry has been transformed: big business

is today a healthy and moral organism. If we set
this new fact against the past, we have Revolution
in method and in the scale of the adventure.10

Between 1931 and 1934 Le Corbusier developed his
plan for the "Radiant City." The pOpulation density for
the Radiant City would be three to four times that of the

Garden City. Greater population results in higher land

value in that area. Le Corbusier saw this increase in

10

assets as the kind of incentive that was needed in order
to secure the financing of the Radiant City.11 The new
technology made available the engineering and construction
techniques which make it possible to build upward rather
than outward. In the Radiant City plan all the buildings
are to be built on stilts or "pilots," thereby freeing the
entire ground level of the city for parks, trees, lawns
and lakes. The buildings were to be prefabricated and
assembled on location. Thus, the techniques of mass
production could be employed to keep the construction
costs to a minimum without sacrificing strength and
durability.

The Radiant City was to be a "Green City." But
unlike the Garden City the greenery was to be within the
heart of the city. Buildings would have roof gardens and
parks, peOple would live in "apartment houses with no
breaks between the units, a ribbon of housing winding in
an unbroken pattern across the city."12 Within these
continuous apartment houses there would be several levels
of streets. The indoor streets would be for communal
services, i.e., child care centers, laundry service, food
preparation, etc. The bottom level would be for sports
activities. The grounds around these buildings would be

for gardens, parks, playgrounds, lakes, etc. "It will be

possible to cross the entire residential area from end to

ll

end, in any direction entirely in the open air or entirely

l3

sheltered from sun and rain." All motor traffic would

be either on raised expressways, for passenger traffic, or
on railed service roads, for the delivery of goods, fuel,
etc., to homes and shOps in the apartment complex.

The Radiant City plan also called for

special nurseries for very young children outside
the apartment houses, actually in the parks;
though they will be directly connected to the
apartment unit in which the parents live by a
corridor sheltered from the elements. These
nurseries will be surrounded by greenery.

They will be run by qualified nurses and super-
vised by doctors--security-selection-scientific
child rearing.14

The schools too will be outside the apartment
houses, set in the midst of the parks. For each
pair of apartment units (one on each side of a
double elevator shaft, each of which will be used
by 2,700 people) there will be a kindergarten for
children between the ages of 3 and 6, then a
primary school nearby for children between the
ages of 7 and 14. The schools will be reached by
an avenue running through the park for a distance
of from 50 to 100 meters.15

The residential section described above is roughly
the center section of this rectangular city. Moving
away from the residential area in one direction we would
find the hotels and embassies (as were apprOpriate). In
the next section we find the railroad stations and airports.
On the other side of this would be the business or
financial center and moving farther out from here would

be government buildings.

12

Traveling from the residential area in the opposite
direction we find a section of the city for factories of
light industry then a section for warehouses and furthest
away the heavy industry.

Le Corbusier believed that large cities could be
attractive and interesting places to live. But, he did
not think that they were for everyone. He once wrote that
"our cities are bulging with human detritus, with the
hordes of people who came to them to try their luck, did
not succeed, and are now all huddled together in crowded
slums."16

The city must be cleared of all the dreams that
have burned their wings, the miscarried lives,
the dead embers of men and homes and communities
that have accumulated around the city's bright
furnace and are not stifling it with their

dead and sooty weight.l7

His solution required the modernization of the
farms and villages outside of the city. He felt that once
this was done those people who had come to the city in
order to escape the rural areas would return to the country-
side. Hence, Le Corbusier designed the Radiant Farm and
the Radiant Village.

The Radiant Farm was based on the family unit. It

was modern and efficient, but not large-scale mechanized

farming. The farmhouse was to be a standardized house,

13

the entire conception of this farmhouse is
dominated by esthetic and ethical factors:
light, cleanliness, immaculate domestic equip-
ment. Once he had been provided with a tool so
modern and so clearly designed, the peasant will
come to love it and look after it as well as he
does his horse or his pig. In taking good care
of his house he will also be taking good care of
himself, and that is a first foundation for the
essential joys of life.18
The center of the country side would be the Radient
Village. These are envisioned as c00perative centers which
"include a communal silo, machinery storehouse, and a
c00perative store. A village club would provide a center
for communal life, and an apartment house would replace the
single family housing of the traditional village."19
Le Corbusier's vision was to reduce as much work as
possible from the farm and to bring all the modern con-
veniences to the village. When this was accomplished he
believed the people, mostly the poor, would go to the
countryside to live. Hence, people who are unsuited to
live in a city would no longer live there.
Basic to all of Le Corbusier's plans is his unre-
lenting faith in the plan.
Now the plan is the determination of everything;
it is an austere abstraction, an algebragation;
and cold of aspect. It is a plan of battle . . .
Without a good plan nothing exists, all is frail

and cannot endure, all is poor even under the
clutter of the richest decoration.20

In order to implement his plans Le Corbusier felt

that there must be strong central authority. This

l4

authority would have to convince the people that these
highly rigid and standardized dwellings were the answer
to their unhappiness. Le Corbusier reasoned that
discipline was needed in order to enact his scheme for
the renovation of the land. "We must establish a program,
work on the program, realize that program . . . . We must
spread the blessings conferred by order across the whole
land."21

Plans proceed from within to without, hence the
individual room is designed first then the apartment then
the building as a whole, etc. Le Corbusier believed that
even his grandiose plans maintained human scale because
of the goodness of his plans. The proportional relation-
ship of man to his room, of the room to the building,
etc., were consistent mathematical relationships and hence
were pure.

Frank Lloyd Wright was a leading 20th century
architect who was diametrically opposed to the city plans
of Le Corbusier and his underlying philosophy. He was
not in agreement with Le Corbusier's notion that the city
could be regenerated by the application of the new
architecture. Wright Opposed any thought of saving the
city by merely rebuilding it with new material and a new
aesthetic. He compared the city to a diseased organism.
It has a form of cancer--centralization--that is growing

and choking the city to death. Centralization then is

15

the problem that must be dealt with. According to Wright
any attempt to rebuild the city along centralist philosophy
would merely house the problem in new buildings.

In order to understand Wright's proposals one
must understand his analysis of the growth of centraliza-
tion and its corresponding disruption of the growth of
democracy. According to Wright large cities are unnatural
and therefore, undemocratic. There are three economic
"artificialities" which are responsible for the growth of
centralization. They are as follows:

1. Rent of land--leads to overcrowding and
poverty

2. Rent of money--is an unearned reward and is
the greatest unnatural commodity

3. Rent of ideas and inventions--i.e., patents
concentrates money and provides the bases for

the creation of "captains of industry."22

These forms of rent are extrinsic unearned incre-
ments. As a result of their existence, money becomes the
property of fewer and fewer; it becomes a commodity that
only a few can distribute. It is more valuable than work.
Once money is centralized greater centralization follows
because it is easier for the financiers. Control is
easier when a corporation is organized hierarchically.
Obviously, this vested interest needs to protect itself,
therefore it encourages, even creates a government in its
own image, i.e., bureaucratic and centralized. In order

to legitimatize their power and protect and continue the

flow of their unearned increments these financiers create

l6

droves of lawyers and squads of police, whom they alone
control. An educational system is encouraged which would
prepare the people to take their place in the system
without criticizing centralization and concentration of
money.

The democratic state that "was conceived as the
free growth of many individuals as individuals: men free
in themselves, functioning together in a unity of their
own will and making; averse to institutions" has been lost
in the industrial revolution, in war, and in the "haphazard
big building of the big haphazard city that being over-
built, has run away."23

In Wright's analysis the skyscraper.of the big city
is a "tower of Babel that finds its apex in exaggerated
false fortunes and success in exaggerated manufacturing
enterprises in exaggerated cities for exaggerated profits.
All a kind of deflation of manhood to exploit mankind as
a kind of profitable to the profitiers."24

Wright perceives the skyscraper of today's big
cities as the monument to the corrupt illegitimate
capitalist. Sky scaperism represents the epitomy of false
standards and ultra-capitalistic centralization. It is a
monument to the victory of the machine over the individual.
The abuses of individuality by the masters of the "three

great increments" brought reactionary consequences; "the

ultra-conservative rich man, a pseudo culture wherein art

17

is only a makeshift . . . and a national characteristic of
defeat."25 And to Wright the worst reaction of all is our
tendency to take personality for individuality. The
wealthy men with their personal idiosyncracies, the so-
called "rugged individualists" who have concentrated money
and power are mistaken to be the fruits of democracy.
Wright believed that true creative ability is the first
concern of individuality and hence the cornerstone of
democracy. Therefore, he reasoned that there can be no
defense of democracy as long as personality is mistaken
for individuality.26

Centralization serves the "captains of industry"
in their efforts to extend their control. It results in
greater authority in fewer hands, the distruction of
democracy in the process of creating a feudal state. In
short, Wright argued that the concentration of money,
machinery, power and people is the root cause of human
misery. Democracy with freedom can only be achieved
through decentralization.

By the proper use of machine power a decentralized
community could be built. But it cannot be done without
that essential "interpreter of humanity"--the creative
architect. In Wright's analysis, philosophy, religion,
economics and politics have failed and only organic

architecture can interpret the modern era. Organic

architecture is based on "an inner discipline of principle

l8

. . . man is a noble creature of his own ground, integral
as trees . . . . Architecture is organic only because
intrinsic. [It is] concerned with the integrity of
innate structure" of nature (including man).27

Decentralization requires that there be an educa-
tional revolution to educate the people; so that they can
use machinery rather than be used by it, to the possi-
bilities of organic architecture, and to help them realize
that they are able to free themselves from the "tower
of feudalism."

During the 1920's and 1930's Wright and his
associates were concerned with illustrating and clarifying
the concept of organic architecture. They did this by
making a model of a city to set down what a decentralized
city could be like if built in accordance with their
philosophy of architecture. The result was the Broadacre
City Plan

Broadacres City was to be based on what Wright con-
sidered to be the three "inherent rights" of man. They
are:

l. The social right to a direct medium of exchange

2. The social right to his place on the ground--
land to be held only if used and improved.

3. The social right of ideas by which and for
which he lives--the public ownership of
inventions and discoveries.28

Obviously, these rights are the antitheses to the three

forms of rent or unearned increments.

l9

Broadacres is a regional plan more than it is a
city plan. Because Wright is concerned not with some very
limited land area, rather the countryside on the whole.
"Broadacres City would be everywhere and nowhere."29 The
architectural features of Broadacres would rise naturally
from the ground and follow its topography. Integration of
the buildings and the land is the basic architectural goal.
Hence, the buildings would be as varied as the land and
the functions it served. These regions would have "centers"
or county seats which would serve to connect and co?
ordinate when needed.

Petty diverse partitions of property, willful
deformations of natural beauty by conscienceless
utilities, like those pole and wire men, per-
petual defacements by advertising in sordid self-
interest becoming common everywhere to iritate the
sensitive citizen, would be unpardonable crimes
against the landscape.30

Wright's model made up during the late 1920's was
of one of these regional centers. It was a four square
mile area designed for 1400 families. It was an inte-
grated plan where industrial plants are positioned next
to farms, without any concentration or "industrial parks."
All production, distribution, self-improvement, and enjoy-
ment would be within a 10 to 40 minute travel (most often
within 10 minutes) from one's home. Tall buildings would
not be erected near other buildings; they would stand in
small green parks. Although most people would live in

private dwellings there would be apartment houses for

transients and others who may desire to live in them.

20

These apartments would be co-Operative in nature and would
be in "spacious gardens on the ground in the outskirts of
a neighborhood."31 Hospitals and schools would be
situated along the same plan but would be only one story
high. They would be public and free to all. Farms would
be about ten acres in size and would impregnate the land-
scape helping to insure decentralization and making fresh
food readily available to everyone. With regard to arts
and crafts there would be small studios and workshops
throughout the city.

There would be community centers consisting Of golf
courses, race tracks, zoo, aquarium, planetarium, botanical
gardens, art museum, libraries, galleries, Opera, etc. It
would be an entertainment center owned and Operated by
the people Of that community who use the facility as
spectators, but more importantly as exhibitors, performers,
and producers. In Broadacres children would attend a
primarily agrarian-oriented "Garden School." A school
would consist of several small one story buildings. It
would have practice-shops and gardens for the children to
use, to build and to cultivate. Wright believed that we
should educate "for life in the free city and education
should be had by doing--by life experience at a tender
age."32 He felt that specialization should be dis-

couraged, because education should be "foundational," i.e.,

an educated person is one who can understand organic

21

architecture and who comprehends his place in the universe.
Therefore, Wright's "Garden School" would be concerned
with having a child learn the "properties Of line and color
or the chemistry of good design . . . the nature of his
bodily functioning . . . agriculture, plan-reading" and
"the cosmic rhythms of sun, moon, and stars, elemental in
art." The child should learn the effects of dreaming,
planning, breeding, dancing, singing, and building on
himself and on mankind.33 The "Garden School" would be
for children ages four through seventeen or eighteen.

Broadacres would also have a university. It would
not be a highly Specialized trade school. Rather, it
would be a center for the study and exploration of "the
principles of universality." Wright wanted the university
to be highly selective and to choose individuals who have
demonstrated "some gift of perception that would make
further research on his part among the eternal mysteries
Of the cosmic order seem desirable-~both for him and for
the society to which he belongs."34 The university is for
deeper study of "organic laws," it is the "vision of
society." The findings of the university should be freely
communicated to everyone.

The university would be a retreat for students and
teachers. There would be no examinations, no curriculum

("race course"), no standardizing of any kind. Wright

envisioned the university to be directed by a group Of

22

"father confessors." There should be "one such leader
chosen each by scientists, artists, philosophers, architects,
poets and if one could be found a statesman should be added
to this leadership"--he would be a philOSOpher or meta-
physician not a politician.35

Broadacres would also have other centers for educa-
tion. The design or style centers would be for the study
of industrial technology. These centers would be the
education of designers, architects, and all "machinery--
using crafts." The design centers would be for experi-
mentation. Students would work with design and build new
machinery. It would consist of all industrial arts so that
these bodies of knowledge and those persons skilled in them
could freely communicate with and learn from one another in
cooperative research. Wright would have manned such
centers with a limit of twenty students each. The
students would reside at these centers and would spend four
hours daily of physical work on the soil. They would spend
seven to nine hours per day between design and work in
shops. This system is based on voluntary co-Operation.
The goods produced by these centers would be sold at
roadside markets. Wright believes that these "good and
beautiful things" would serve as a good example for industry
and people in general, thereby serving the function Of
consumer education. The style centers would be kept in

further communication with the peOple by broadcasting on

23

radio and television. These centers would be in communi-
cation with the universities and could have some connection.
As with the university there would be no examinations or
diploma. Competence must be demonstrated through work.

Such active work-units in design, were they

truly dedicated and directly applied to the
radical culture Of indegenous style and the
building Of our city, would at last stimulate
popular growth as light stimulates the growth
Of a garden. Officialdom would diminish or
change its character entirely, in indeed there
were a need to continue its services, as we
know it.36

These regional centers would be connected by a
system of superhighways "laid down sympathetic to terrain,
threading hills and plains with safe grades everywhere."37
As with all forms Of transport these superhighways were
tO be elemental features of architecture. Safety, beauty
and integration with the land are the tenants with which
all would conform.

Paul Goodman's Objections to Le Corbusier's
thinking and to the Radiant City plan, in particular,
centers around Le Corbusier's unquestioning faith in
technology and his belief in large corporate capitalism.
The Radiant City is designed for efficient administration
of big business. Le Corbusier, criticizes Goodman, was
trying to maintain the status quO and it was that social
order, economics, and political philosophy which was

responsible for the unrest and miserable living conditions

in the cities. Furthermore, the "Radiant City was a paper

24

city; its activity is the notion of draftsmen, typists,

"38 Le Corbusier's

accountants, and meetings Of the board.
concern was for the growth of business but he fails to
consider the growth Of the human being. He seems to think
Of people as workers only--as tools of industry. For
example, Goodman notes that one Of the reasons Le Corbusier
insisted on standardization of individual apartments and

of the furniture therein was to make workers more mobile.
If living quarters were the same a worker and his family
would only have to move their personal belongings. Hence
there would be less reluctance to being transferred from
plant to plant, thereby making one of the costs of pro-
duction more flexible which adds to the profitability of
industry. These implicit concepts of human nature, human
worth, job and community, to Goodman, are totally absurd.
Le Corbusier conceives Of men as machines for work. He
does not allow for expressions of personality or gratifi-
cation of human animal instincts.

In light of Le Corbusier's interest and faith in
technology Goodman finds it strange that "he suggests
nothing but the rationalization of existing means for
greater profits in an arena of competition. . . . His aim
is neither to increase productivity as an economist, nor,
by studying the machines and the processes as a

technologist, to improve them."39

25

A concise summary of Goodman's evaluation of Le

Corbusier is this statement from Communitas:

 

Apart from a peculiar emphasis on athletic
sports and their superiority to calisthenics (1),
this planner has nothing, but nothing to say about
education, sexuality, entertainment, festivals,
politics. Meantime, his citizens are to behold
everywhere, in the hugest and clearest expression
in reinforced concrete and glass, the fact that
their orderly freedom will last forever. It
has 500 foot prisms in profile against the sky.

40

Goodman is in general agreement with the decen-
tralist philosophy of Wright. Especially with respect to
industrial production and local political control. But
like Le Corbusier, Wright put too much emphasis on the
automobile. The automobile to Goodman is one Of the major
examples Of our misguided society. It is a representation
of how our "interlocking institutions" have gone out of
control. The social cost Of automobiles is horrendous
and the auto is a major factor contributing to the demise
of the city as a desirable plan in which to live.

As far as the social organization Of Broadacres,
Goodman can only say that the plan does not indicate how
this social philosophy would be implemented. Goodman does
see Broadacres as an "attempt to bring farm values to an

industrial town,‘ and is based on the notion of "sturdy

individualism." Unfortunately, Broadacres "does not
promise much excitement, much existential novelty, nor

does much for high culture."41

26

The importance of Broadacres as a community
plan lies in Wright's willingness to select values,
going with or against current trends as suits his
free intuition. But his intuition is limited.

He aims at the integration of urban and rural life,
but he seems, by the time of Broadacres, to have
lost what feeling he had for the city and the
factory. He does not tell us how to make
industrial life humane and worthwhile; his pre-
sentation Of industries, factories, industrial
location, transport, the division of labor, is
extremely sketchy, Often inferior to existent
facts.42

The city plans presented in this chapter do not
allow for or plan for the growth Of man. If a plan is
to make any sense to Goodman it must consider the relation-
ship Of the physical environment to physical, social,
psychological, political and economic activities and
expression of man. The chapters that follow will explore

Goodman's proposals for an educative city.

FOOTNOTES: CHAPTER I

1Paul and Percival Goodman, Communitas (New York:
Vintage Books, 1960), p. 3.

2Le Corbusier was born October 6, 1887 Charles-
Edward Jeanneret in La Chuerx-de-Fonds, Switzerland, of
French ancestry. In 1923 he assumed the name Le Corbusier
(after his southern French ancestors) to distinguish between
the architect and the painter, Jeanneret. Hence his
architectural works (books and buildings) were signed
Le Corbusier and his other art Jeanneret.

3Peter Blake, Le Corbusier Architecture and Form
(Baltimore: Penguin Books, 196077’p. 27.

 

41bid., pp. 24-28.

5Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture (New

York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1946)} p. 250.

61bid., p. 210.

 

7Le Corbusier believed that workers could have a
sense of collective pride in the work and hence he was not
at all critical of continued specialization. In fact, it
is basic to his architectural approach.

8Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture, pp.

 

250-269.

9Captains of industry refers to financial leaders
of capitalistic industry.

10Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture, p. 264.

 

11Le Corbusier believed that international financing

could be secured and this would serve as a deterant to war
for "who would bomb his own property?"

12Le Corbusier, The Radiant City_(New York: The
Orion Press, 1967), p. 113.

l3Ibid., p. 115.

 

27

14Ibid.

lSIbid.

l6Ibid.,

l7Ibid.,

18

28

p. 321.

p. 197.

Ibid., p. 326.

19

Norma Evenson, Le Corbusier: The Machine and
the Grand Design (New York: George Braziller, 1969), p. 23.

 

20

 

Le Corbusier, Towards A New Architecture, p. 166.

21

 

Le Corbusier, The Radiant City, p. 138.

22

 

Frank Lloyd Wright, When Democracy Builds
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1945), p. 11.

23Ibid.,

24Ibid.,

25Ibid.,

26Ibid.,

27

 

p. 23.
p. 16.
p. 19.

pp. 22-26.

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Living City (New York:
Horizon Press, 1958), pp. 91-92.

28

 

Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Meis van der Rohe,
and Frank Lloyd Wright, Four Great Makers of Modern
Architecture (Record of Symposium, 1961; New York:
Trustees of Columbia University, 1963), p. 57.

29

 

Wright, The LiVing City, p. 110.

3OIbid.,

3lIbid.

321bid.,

33Ibid.,

34Ibid.,

35

 

p. 114.

p. 183.
p. 184.

p. 185.

Wright, When Democracy Builds, pp. 110-112.

 

29

 

36;§3§., p. 194.

37_I_lg_i_d., p. 196.

38Goodman, Communitas, p. 44.
39%., p. 48.

403339, p. 84.

41

Ibid., p. 89.

421bid., pp. 92-93.

CHAPTER II

TECHNOLOGY

A central issue in city planning is the relation
between man and his technological environment. In this
chapter several constructions of that relationship will be
examined.

Le Corbusier's Radiant City Plan epitomizes the
notion Of fitting men to the technology. Le Corbusier
designed a city for maximum efficiency of production in
accordance with the day's most efficient technology. His
concern was to advance the technical quality and to lower
costs of production by maximum use of mass-production
techniques, standardization and centralization. He
reasoned that a community that could best do this would
prosper. Therefore, people would work fewer hours per
week and have higher wages and hence be better able to use
their leisure time. Le Corbusier recognized the hardship
and human suffering that accompanied the industrial revolu-
tion with its adverse effects on family life. Yet he
believed that man's basic malady was jealousy--the jealousy
Of not being able to take advantage Of the high technology

in his domestic life.

30

31

For Le Corbusier the selection Of the type Of
technology was completely dictated by the capitalist market
place. The technology which produced the highest profit
margin to the captains of industry was the technology to
be employed. He felt that this would result in the
products being less and less expensive and hence more
readily available for purchase by the wage earners.

Furthermore, he considered grace, style and beauty
to be properties of the machine. Aesthetically, man's
pleasure was thought to be derived from Operating machines
or living in a machine house.

A strong distinction made by Le Corbusier between
production and consumption is a common error according to
Goodman:

In capitalist or state-socialist economies,

efficiency is measured by profits and expansion
rather than by handling the means. Mass produc-
tion, analyzing the acts Of labor into small steps
and distributing the products far from home,
destroys the sense of creating anything. Rhythm,
neatness, style belong to the machine rather than
to the man.1

The basic problem is the dichotomy Of ends and means.

In making a selection of modern technology Goodman
starts with the following observation:

Men like to work and be useful, for work has a
rhythm and springs from spontaneous feelings
just like play and to be useful makes people
feel right. Productive work is a kind of

creation, it is an extension of human person-
ality into nature.2

32

But, under conditions Of economic work, mass-production,
high centralization and routine, there is, on Goodman's
View, no sense Of instinctive pleasure and men dislike
their jobs.

Technology must be selected that is most humanly
efficient. A humanly efficient technology is one which
maximizes the Opportunity for men to perform with, to use
a pet phrase Of Goodman's, "grace, force and beauty."
These are not to be prOperties Of machines but of man.
The technology must not perpetrate the dualism of work and
pleasure. Hence, it must be a technology which permits men
to be in charge, to make decisions, and to direct their
activities. The process Of doing must have intrinsic
worth.3

Goodman recognizes that his definition of effi-
ciency is unorthodox and is at variance with Le Corbusier
and with Wright. But he points out that in failing to
recognize the fallacy of the dualism between work and
pleasure, they have neither been able to propose plans or
analogies which are efficient in human terms (in the case
Of Wright) or efficient in purely economic terms (in the
case of Le Corbusier).

Goodman does not believe that in order to achieve
human efficiency that we must "turn back the clock to
conditions Of handcraft in a limited society" or plan for

a demographically decentralized and agrarian oriented

33

society. For Goodman the problem is not with modern
technology but with the thoughtless application of
technology as a means for wrongheaded and dehumanizing
ends. We must maintain a perspective of the "whole
scene." We must recognize the totality of costs and the
implications of use of technology and the style or
organization of production.

Although Goodman is basically decentralist he
recognizes that there are some functions best served by
highly centralized and automated technology. The problem
is "to decide in what functions the automatic and computer
style is not relevant, and there to curtail it or forget
it."4 We see that in Goodman's View technology is not
a part of science but is a branch Of moral philosophy.5
The technologist must work tO reduce the complexities Of
life in an effort to reduce the Obstacles to being. This
is not to argue that research on new ideas should not be
carried forward but the practice Of putting new technolo-
gies into Operation for their own sake without adequate
thought should cease. The present trend of applying
technology to the production Of trivialities in an effort
to expand the economy, mainly for partisan political
motives, is a gross hinderance to quality living.

Goodman believes that "the chief moral criterion

of philOSOphic technology is modesty, having a sense of

34

the whole and not obstructing more than a particular
function warrants."6 Our society has become ever-
technologized and must strive to simplify. We have
reached a point where new improvements interfere with the
quality Of life. The complexities Of life have become
overbearing and dehumanizing. How can we use technology
to help build a human community? One answegpto this
question was given by Le Corbusier to centralize and
homogenize, i.e., to make all living places identical so
that mobility does not necessitate so much dislocation.
But Goodman's answer is to "build communities where
meaningful voluntary association is again possible; that
is to decentralize."7 Unlike Wright, Goodman conceptualized
decentralization as a type of social organization which
requires the psychological and sociological use of
geography but not geographical isolation.

Goodman believes that we must "decentralize where,
how, and how much is expedient." But he does not propose
a system in an attempt to achieve this maxim, rather he
makes suggestions for research and experimentation which
may produce answers to these empirical questions of how,
where and how much? One proposal of Goodman's of particular
relevance to this chapter is to decentralize the pursuit of
pure science and applied technology. The research and
experimentation which must occur, if we are to find solu-

tions to our problems, has been lacking because we have

35

centralized the scientific enterprise. Today we have big
science which is financed by big corporations, big univer-
sities, big foundations and big government. (In fact, the
big universities and foundations may merely be extensions
or fronts of big government which in turn may be an
extension of big business.) The scientific brain power Of
our society has been pre-empted. They have been set to
predetermined tasks. Scientists become "personnel, pursuing
the goals of the organization."8 We have ceased to have
Open-minded scientists following their own thinking and
investigating that for whatever reason, they deem worthy
of investigation.

Goodman contrasts this state of affairs with the
state Of science research during the period from the
sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. He calls this
the "heroic age of modern science." During the heroic age
"science was not the social orthodoxy. Indeed, a dispro-
portionate number of the natural philosophers were explor-
ing forbidden territory and publishing defiantly."9 But
today we have a self-contained and self-correcting system
of science. Goodman points out that

the majority of significant advances have not come
from big corporations and big universities, and
have not been sponsored by foundations and
government. They have come from lonely (and Often
rejected) individuals, random amateur inventors,
partnerships, tiny firms where the scientists,

technicians, and craftsmen have a chance to talk
to one another.10

36

The remedy for today's situation, according to
Goodman, is not to do away with subsidizing science but
to subsidize small independent scientific inquiry. He
proposed that one-half the budget of the National Science
Foundation and the Institutes of Health be "directly
allotted as subsistence incomes of $5,000 to any and all
who demonstrate a concern for scientific tinkering and

speculation."11

This proposal is exemplary of Goodman's
basic thinking that when subsidies are used that they be
given with "no strings attached" directly to peOple and not
to institutions that would make people into personnel.
Goodman perceives science as human adventure. It
is in pursuit Of knowledge and is autonomous. It should
depend on individual genius and is directed by personal
ethical choice. Scientific research must be carried on,
as long as "scientists and technologists have a political
responsibility for the consequences of their work; they
must fight for its right use and inform and alert the
public."12
There are two ways in which we can bring about
this concept of science and the rules for scientists and
technologists. One is by decentralizing the findings of
research in an effort to "maximize the number of minds

and interests involved,’ as in the above proposal.
Secondly, we can accomplish two things through education.

We can dispel the commonly held awe and reverance for

37

science and the blind belief in technology as omnipotent.
Secondly, we can educate technologists rather than merely
train technocrats. A technologist must study and under-
stand the physical environment, human ecology and the
biosphere. He must be able to understand the whole of his
activities. He should study social sciences and humanities.
TO accomplish this, "technology must have its prOper place
on the faculty as a learned profession important in modern
society, along with medicine, law, the humanities, and
natural philosophy, learning from the others and having
something to teach them."13 Goodman draws attention to the
plasticity of technology as its "more useful property."
It Offers as alternatives "choices of pOWer, raw materials,
location, tooling, and a surplus for transition and
retooling."l4 Its value is then that it can help us to
decentralize our society where decentralization is
desirable. The selection and use of technology, in an
effort to build a more mixed and less interlocking society,
depends on humane criteria. Goodman gives the following
criteria "for humane selection of technologies: utility,
efficiency, comprehensibility, repairability, ease and
flexibility Of use, amenity, and modesty."15
Utility as a criterion refers to the standard of
being able to provide for the basic subsistence of an area,

i.e., food, shelter, medicine and clothing without pro-

ducing other effects which may be harmful. Furthermore,

38

utility means making people self-supportive. Because once
a people are freed from druggery, starvation and disease,
but otherwise left to themselves, they can make their own
decisions regarding future employment of technology. In
our present condition we have certain technologies imposed
upon us which lock us into more technological interference.
Or a decision is made to introduce some "technological
improvement" which necessitates the destruction of a
neighborhood, the building Of more superhighways, the
centralization of administration, the establishment of
county government, etc. In emerging societies technology
is brought in which emulates that Of the large over
industrial nations. Often there is a corresponding
centralization of political control in order to implement
the "new" technology. Often traditions Of the culture
"must" be abandoned and there is a general disruption Of
life. The resulting kinds of cities, jobs, government and
environment that the society has are Often interlocked with
the technical development. When the choice of a techno-
logical style disrupts a culture, necessitates further
changes, or interferes with the possibility of face to face
spontaneous human interaction it violates the criterion
of utility.

The criterion of comprehensibility refers mainly
to machines both in design and operation. If men are to

be the masters of the machinery they employ they must be

39

able to understand how it functions. To some extent this
lack Of comprehension is reSponsible for the pOpular
mistique Of the machine. Homage paid to technology, and
the blind unquestioning faith in its appropriateness and
the trust paid to its ability to solve our problems are
partly a result of our lack of comprehension of its nature
and functioning. The closely related criterion Of
repairability by the user combines with comprehensibility
to release man "from the bondage to a system of service
men." If these two criteria are met it would reduce the
anxiety which many people experience because they do not
know how to judge the quality of the machines they buy.
Furthermore, when we are ignorant of the machinery we tend
to let the experts judge. All too Often they are wrong-
headed and have vested interests. We slowly lose any
countervailing power and the situation is soon out Of
control.

Relevance requires an understanding of purposes of
a technology. The mere fact that we can do something is
not sufficient reason to do it. Goodman uses the example
Of medicine. Because we have advanced in this science to
the point where we can keep a person alive, as a vegetable,
does that mean that we should? What does it mean to "be
alive?" Another example is in education. We can apply

Skinner's technology of teaching.16 Yet for what purpose?

40

Should we condition our children simply because we have
the means to do so?

The criterion Of amenity requires that we weigh
our judgment in the total environmental context. The
technological developments in highway construction are
applied with what seems to be total disregard to amenity.
Often we take the best land when we should either be using
the swamps or not building at all.

Modesty is important because without it we Often
violate all Of the other criteria and we interfere with
the usefulness of what we have by multiplying it. For
example, the increase in production of automobiles has not
resulted in the masses Of people being able to travel
through a city more quickly or conveniently. In mass
communications we Often send so many messages that they
are all meaningless and become noise.l7

These criteria serve to do away with the dichotomy
Of selection and use of technology. To Goodman they are
indistinguishable. He is neither pro nor con on the use of
technology. Rather he believes that each instance must be
judged separately by those people who might be affected.
The notion of separation between production and consumption
of science and technology is a fallacy. The production
consumption fallacy is most prevalent in the area of

economics to which we will now turn.

41

The fallacy Of the dualism of production-

consumption emerges when an immensely productive

economy overmatures and lives by creating demand

instead Of meeting it; when the check of the free

market gives way to monopolies. subsidies, and

captive consumers; when the sense of community

vanishes and public goods are neglected and

resources dispoiled; and there is made-work (or

war) to reduce unemployment, and when the measure

of economic health is not increasing well being

but abstractions like the Gross National Product

and the rate of growth.18

If Le Corbusier's Radiant City would have come tO
fruition it would have been the over-ripened production
society described above. Wright recognized this for he
saw it in contemporary America. Yet he failed to come to
grips with the problem of a society with large urban
centers19 destined to be a part Of a world economy.
Wright's Broadacres City offers us a decentralized local
economy, but without any system Of relating to the whole
economy. There is lacking any provision for the masses
who chose not to be agrarian. He pays little attention to
localities giving mutual aid. Although Goodman respects
and values the self-sufficient nature of Broadacres he
perceives it as being needlessly unrelated to the entire
society.
Furthermore, Goodman sees distinct human advantages

to centralizing the production and distribution of certain
goods. He proposes a mixed economy--one that is

decentralized where possible and is centralized where it

is beneficial. His concern is for a harmony between

42

means-ends and the "elimination of the difference between
production and consumption."

The main problem inherent with centralization is
that it is a style that “makes for both petty conforming
and admiration for bigness. The more routine and powerless
peOple are the more they are mesmerized by extrinsic
proofs Of production and power."20

Goodman believes that if we decentralize as much
as possible we can create a system of social organizations
in which people deal more directly with each other. They
would have to deal with fewer middle men (both economic
and governmental) and would have better contact with
their environment. When people are directly in charge,
initiating their own behavior and directly perceiving its
consequences they have a clear understanding of themselves
and of community.

Goodman's economic concern is not with how much
goods cost but with how well peOple live. Abstractions
like the Gross National Product are mainly useless in
evaluating an economy. What does give a good indication
Of economic well being is "to notice how much the various
expensive products and services Of corporations and govern-
ment make people subject to repairmen, fees, commuting,
queues, unnecessary work, dressing just for the job,..." 21

The trouble with our centralized interlocked economy is

that we create demand rather than meet it. We have a

43

surplus economy. Unfortunately, we have not put that
surplus to work to do away with starvation or poverty.
We have instead created a huge advertising industry to
sell us our useless and worse than useless products. We
have been trained to think of work as a means Of attaining
money. The reason for the money is to purchase products.
But, Goodman points out, these are not products that we
have a need for, but products that the economy needs to
sell.

Goodman lists the following areas where excessive
centralization is grossly expensive:

1. Where staff and overhead are the chief costs
(social, personal and artistic services)

2. Where the cost of distribution or servicing
outweighs the savings in centralized produc-
tion. In this area there are many sOcial and
hidden costs that are not generally identified
as part of this Operation. Farming and
processing and distribution of food fall within
this category.

3. Where central planning and rationalization go
beyond the flowing changes and contingencies
of life and lead to overcommitment and
inflexibility.

4. Where the departmentalization and standardiza-
tion, which miss the uniqueness of each person,
produce imbalances and positive damage that
must then be expensively remedied.22
Goodman argues for a regional economy. A regional

economy can produce a very substantial amount Of goods.
Yet, these would only be a fraction of the necessary goods.
Therefore, the various regions must cooperate and interact

and that is what distinguishes regionalism from Wright's

provincialism.

44

"Economy of things rather than money"--this formula
is the essence Of regionalism. The people Of a region
draw on their local resources and COOperate directly,
without the "intermediary of national book-keeping with
its millions of clashing motives never soluble face-to-
face."23 Goodman proposes that people in each region work
to maintain the subsistence of the region. In this way
they are not interlocked with some abstract national goal
nor interlocked with national politics. A region would have
enough farming to feed itself, enough industry to shelter
it and enough medical care. Beyond this point, every plan
to expand the economy could be considered on its own
merits. The criteria Goodman Offers for any expansion or
the continuance of any economic activity is whether the
activity is worthwhile and efficient for the way of life.
In some cases expansion would meet the criterion in others
it would fail. In some regions the peOple may decide to
expand their economy and to Spend more time on industrial
work for economic compensation. But, in any case there
would result more regional autonomy and self-subsistence
and more personal choice and initiative.

In the case of farming, the decentralist approach
Of farmer cooperatives for growing, processing, and
marketing regionally is efficient. It abolishes the middle
man, the food processors,and makes small farming profitable.

If this were achieved Goodman feels that many more people

45

would return to small farming. This would help decongest
the cities and provide a better existence for farmers.

In addition to farming most Of the service enterprises
could be profitably decentralized. There are many other
enterprises_which should be centrally organized and as
automated as possible, as long as they meet the criteria

presented in this chapter.

FOOTNOTES: CHAPTER II

lGoodman, Communitas, p. 153.

 

21bid.

3See chapter on Work and Domestic Life.

4Paul Goodman, Pegple or Personnel and Like a

 

Conquered Province (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), p. 11.
These two books have been published in one volume.
References will be made to the specific book, not the
entire volume.

SPaul Goodman, New Reformation: Notes of a

 

Neolithic Conservative (New York: Random House, 1970),

p.—7.

posals

pp. 22-

6Ibid., p. 9.

7Goodman, People or Personnel, p. 14.

8Goodman, Like a Conquered Province, p. 306.

 

9Ibid., p. 304.

loIbid., p. 307.

llIbid., p. 308.

12Goodman, New Reformation, p. 44.

 

l3Ibid., p. 8.

14Paul Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical Pro-
(New York: Vintage Books, 1962), p. 4.

lsIbid., p. 35.

16See B. F. Skinner, Technology of Teaching.

1 .

7Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals,
48.

46

47

l8Goodman, Like a Conquered Province, p. 270.

19Although Goodman does qualify when he states
"there is a limit of urban density and urban sprawl beyond
which no form of social organization, centralist or
decentralist can cope. Urban crowding creates a peculiar
climate of both too many social relations and a kind of
sensory and emotional deprivation." People or Personnel,

p. 17.

20lbid., p. 19.

ZlIbid., p. 117.

221bid., pp. 120-122.

23Goodman, Communitas, p. 170.

24Ibid., pp. 170-172.

CHAPTER III

POLITICS, WORK, AND DOMESTIC LIFE

For Goodman, political institutions are deliberate
social experiments. When they are decentralized each unit
can experiment more freely and if the experiment does not
work well it does not affect the whole society. When it
works well the news can be communicated to others and may
work to larger advantage. Government should be an
"existential act of ordinary citizens" and not an indepen-
dent institution. The political history of the United
States has been one of centralization and the creation of
government as super-institution. Even the programs that
were intended to countervail the concentration of political
power and governmental control have led to the Opposite.
Goodman writes

Each step of the way--primaries, referendum,
regulatory agencies, increasing the years of
compulsory schooling, progressive income tax,
muckraking, women's suffrage, right to organize,
minimum wage, social security, etc., etc.,--
promised to be a revolutionary democratizing of
society . . . have cumulatively added up to the
one interlocked system of big government, big
corporations, big municipalities, big labor, 1
big education, and big communications . . . .

Under these conditions the sense of anomie and

powerlessness spreads from the bottom to the top. The

48

49

complaint of powerlessness has been heard from the unedu-
cated, the unemployed man on the street, presidents of
large corporations and universities and the president of
the United States. The political question then is: can
democracy work in a large highly technological society?
Goodman's answer is that it can if we decentralize it and
people turn their attention to the immediate and relatively
simple matters such as housing, shopping, being informed,
and making a living. We must first place value on
democratic initiative in these areas. All institutions
should be sensitive to citizenship. As Goodman puts it,
"The society in which I live is mine, Open to my voice
and action, or I do not live there at all."2 The degree
to which institutions are not Open to the voice and action
of citizens is the degree to which Goodman is opposed to
them. The kind of community that Goodman wants is
characterized by

direct democracy, decentralized decision making,

a system of checks and balances that works, [and]

less streamlined elections. [This system] should

condone civil disobedience vigilant over

authority, crowds on the streets, riot when the

provocation is grave.3
He wants a politics that is libertarian, populist and
pluralist.

It is important to realize that Goodman's emphasis

is on participation, initiation and decentralized decision-

making. His politics are not a politics of power. As a

50

pacifist and anarchist, he warns that history has shown
that power seeks to aggrandize itself. It has been the
develOpment of power and sovereignties that has brought
war and destroyed community. Goodman feels that we must
substitute function for power. Power is an abstraction
and serves as an extrinsic motivation whereas function is
intrinsic. Power as a superstructure coerces and frustrates
living functions--biological, social and psychological.
"Normal activities do not need extrinsic motivations, they
have their own intrinsic energies and ends-in-view . . . ."4
Only behavior that is intrinsically motivated can
be strong, efficient, inventive, well structured or
spontaneous. This is the type Of behavior that Goodman
assesses as healthy and normal for a free society.
According to Goodman the only time power is
legitimate is when it is ad hoc. When it is functional
it is for a Specific purpose, usually an emergency, and
lapses when that immediate function is served.
Furthermore, Goodman warns that there is a fatal
danger in the notion of getting power in order to accom-
plish some good end.
There is a vicious circle, for (except in
emergencies) the very exercise of abstract
power, managing, and coercing, itself tends to
stand in the way and alienate, to thwart function

and diminish energy and so to increase the
psychology Of power.5

51

The centralization and use of abstract power
creates the feeling of helplessness and emergency, which
in turn is the rationale used to exercise more power.

Hence, the emergency is chronic rather than immediate.

The only way to achieve a peaceful community of
voluntary associations is to repudiate the politics of
power. We must live without authority and replace power
with peaceful functiOning.

A good illustration of this idea is Goodman's
notion of police administration. He states that the reason
for having police is to serve the function of keeping the
peace and not the exercise of power to enforce conformity.
Goodman, therefore, proposes that the administration of
police be run by the community or neighborhood. The police-
man should be from that community. If we have these con-
ditions then "the enforcement and the interpretation of
the law would be in accordance with local public sentiment."6

This proposal is consistent with Goodman's thinking
that the best means of creating community is to let the
people take the initiative, to make decisions and to act.

Goodman's solution to the problems created by large
urban cities is to build cities or reorganize existing
cities so that "meaningful voluntary association" is
pOssible. Often this means the decentralization existing
forms of political and social organization. For large

existing cities, he proposes that each neighborhood Should

52

have a local City Hall. These neighborhood city halls
should have a great measure Of autonomy yet work with one
another on those things which are felt to be mutually
advantageous. The neighborhood administration should

control transit, sanitation, museums, etc.,

whatever is necessarily or conveniently con-

trolled "by a local city hall" . . . . Taxes

could be collected centrally and much of the

take divided among the neighborhoods to be

budgeted locally.7

This proposal provides a central place in each
neighborhood which is responsible for the administrative
functions of that neighborhood. People know where to go
with problems or with suggestions. The people are more
likely to know one another and the neighborhood administra-
tors. It is easier to identify problems and to communicate
with and organize the people of the community. Local
direct government has a much better chance to deal with
the peculiar problems of a neighborhood, the kinds of
problems that "are lost in the inner politics of central
bureaucracies that have quite different axes to grind."8
This type of political organization makes it much

easier for a citizen to initiate action because he is
dealing with peOple in a relationship which is "grounded
in acquaintance and trust." Goodman points out that this
proposal is not workable for all neighborhoods. The major
problem is that some areas are SO densely populated that

they must be physically and not only administratively

decentralized. When a city or some part of a city becomes

53

too heavily populated there exists a "peculiar climate of
both too many social relations and a kind of sensory and
emotional deprivation. Instead of contact and communica-
tion, there is noise and withdrawal."9 He sees that this
population growth in the inner city is occurring Simul-
taneously with a depOpulation Of rural areas. His pro-
posals plan to reverse this trend. One of these proposals
is to board three to Six children from over-populated
areas Of cities with a farm family in depopulated areas.
The program would be voluntary and for one year's duration
with the Option to return. The farmer would be obligated
to feed the children and not to mistreat them. The
children would be expected to go to country schools and

to work around the farm. There would be some kind of
inspection. Goodman lists some of the advantages of this
plan as follows:

1. TO give farmers a source of cash by growing
peOple.

2. To cut down overcrowding in city schools and
avoid the need for building new schools for
which there is no Space. (A new school for
twelve hundred in New York City costs
$2,500,000.)

3. To save the now under-used country schools in
depopulating areas. And also upgrade them.

4. Radical improvement in the education of slum
children. At present, a child Of thirteen will
not have been half a mile from home in his
entire life. A radical change Of environment

is.far more liberating than "upgrading" the
curriculum. '

54

5. 4-H has expressed interest in the chance of

doing an exciting useful job in giving these

children a social life and introducing them

to a new world. It enables 4-H to play a

vital role in the problems of urban life.

6. Racial integration (preferably the kids

would be mixed Negro, Spanish, White).lo

Goodman feels that the best age for the children
would be ten or eleven years Old. At that age there would
be little risk Of separating the children from their homes
too early and would avoid the problems of puberty. It is
Goodman‘s hope that at least a small percentage of these
children would return to the rural life as adults.

This proposal could be financed partly by the city
schools on the basis of the number of children less they
have to account for, and partly by federal agencies such
as Health, Education and Welfare.

Another of Goodman's proposals is to provide
incentives for families to live in rural areas. There are
several ways in which this could be done: by making
welfare payments relatively more generous for families
living in rural areas, and by providing additional finan-
cial incentives for those families Operating small farms.
Another approach is to do away with most of welfare and
provide a guaranteed annual income to everyone but not

one that would account for all of the differences in local

cost-of—living.

55

When Goodman Speaks Of decentralization, a mixed
[system and politics, he is quick to look to communication.
Mass communication has great potential. It can be an
effective and wholesome community tool or it can serve the
function Of political manipulation and control by brain-
washing. If mass communication is centrally controlled the
"danger is at the level of a constitutional crisis, for
with brainwashing even democracy-by-consent becomes
impossible."ll He has proposals which would guard against
the misuse of mass communication both for existing society
and fOr his utopian community. Goodman's approach is
consistent with his notions of a mixed system. We should
centralize in those areas of communication which would be
benefited from centralization, and decentralize others.
Examples of "news" that can be adequately, if not best,
covered by large centralized broadcasting networks and
news agencies are Sports events, large ceremonial events,
political conventions, reports of moon rockets, etc. Most
other "news" topics need to be covered by many independent
and politically and socially divergent communications
organizations. This can be brought about by instituting a
small tax-on-profits in the communications industry and by

directly allocating this revenue to non-profit groups and

companies so that they will be financially able to Operate.

56

This would not unduly harm the large networks,
book publishers, magazine companies, etc., and Should
provide enough aid to independent groups who would need
less money because they would not be engaging in the
expensive on-the-Spot coverage of large extravaganzas.

Returning to decentralized community planning
lets us look at some of Goodman's main notions Of city
planning. Goodman believes that the "sophisticated
philOSOphy of community development is to have no good at
all, but to be a catalyst. The best means of creating
community is to delegate power. Participation means
initiating, deciding, acting."12 His intention as a
community planner is to design plans that foster face-
to-face human relations; to provide a physical layout
which encourages citizens to interact and to initiate.
Hence, one Of the important architectural components
espoused by Goodman is the notion of squares or piazzas.

The piazzas would be closed squares. They are
not to be intended for vehicular nor pedestrian traffic.
They are to be designed so that people would congregate
and spend some time there. Goodman describes what such
piazzas might look like.

On one side of the piazza Opens the factory;

another entrance is a small library, provided
with ashtrays. AS in all other squares, there

is a clock with bells; it's a reminder, not a
tyrant.

The leisure Of piazzas is made Of repetitive
small pleasures like feeding pigeons and watching

57

a fountain. There are ways of being with the
other people and striking up conversations.
It is essential to have outdoor and indoor
tables with drinks and small food.

There is the noise of hammering, and the
explosions of tuning a motor, from small Shops
a little way Off. But if it's a quieter square,
there may be musicians. Colored linen and Silk
are blowing on a line--not flags but washing!
For everything is mixed up here.13

If the piazzas are to be the leisurely places
that Goodman wants them to be then man's condition of work,
notions of leisure, and domestic life must be quite dif-
ferent than they are at the present. First let us look
at the topic of work." As Goodman has put it:

Bosses and managers could far more directly
improve the conditions of work if, instead of
indulging in paternalism, they would cut out the
unnecessary authoritarianism and time controlling
that in fact make people dependent and Spiritless.
In any big Office, for example, a good part of the
day is Spent by a good many people doing nothing
and trying to look busy. In such an Office it is
a big deal and a subject Of gratitude if, on a
hot day the boss dismisses people early! Isn't
this childish? . 14

A good example Of the unnecessary authoritarianism
is the insistence on punctuality. Goodman contends that
in most cases punctuality is required for discipline's
sake and not for reasons Of efficiency. The problem with
discipline in this context is that it creates an unhealthy
dichotomy. It does this by establishing

the work in an impersonal secondary environment
where, once one has gotten out of bed early in
the morning, the rest easily follows. Regulation
of time, separation from the personal environment;

these are signs that work is not a way of life;
they are methods by which, for better or worse,

58

work that cannot be energized directly by
personal concern can get done, unconfused by
personal concern.

In Goodman's conception there are four principles of
production that must be met in order to have viable
citizens for a humanistic community. They are:

l. A closer relation of the personal and
productive environments, making punctuality
reasonable instead Of disciplinary, and
introducing phases Of home and small-shop
production; and vice versa, finding appro-
priate technical uses for personal relations
that have come to be considered unproductive.

2. A role for all workers in all stages of the
production Of the product; for experienced
workers a voice and hand in the design Of
the product and the design and Operation Of
the machines; and for all a political voice
on the basis of what they know best, their
Specific industry, in the national economy.

3. A schedule of work designed on psychological
and moral as well as technical grounds, to
give the most well-rounded employment to each
person, in a diversified environment. Even
in technology and economics, the men are
ends as well as means.

4. Relatively small units with relative self-
sufficiency, so that each community can enter
into a larger whole with solidarity and
independence of vieWpOint.l6

At first glance these principles might seem to add
to the costs of production but Goodman Observes that when
people are acting autonomously and are intrinsically
committed to their work there are economies all along
the way.

They do not watch the clock. The available
Skills Of each person are put to use. They
eschew status and in a pinch accept subsistence
wages. Administration and overhead are ad hoc.

The task is likely to be seen in its essence
rather than abstractly.l7

59

Keeping in View the advantages of the above
proposal Goodman cautions that this approach Should not
be universal. Here as with his other proposals he stresses
the need for diversification and experimentation. He
realizes that there are some areas Of production which
may not best be served by the above approach. For
example, "where business is timed by the mails, where
machines use a temporary source of power, being on time
and On the same time as everybody else is essential to
efficiency."18 Furthermore Goodman feels that in our
economy we need not be overly concerned with efficiency.
We must remember that the crucial questions raised by
analyzing cost are "moral, psychological, and political."19
A person's job should be founded on "psychological
and moral as well as technical and economic grounds. The

20 A man is

Object is to provide well-rounded employment."
engaged in his work 137 his style and skill. Work "is a
solid means of finding one's Opportunities, things worth
while, useful, and honorable to do and be justified by."21
He must have control over the method of production and the
utility of the product.

These ideas are in marked contrast to Le Corbusier's
attitude that style and grace are properties Of machines.
Goodman's thinking is very similar to Wright's--that

machines be used skillfully, honestly and gracefully by

men who have these qualities. Le Corbusier, like Goodman,

6O

recognizes that men are unhappy with their jobs and that
this unhappiness or anxiety permeates their basic function-
ing and overall attitudes. Le Corbusier's proposed
solution to this problem was twofold: to give men better
housing and to automate and routinize jobs to the greatest
extent possible in order to lower the number Of hours a man
had to work. Goodman, on the other hand, argues that we
must abolish the separation between work and domestic
life in general. A satisfactory productive life is
integrally related to one's personal and family condition
and vice versa.

A man cannot be a strong husband and father if he
"does not feel justified in his work and independent in the

world."22

When a man's job does not provide "man's work"
it erodes his self-respect, which, in turn, results in
his disesteem with his wife and his children. Man must
retain his spontaneity, free spirit, and good humor. If
he is forced to relinquish these qualities in order to
"make-a-living" he does so at the cost of "worthwhile life."
Goodman believes that one way to bring out a more
desirable domestic life is to do away with the separation
of work and home life. He wants a community plan that
allows for much of production to be carried on near or at
home. Domestic work which utilizes the economic and

personal capabilities of members of a family should be

commonplace. This is technologically and economically

61

possible due to the availability of small power tools.
Goodman points to the example Of small family farming,
where the productive and income producing aspect of family
life is a cooperative effort. This type of relationship
could easily be achieved for families engaged in industrial
and craft productions, because of the large range of inex-
pensive labor saving devices. There would actually be

less time involved in industrial production for a family
than there is required of the small farmer.

For those jobs that cannot be done at home the men
must be aware of the whole Of production and not merely
with some specialized function. The understanding, manage-
ment, planning, etc., Of production must be done by the
workers.

Goodman's planning includes the notion of integrated
industrial-agricultural productive arrangements. His
approach is Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright's. Goodman gives
us the following as the main points of an integrated
regionalism.

1. Diversified farming as the basis of self-
subsistence and, therefore, small urban

centers (200,000).

2. A number Of mutually dependent industrial

centers, so that an important part of the

national economy is firmly controlled. (The

thought is always to have freedom secured by

real power.)

3. These industries developed around regional
resources Of field, mine, and power.
Diversified farmers can be independent,
and small farms have therefore always been
a basis of social stability, though not

necessarily Of peasant conservatism. On the
other hand, for the machines now desirable,

62

the farmer needs cash and links himself with
the larger economy of the town.

The political problem of the industrial
worker is the reverse, Since every industry
is completely dependent of the national
economy, for both materials and distribution.
But by regional interdependence Of industries
and the close integration of factory and farm
work-- factory workers taking over in the fields
at peak seasons, farmers doing factory work
in the winter; town people, especially Children,
living in the country; farmers domestically
making small parts for the factories--the
industrial region as a whole can secure for
itself independent bargaining power in the
national whole.3

It is Obvious that for the proposals to work there
must be a radical change in education. Basic to all of
Goodman's proposals is the idea of a free and self-
initiating human being, who is aware Of himself as a man
and his relationship to the context within which he is
defined. Goodman has many proposals and plans for
education. Some are Short term "stop gap" measures which
can be envisioned as steps toward improvement, and others
are basic concepts to what education in a community should

be.

FOOTNOTES: CHAPTER III

lGoodman, PeOple or Personnel, p. 45.

2Paul Goodman, The Society I Live In Is Mine (New

York: Horizon Books, 1962), p. viii.
3

 

Goodman, New Reformation, p. 138.

 

4Goodman, People or Personnel, Appendix I, p. 180.
5Ibid., p. 186.

 

 

 

6;bi§., p. 157.

7£§i§., p. 16.

Ber-.1.-

9;2£§,, p. 17.
lo;§i§., pp. 199-200.
ll;§i§., p. 61.
12£2£Q., p. 157.
l3Goodman, Communitas, p. 164.
l4Goodman, People or Personnel, p. 159.
15

 

»GOOdman, Communitas, pp. 154-155.

16Ibid., p. 155.

l7Goodman, People or Personnel, p. 113.

18Goodman, Communitas, p. 154.

 

19Goodman, People or Personnel, p. 123.

20Goodman, Communitas, p. 157.

 

63

64

ZlPaul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd (New York:
Vintage Books, 1956), p. 142.

22Ibid., p. 122.

23Goodman, Communitas, pp. 158-160.

 

CHAPTER IV

GOODMAN'S EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Although Goodman's educational views are widely
known by now, a brief exposition of them is a necessary
prelude to his conception of the educative city. Goodman's
analysis of education is that it is a "long process Of
learning to cope with the physical environment and the
culture of one's society, is part of the human condition;
and in every society the education Of the children is of
the highest importance."l

Unfortunately, in our society we have concentrated
and aggrandized a formal, monolithic school system which
has become part Of our total interlocked system. This
interlocking of the educational system with big corpora-
tions, big foundations, and big government has resulted in
education losing touch with its basic function. Instead,
the schools serve the interest Of those vested groups with
which they are connected. AS a result the people who are
most concerned and intimately involved, the children, the
teachers and parents, have no say in the running of our

schools.

65

66

Goodman argues that every child should be educated
to the fullest extent possible. He favors the public
funding of education because it is a public good and
necessary for the community. But, in the United States,
public education has "gotten out of hand." It is commonly
held that schooling is education, that long continuous
years of attendance are necessary for schools to be
effective, and that schools must prepare peOple by granting
degrees, licenses, certificates, etc. Goodman's view is
that school attendance at the secondary and college level
for most Of the young is a waste Of human resources;
because "there is no single institution, like the mono-
lithic school-system programmed by a few graduate univer-
sities and the curriculum reformers of the National Science
Foundation, that can prepare every body for an open future
of a great society."2

Goodman agrees with John Dewey that the heart of
any philOSOphy is its philOSOphy of education. And like
Dewey, he believes that the main purpose of elementary
education is democratic socialization and learning of the
basic skills SO that one can be an effective citizen and
a contributing member of a worthy community.3 Therefore,
Goodman sees the aims Of early education to be to "unblock
and animate, so that school becomes a place of excitement
and growth."4 Schooling should "be tailor-made according

to each youth's interests,"5 and "to protect the

67

developing human powers that are abused by many Of our
ways of working, and therefore to try radically to alter

much Of our economy and society in order to build an

educative society."6

In order to do this "a teacher must try to reach
each child in terms of what he brings, his background, his
habits, the language he understands . . . the philosophic

aim of education must be to get each one out of his

isolated class into one humanity."7

The main obstacle to achieving an educative society
is the

dehumanization of modern times . . . language is
reduced to be a technology of social engineering,
with a barren conception of science and tech-
nology and a collectivist conception of community.
This tendency has been reinforced by government
grants and academic appointments, and it controls
the pedagogy in primary schools.8

Secondary schools and college are not a continuation of
elementary education, rather that is when we "begin to
orient to careers and it occurs after puberty, and jobs

and sex are usually not best learned about in academics.
The bother is, however, that the long schooling is not only

inept, it is psychologically, politically, and profession-

ally, damaging."9

Thus at present, facing a confusing future of
automated technology, excessive urbanization, and
entirely new patterns of work and leisure, the
best educational brains ought to be devoting
themselves to devising various means Of educating
and paths of growing up, apprOpriate to various
talents, conditions, and careers. We Should be
experimenting with different kinds of school, no

68

school at all, the real city as school, farm
schools, practical apprenticeships, guided travel,
work camps, little theaters and local newspapers,
community service. Many others, that other
people can think of. Probably more than any-
thing, we need a community, and community Spirit,
in which many adults who know something, and not
only professional teachers, will pay attention

to the young.10

Goodman Offers several proposals for improving the
way in which we educate the young. Some are for formal
schooling, others are for informal or incidental education,
vocational training, self-study and experimentation and
on-the-job training. We will now examine these proposals
and Goodman's reasons for suggesting them.

1. Goodman claims that, since a normal child can
make up the first seven years of schooling in "four to
seven months Of good teaching," for some children there
should be no school at all. The "children should be
selected from tolerable, though not necessarily cultured
homes. They Should be neighbors and numerous enough to
be a society for one another and SO that they do not feel

merely 'different.'"ll

One advantage of this proposal is
that it provides for more human contact. "Human contact
destroys standardization. It sometimes explodes, often
produces novel responses, is always messy."12 Goodman
feels that human cOntact is essential to growing-up, is

worthwhile and is an efficient way to learn in the long

run. He grants that it is hard to evaluate and may not

69

serve administrative goals. If this experiment were tried
we would be able to attain some empirical information on
the relative worth of school versus no schooling at all.
In America at this time there is no evidence, merely
speculation.

2. "Dispense with the school building for a few
classes; provide teachers and use the city itself as a
school-eits streets, cafeterias, stores, movies, museums,

parks and factories."13

There should be one teacher per
ten pupils. Goodman points out that historically education
occurred incidentally. Children were not excluded from the
economic work and social tasks of the adults. The children
learned from the contact with their environment. They saw
first hand what society, city, various jobs and institu-
tions were like.14

3. Similarly, "both outside and inside the school
building use appropriate unlicensed adults Of the com-
munity--the druggist, the storekeeper, the mechanic--as
the proper educators of the young into the grown-up world."15
The advantages of this proposal would be to help break down
the separation between adults and children, help develop
better relationships between professional teacher and the
community, make schooling more realistic by having contact
with people who are actually working in the field. Further-
16

more, as the Woods Hole Conference pointed out, peOple

who are actually involved in an enterprise approach it

70

and work at it in a way which is usually quite different
from the way it is taught in schools by peOple who are not
daily involved in that profession.

4. "Make class attendance not compulsory in the
manner of A. S. Neill's Summerhill. If the teachers are
good, absence would tend to be eliminated; if they are bad,

let them know it."17

Basic to this proposal is Goodman's
belief that it is only through intrinsic motivation that
human endeavor can be trully productive. The compulsory
nature Of schooling presents a serious threat to the
growth of freedom. In addition, this proposal provides a
teacher, as a professional, with the kind of feedback,
from his clients, which is most appropriate.

5. "Decentralize an urban school (or do not build
a new big building) into small units, 20 to 50, in avail-
able store-fronts or Clubhouses. These tiny schools,
equipped with record-player and pin ball machine, could
combine play, socializing, discussion, and formal teaching.
For special events, the small units can be brought
together into a common auditorium or gymnasium, so as to
give the sense of greater community."18 These schools
should consist of children of all ages and Should not be
graded.

These mini-schools would be largely administered

by the teacher, children, and parents. Ideally there would

be about twenty-eight children to four teachers.

71

These four teachers are:
l. A teacher licensed and salaried as in the
present system. Since the present average
class Size is twenty-eight, these are
available.
2. A graduating college senior from one of the
local colleges, perhaps embarking on graduate
study. Salary $2000. There is not lack of
candidates, young people who want to do some-
thing useful and interesting in a free setting.
3. A literate housewife and mother, who can also
prepare lunch. Salary $4000. Again there is
no lack of candidates.
4. A literate, willing, and intelligent high
school graduate or dropout. Salary $2000.
NO lack of candidates.19
The staff and the students should (in cities) be
racially and socio—economically mixed. There would be
considerable cost savin.1 hlth this approach. It would
eliminate much Of the cost of building maintenance and
totally eliminate the cost of new schools. The administra-
tive costs would be almost totally done away with because
there would be no need for principals and secretaries.
Equipment and material could be purchased as needed,
although this would negate the financial advantages of
central buying. There would be much less waste because
most of the waste is a result of being supplied with
unwanted texts and materials.20 Since the teachers and
parents are involved there would be no need to hire truant
Officers and little need for remedial personnel, Since
this prOposal allows for a great deal Of personal contact.
One of the main reasons for this proposal is the increased

ability to have the children learning in a natural setting.

There is ample Opportunity for exposure to the city and its

72

resources. It would be a Simple matter to individualize
the instructional approach. For example, the "organic
approach" to reading and writing developed by Sylvia
Ashton-Warner could be easily applied in a mini—school.21

Children presently are not learning to read very
well. Goodman claims "A great neurologist tells me that
the puzzle is not how to teach reading, but why some

children fail to learn to read. Given the amount of

exposure that any urban child gets, any normal animal

'2.
should spontaneously catch on to the code. What prevents?""‘2
TO Goodman the answer is obvious, the school prevents
because it is a hostile and "alien style, banning of

23

Spontaneous interests, extrinsic rewards and punishments."
These practices which make the school alien are due to
bureaucratic size.24 Furthermore, remedial efforts have
met with little success, mainly because they have neglected
"the sociological effects of the Official school itself,
the school building, the classroom routine."25

6. "Use a pro rata part Of the school money to
send children to economically marginal farms for a couple
of months of the year, perhaps Six children from mixed
backgrounds to a farmer."26 '

7. "Instead of putting all the new capital and
Operating money into new schools, I propose supporting or

underwriting existing or new non-scholastic educational

environments for bright, under-achieving youth, e.g.,

73

community radio stations, local newspapers, little
theaters, design Offices."27 The reasons for these
proposals are (a) it would help meet a real social need
of communities. The need for independent cultural media
is great in the United States. It is needed in order to
countervail mass media. But small independents have a
very difficult time paying the Operating costs and this
proposal would help financially. (b) Many students who
drOp out Of school are bright. But the scholastic
environment simply does not suit them. "They need real
products to Show, not examinations that have been passed."
(c) The types of environments that would be selected are
ones that could provide a well rounded and yet practical
education. (d) There would be a financial saving to the
tax payers because of the lessened need for new school
buildings. (e) This experience may lead some Of the
students to find a vocation that they really feel right
in and one in which they do a service to the community.
(f) This experience increases the chances that some Of
these students will want to continue their education.28
8. Establishment Of Youth Work Camps. The
principle behind this proposal is Goodman's belief "that
there is an intrinsic relationship among middle adolescence,
living in camps, and the need for work and a certain kind

of work. Camps and the right work are not for that age,

a device for an emergency but are a natural institution

74

29 Camps could provide a comparison against

of society."
which the community's ability to provide a good environ—
ment for youth could be judged. Youth camps enable
adolescents to get away from their families, to experiment
more freely, to find themselves and hopefully their voca-
tion. These camps would have various kinds Of worthwhile
projects to work on--conservation, rural rehabilitation,
urban reconstruction, etc. It could provide paid employ—
ment.30

9. Establish small prep schools of sixty. These
would be associated with and run by colleges. The teachers
would be three graduate students who might otherwise be
used as college teaching assistants. The prep students
would attend classes for about three hours per day with
the remainder of their time being used "for more useful
adolescent pursuits, whatever they happen to be."31 In
this set-up the student-faculty ratio would be twenty to
one, which is less than at a typical high school. The
graduate assistants would be paid $3,000 apiece. For an
additional $5,000 secretarial assistance and equipment
could be purchased and rent could be paid. The per student
cost would be $300. Hence, there would be about a $1,000
savings per student as compared to a typical city high

school. These prep schools would be directly geared

toward college admission. Goodman believes that with

75

three hours of daily preparation that any bright adolescent
would be able to become well prepared for college. With
this plan the preparation costs less and co-Opts much less
of the adolescent's valuable time.32
10.. Goodman proposed that colleges require appli-
cants to Spend two years after high school in a maturing
activity. Examples of such activities are working for a
,1iving, community service, volunteer service (hospital,
settlement house, Vista), travel (that met some standards
of purposefulness),'"independent enterprise in art,
business, or science, away from home, with something to
Show for the time spent."33
The beneifts Of this plan are "to get students with
enough life-experience to be educable on a college level,
especially in the social sciences and humanities," to
give adolescents a chance to find some purpose for going
to college (SO that they might be intrinsically motivated),
to relieve the colleges from the role of in-loco parentis,
and to change the routine Of continuous lockstep education.
The maturity and experiences that this allows the
students are especially important if colleges are going to
try to emphasize "method, background reading, criticism,
and research, and Offer a range of choice or prescription
quite baffling to most l7-year Olds."34 Goodman feels

that if we must continue to require so long a time in

schooling that it is essential to provide breaks and

76

return-points to safe-guard the students from regimenta-
tion and the Spirit-breaking which accompanies long contin-
uous years of schooling.

ll. Goodman proposes that colleges "abolish
grading and use testing only and entirely for pedagogic
purposes as teachers see fit."35 In support of this pro-
posal Goodman claims "that grading hinders teaching and
creates a bad Spirit." Grading places the emphasis not
on learning but on passing the exams. Furthermore,

Goodman points out that grades and exams are used to cover-
up the fact that in most areas colleges do not know what

is good performance. Therefore, doing away with this
practice will encourage colleges to try to find out what a
task well done is and what is good performance. Grading to
some extent hinders the student from growing-up. It keeps
him in a position of inferiority to the adults and forces
.him to play useless games of needless competition with

his peers. Grades are a form of extrinsic motivation. The
perpetuation Of this dependence on external valuation and
rewards is a threat to spontaneity and growth. Goodman
sees value in testing when it is done in order to find
weaknesses in learning or teaching and is then used for
constructive purposes. But aside from the use Of testing
in order to gain information, insight, or other pedagogical

reasons, they should not be used.

77

An important disadvantage of grading is that it
often obscures valuable information and prevents a teacher
from getting to know his students better and thereby
helping them more. For example, Often it is the case that
a bright, hard working student fails because he was poorly
prepared fOr his college studies or Simply has not caught-
On yet. A teacher that recognized this could help, but
the student is no longer available for help-—he has
flunked out. Another possibility is that a student fails
because the work is not worth doing. But teachers do not
have to pay attention to him because they feel he is
merely making excuses for his failure. And for the
opposite case, Goodman asks what kinds of things are
learned from being coerced and bullied into passing tests.36

12. The establishment of and for the breaking-up
Of large universities into smaller colleges. This small
college should be relatively self-contained and self-
administering, within the larger administration. The
size of these colleges Should be small enough to insure
face to face relations among students and teachers and to
be able to recruit by acquaintance. It should not be so
small as to prevent the possibility Of having a well-
-rounded assortment of students and teachers. Using the
central administration as a coordinator, these small
colleges could share expensive materials, books, and

exchange teachers. In this way colleges could have local

78

autonomy while maintaining the economy Of centralized
purchasing. The aim of this proposal is to "get back to
teaching-and-learning as a simple relation of persons, and
to make the teaching-and-iearning more committed, more for
keeps."37 Furthermore, the small colleges would have more
Opportunity to do away with those aspects of large
universities which academicians have been criticizing so
frequently. They are "the business and government
financing, the divisiveness of administrative rules, the
lack of personal contact, the irrelevant methods Of
accountancy, the Specialist pride of faculties, the closed

"38 Without these

minds and conformity of students.
incumberments it would be easier for the college to work
more actively as part of the local community and to be a
part of it. If this is to happen the colleges must have

a teaching staff which is composed of "a faculty with a
permanent staff of full-time tenured teachers, people who
have a special calling for teaching and veterans who have
retired to it, and many practicing veterans who also have
a permanent association with the university, some
temporarily teaching full time, some teaching part time."39
With this composition of faculty with its abundance Of
independent and distinguished professionals it would be
very difficult for them to be controlled or coerced by the

central administration. They would be members of the

community, know the people and their situation and hence

79

be in a better position to cooperate with them or conflict
with them whichever would be appropriate. Especially with
regard to the professions, this interaction, COOperation
and confliCt, is essential if the colleges are to make
sense Of their preparation Of students for the professions
and if the professions are to exercise "their appropriate
right in the world as the legal opposition and watch dog
of society."40
Goodman proposes a general curriculum outline for
these colleges. The freshman year is to be devoted to
exploration. There should be plenty of free choice and
adult attention and support. It should provide a chance
for students "to achieve identity, to discover and accept
who they are, and to explore and find real Opportunities

to realize themselves."41

Throughout the college years
students should have freedom, the freedom to study what,
when, and as much or as little as they like. The senior
year should have courses of group therapy. This is
important because it is the time when students are about
to choose careers, deciding on marrying or not marrying.
They need support and help in making these decisions.

The teachers must be free to teach what they want.
If they feel it is worthwhile and that they have something
to give, then the course is worth having. If the students
“want either to learn something particular or to find out
what it is that they want to learn. This is enough for

a school."42

80

‘ 13. The last proposal of Goodman's that we will
consider is to go outside of the present framework of
colleges. Goodman proposes that bands of scholars seceed
from colleges and establish their own "schools," "there
they can teach and learn on their own simple conditions."43
Goodman makes the prOposal mainly because he believes that
in our present condition this is more practical than

prOposal 12.44

The administration who presently controls
the universities would not permit the decentralization of
the large universities because it would do away with their
control. The general aims of this new "school" or
"community of scholars" would be the same as in proposal 12.
The main differences would be in Size and funding. These
groups would be smaller and more hard pressed to use the
resources of the local community. Generally, these would
be small groups which would have to cooperate and give
mutual aid in order to provide for facilities. This
"community of scholars" would use the local city or
university library. The teachers would have to settle for
less salary, but the students would not have to pay more
tuition.

Since this group could not grant degrees or give
licenses some cooperative arrangements would have to be
worked out with a local college and with graduate and

professional schools. In the case Of colleges the

student might be allowed to matriculate into the senior

81

year. Goodman prefers the route Of making arrangements
with graduate and professional schools whereby students
could be selected by their individual merits, rather than
records and B.A. degrees.’is

These proposals fall within two major categories--
prOposals for the improvement Of present modes of formal
education and prOposals for basically different ways of
educating both formal and informal. Regardless Of the
categories there is a common thread which runs through
most Of Goodman's prOposals. He offers us the use of the
city as an arena in which the education Of the young can
take place. This in turn, is related to his notions of
what a humanistic community should be like. Goodman agrees
with John Dewey when he says "the essence of a philosophy
of education is the study of how to have a world."46 To
Goodman, "the ideal Of city planning is for the children
to be able to use the city, for no city is governable if
it does not grow citizens who feel it is theirs."47
Goodman's proposals can be seen as an effort to achieve
this type of city and the use of the city for this ideal.
Therefore, we see his seriousness when he claims that the
goal of early education (elementary level) is a modest one
"it is for a small child, under his own steam, not on a
leash, to be able to poke interestedly into whatever goes
on and to be able, by observation, questions, and practical

imitation to get something out of it on his own terms."48

82

In American society the physical plant and the
social environment are out of human scale. Children
accept the city and social plan as inevitable facts Of
life. This situation is the crux of the problem.49
Goodman's solution is a modern Progressive education.
Goodman defines Progressive education as an "attempt to
naturalize, to humanize, each new social and technical
development that is making traditional education irrele-

vant. It is not a reform of education, but a reconstruc-

"50

tion in terms of a new era. "What the progressive

educator thinks of as the 'nature' of the child, which he

is trying to conserve and nourish, is what he intuits will

work best in the world."51

The basic positions Of progressive education are:

- To learn theory by experiment and doing.

- To learn belonging by participation and self-rule.

- Permissiveness in all animal behavior and
interpersonal expression.

— Emphasis on individual differences.

- Unblocking and training feeling by plastic arts,
eurhythmics and dramatics.

— Tolerance Of races, classes, and cultures.

- Group therapy as a means of solidarity, in the
staff meeting and community meeting.

- Taking youth seriously as an age in itself.

- Community of youth and adults, minimizing
"authority."

- Educational use of the actual physical plant
(buildings and farms) and the culture of the
school community.

- Emphasis in the curriculum on real problems of
wider society, its geography and history, with
actual participation in the neighboring community
(village or city).

- Trying for functional interrelation of activities.52

83

Goodman feels that from this type of education
children learn that any concrete problem can initiate a
useful process, that their natural motives are the best,
to respect experimentation, that ideas must be tested by
present action and most importantly they "learn that no
society is unchangeable and unamenable to practical

intellect."53

FOOTNOTES : CHAPTER IV

lGoodman, New Reformation, p. 68.

2Paul Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education and The
Community of Scholars (New York: Vintage Books, 1962),

 

 

p. 141. These two books have been published in one volume.

References will be made to the specific book, not the
entire volume.

3 - .

In the DeW1an sense, see John Dewey s Democragy
and Education.

 

 

4Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals,
p. 116.

 

5Goodman, New Reformation, pp. 87-88.
6
p. 257.

 

Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals,

 

7Goodman, Compulsory_Mis-education, p. 21.
8

 

Goodman, New Reformation, p. 119.

 

9Goodman, Compulsory_Mis-education, p. 140.
10

 

Ibid., p. 141.

llibid., p. 32.

2Goodman, Community of Scholars, p. 280.

l3Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 32.

l4Goodman, New Reformation, pp. 68-69.

 

 

 

15Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 33.

 

16

l7Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 33.

 

18Ibid., p. 33.

84

See The Process of Education by Jerome S. Brunner.

 

85

19Goodman, New Reformation, p. 97.

 

20Goodman, PeOple or Personnel, p. 104.

 

21Goodman, New Reformation, pp. 98-99.

 

22Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 26.

 

231bid.

24For examples, see Goodman's People or Personnel,
pp. 51-55.

25

 

Ibid., p. 204.

26Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 34.

 

27Goodman, PeOple or Personnel, p. 202.

 

281bid., pp. 201-203.

29Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical PrOposals,

 

p. 264.

30Ibid., pp. 263-273.

31Goodman, PeOple or Personnel, p. 105.

3ZIbid., pp. 104-106.

33Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, pp. 124-125.

34Ibid., p. 120.

351bid., p. 127.

 

 

36Ibid., pp. 127-130.

37Goodman, Community of Scholars, pp. 296-297.

 

381bid., p. 295.

39Ibid., p. 303.

4°Ibid., p. 305.

41Ibid., p. 306.

4ZIbid., p. 315.

 

86

43Ihid., pp. 295-322.

44Ibid., p. 324.

4SIbid., pp. 323-336.

46Goodman, New Reformation, p. 69.

47Ibid., p. 90.

481bid.

49Goodman, Growing-Up Absurd, p. 73.

 

 

50Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p. 40.

51Goodman, New Reformation, p. 81.

52Goodman, Growing-Up Absurd, pp. 81-82.

53Goodman, Utppian Essays and Practical PrOposals,

pp. 288-289.

 

 

 

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9~"' - «_..- .

qr, .

Mn _ .-: '.‘ mp
‘rum a» In“ “a!!!

 

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Chapters II, III, and IV laid the necessary back—
ground from which one can understand Goodman's prOposal
for an educative city. Basic to understanding Goodman's
ideas is his belief that the physical plant and human
activity are intimately and mutually interdependent. The
physical plant must be expressive of peOple's values, it
must be in "human scale." There must be a good proportion
of ends and means, so that these are not easily confused.
Goodman's city esthetic then is that "the beauty of
community plan is the prOportion of means and ends."1
Therefore, the city must represent "a means of livelihood
and ways of life."

In Chapter I we reviewed Frank Lloyd Wright's
Broadacre City Plan. This plan was functionalist--form
followed function. Le Corbusier and the "modernists"
went a step further with their plans to what Goodman calls
constructivism. Constructivism is "the theory that since
the greatest and most striking impression of any structure
is made by its basic materials and the way they are put

together, so the greatest formal effect is in the con-

struction itself, in its clarity, ingenuity, rationality,

87

 

88

and proportion." It can often be described as an abstract
sculpture. In contrast, Goodman describes himself as a
neo-functionalist. His architectural criterion is "form
follows function when the function is worthwhile and is
consistent with other human functions."2 We see from this
that to Goodman a community plan represents the sum of r
_One's understanding, judgment, and values. If we examine :}

Goodman's plans and goals for city planning, keeping in

 

mind his educational proposals, we can notice that the two—-
city environment and education--are linked together by the ii 1
notion Of human function. As his educational proposals
all flow from a desire to SO structure conditions that
human energy is released, so, too are his notions about the
arrangement of cities. We can finally see as well, that
though Goodman's proposals are often small and piecemeal,
they have their roots in a comprehensive and integrated
vision of a decent human society.
Goodman proposed that a city be built according to
the following plan. The center of the city would contain
squares (an example of a square is presented in Chapter III).
These would be of two general types--quiet squares and busy
squares. A quiet square would consist of restaurants with
windows and outdoor tables, areas of grass with trees and
fountains, a library, small shops, apartment houses,
possibly a church, town hall, or guild hall. A busy square

would have some of these features plus some noisier

 

89

enterprises such as small repair Shops, factories, and
athletic fields. There would be offices of various
businessmen and professionals.

Around this center would be the small diversified
farms (four acres) and the schools. This area would also
have most of the small houses-~although there would be
apartment houses in the center section for peOple who work
there and want to live there. Yet all the children would
live in this area and all would go to the schools located
there. The third area going outward from the center would
consist of industrial agriculture and dairying. The
outermost section would consist of grazing land and Open
country.

Now let us consider each of these areas from the
point of View of Goodman's neo-functionalism and see what
makes this city a community and an educative city.

Goodman believes that a democratic society can
exist only if the people are completely uncoerced and free
to initiate. We must have peaceful communities of
voluntary associations. Goodman proposes squares located
in the center Of the city to serve as the background for
these associations. This is why the squares should provide
activities and services which make it conducive to linger
in the squares. By providing a physical plant which makes
it easy for people with various interests to meet, to talk,

and to get to know one another is a large step to counter

90

the feeling of anomie. Goodman's city could be a large
metropolitan one, where the feeling of anomie grows quite
readily except when peOple have plenty of Opportunity to
interact under relaxed and free conditions. The presence
of offices, town hall, guild hall, factories, library,
etc., are to be in these squares not in order to segregate
them from the farms and children but to make it likely
that peOple of different views and experience come into
contact with one another. The squares are designed to
provide a plant that is psychologically conducive to
spontaneous contact and initiations.

.Goodman refers us to an earlier time in American
history when the need for centralized authority was small.
During the first half century of the United States the
town meetings and the spirit of congregationalism pre-
dominated. People did not need a sovereign nor an abstract
concept of authority. They were able to govern themselves
because there existed a trust and faith in each others'
humanity. This faith was an outgrowth of acquaintance.
There was planty of face-to-face contact.

AS far as the architectural style of these squares
are concerned it would be decided on individually by the
peOple who would live and work there. There would be no
need for them to look the same. Goodman proposed that a
competition be held to elicit from the people plans for

the construction or reconstruction of these neighborhoods.

 

91

The peOple could first elect a team of architects and
engineers who would have the job of implementing the plans.
They would also run the contest, that is, publicize it and
collect the plans. Then there would be a series of open
town meetings at which the merits and demerits of the
various plans would be discussed. Then a time period for
these plans to be redone, if necessary, by those who
offered them, with the assistance of the architects and
engineers if desired. Finally, the plans would be
resubmitted, discussed, and the peOple would vote on them.
Goodman believes that this would help create a sense Of
belonging and involvement in community. The government,
the administration of the city, must be Open to the voice
of the people. That is one of its functions.

The say of a neighborhood in its destiny can be

meaningful only if the neighborhood has begun to

be conscious of itself as a community. For this,

mere 'consent' or 'participation' is not enough;

there must be a measure of real initiating and

deciding, grounded in acquaintance and trust.3

"The bureaucratic administration of a city by tOp

down management may be able to provide consistency of
architecture but this usually results in its losing touch
with the local sentiment and function."4 With regard to
cost efficiency Goodman feels that the planning approach
outlined above would probably cost less than centralized
city planning, but he warns that the "vital questions that
are raised by analyzing cost are moral, psychological and

"5

political. Goodman's city is decentralized so that each

 

P .1. m a: “.31
Lani ._

92

square is a neighborhood--not "geographical isolation, but
a particular sociological use of geography."6 It is
decentralist in that it allows for and follows "the
actuality of living in an urban community, where housing,

schooling, shopping, policing, social services, politics

are integrally related."7

Although Goodman is decentralist, he does not deny
the advantages of some forms Of centralism. For example,
he describes an apartment house in a square where an urban
family is making a meal. They go about this as follows:

The ground floor of the building is not only a
restaurant but a food store; the farmers deliver
their produce here. The family cooks upstairs,
phones down for their uncooked meat, vegetables,
salad, and fixings, and these are delivered by
dumbwaiter, cleaned and peeled--the potatoes
peeled and spinach washed by machine. They dress
and season the roast to taste and send it back
with the message: "medium rare about 1845." The
husband Observes, unfortunately for the twentieth
time, that when he was a student in Paris a baker
on the corner used to roast their chicken in his
oven. Simpler folk, who live in smaller row
houses up the block, consider this procedure a lot
of foolishness; they just shop for their food,
prepare it themselves, cook it, and eat it. But
they don't have factory jobs; they run a lathe in
the basement.8

We see from this that Goodman wants a city that allows for
very different life styles.

Let us consider the jobs that peOple have in this
city. We see from the above quote that some people are
engaged in home work. They are mostly craftsmen. Their
work and domestic life are integrated not unlike Le

Corbusier's recounting of the work and life style of the

93

pre-industrial revolution craftsman. But Le Corbusier
was willing to relegate this to the past and replace it
with collective pride. Goodman, on the other hand,
designs a city where this is again possible.

We have seen in earlier chapters the difference
between Le Corbusier's and Goodman's definitions of
efficiency. Goodman's craftsmen are all efficiency
experts, that is, they know what they are lending their
hands to and are in the business of judging the relation
of ends and means.9

Yet Goodman is not trying to merely turn the clock
back. He feels that the wise use of technology allows
for more leisurely and humanistic pursuits. He is not
opposed to using the most advanced technology to build
and manufacture as long as the technology results in the
"Simplification of life; general security, and an increase
in choice and liberty."10 Therefore, in Goodman's plans,
the technology is "directed primarily to provide basic
necessities, standard conveniences, and routine services."11
When the technology is applied to housing it must satisfy
several criteria:

(1) Good functioning at a minimum standard; (2)
Considerable mobility, combined with exchange
ability, to allow freedom of location; (3) Mass
production of the fewest possible types consistent
with freedom of selection on crucial basic issues;
(4) Longevity of 10 to 20 years; (5) Adaptation

of the types to various communal environments,

e.g., those in which public utilities are available,
those where they are not available, etc.12

94

Technology can "provide all manner of things for
everybody" or it can be used to produce only a few
things "accompanied by a minimum regulation of time,
living arrangements, and habits of life." Citizens of
Goodman's city would have a guaranteed minimum income and
could then freely decide how much more, if indeed any more,

.money they wanted. There would be sufficient outlets for
crafted products and exotic farm goods and the Opportunity
to work in high paying, highly technologized productive
activity, to allow a person free choice.

Furthermore, Goodman would use the technology in
transportation. His prOposals would call for mass transit,
to avoid making the city unusable for pedestrians and
bicycles. There would be service roads but they would
not invade the squares and would be limited in number.

A superhighway would connect these city centers and con-
tinue out into the Open country.

The Second section Of the city would contain the
small farms, the schools, and small houses. This section
Nvould be within bicycling distance. A great many of the
Ipeople who work in the center of the city would live on
'the farms. Goodman wants to create a symbioSis of urban
eand rural, by three approaches first having small farms
\nery near the center of the city, secondly by having many
IIon-farmers live on the farm land, and thirdly by having

3341 elementary schools located in the small farm area.

95

Each of these three approaches to the integration of rural
and urban has its own advantages. In the case of the
geographical proximity the advantages are the ease of
getting into the city to sell fresh fruits, vegetables,
poultry, dairy products and meats, thereby providing a
direct market for small farmers and giving the peOple who
live in the centers fresh, unprocessed non-pre-packaged
food. The direct exchange between the grower and the
consumer does away with the "middle man." The food quality
would be better and the cost less when it is grown and
sold locally without being packaged. Another advantage

of being so close to the centers is that it is possible
for a small farm (four acres) to provide a reasonable
living for a family. Because the farms are small a family
can easily run one and because the selling is direct

there is enough profit to make this style of life
attractive. It diminishes urban migration.

The reasons for having many non-farmers live on
the farms are many. The main ones are to provide children
with a more natural environment during their earlier years,
to provide greater contact among farmers and non-farmers
and to provide an elementary education for all children
"in the natural environment where there are many children
and furnish a society for one another."13 Goodman feels
that the best society for growing-up is other children.

By locating the elementary schools in this section of the

96

city and having both farmers' children and non-farmers'
children attend, serves to remedy the injustice of some
areas paying more for education than others and of having
vastly different sums spent on education from school to
school.

The next area going out from the small farms is
for industrial agriculture and dairying.' These enter-
prises require greater size and more automation. People
who work in this enterprises could also be able to live
in the area of small farms and small houses without having
to commute great distances to work. The land beyond this
area Goodman designates as Open land. Some of his open
land would be game preserves, other parts grazing land,
etc., but this land is not for city expansion, it is not to
be built up. When there is a need for more housing,
industry, etc., a new city Should be planned and built.

The aim Of Goodman's plan "is to create a human-
scale community, of manageable associations, intermediary
between the individuals and families and the metropolis;
it is to counteract the isolation of the individual in

mass society."14

It is an integrated yet decentralist
plan, not geographically but sociologically. Based on the
notion that man's freedom and democracy by participation
depend on man's being able to keep his spontaneity, style,

grace, and force. He must initiate his behavior, he must

be free to act intrinsically and he must deal with his

97

environment which encourages face-to-face associations.

It is one

with the following characteristics:

PeOple use technology rather than being used
by it;

Technological advancement is decided on in
order to Simplify life, to conquer disease
and end blight and famine;

Jobs are desirable for the intrinsic rewards
of being useful to one's community;

Leisure is not idle time but time used to
expand oneself, to create, to be engaged in
useful, rewarding activity--such as politics;

Education is a normal part of growing up into
the community and an integral part of the life
Of the community;

A teacher's job is to see to it that the
community is worth growing-up into, and to
see to it that the community provides the
kinds of experiences which one can "grow-up
into;"

Job training is participation and initiation
into a craft or profession;

Conflict is not avoided, but welcomed and
peacefully faced and dealt with;

The channels of communication are open to
all and are not allowed to be pre-empted by
any group or groups;

PeOple can live in decent poverty without the
pressure to be co-Opted into doing work that
they do not care to do;

Humanity is built into every enterprise;
Competition is voluntary, serving human ends
and is not "heightened to the point of creating
anxiety and regimentation;"

There is no attempt to remake human nature;

98

- There is a sense of belonging which is an
outgrowth of being a part of the community
on one's own terms.

- There is a sense of world community and one
humanity;

- There are functional regions rather than
national states where life is simple enough
to be comprehensible;

- There aneworkers' management, guild associa-
tion, and authentic professionalism;

- There is production for use;

- The sources of responsibility and the ways
of growing up are multiplied.

Although Goodman is willing to make community

prOposalS he reminds us

however, the thousand places that one plans for

have mixed conditions and mixed values. The site

and history of a place are always particular, and

these make the beauty of a plan. Different

people in a place want different things, and the

same peOple want different things.15
Yet we must "learn the essential things, how to COpe with

"16 One of the essentials that we must

the modern plight.
learn to handle is conflict. Conflict can be very useful
in developing a sense Of community. If there is a style of
face-to—face interaction than conflict retards the
develOpment of rationalization and stereotypes. Face-to-
face interaction encourages a continuous give-and—take,
when contact is maintained conflict can be resolved with
growth being the outcome.17 But this will not happen

unless we have a scientific attitude (as Dewey, Veblen,

and Thomas Huxley use the term). Such an attitude is

99

present when peOple are critical, Objective, accurate, and
modest; when they share a community of inquiry, and live
in the absence of superstitions and taboos.18 When a

community faces the problem of living together, it is able

‘to "argue out their morals as they go along, they are

able to change them and invent something new. [Community]
. . . is not a model according to a prior scheme, but a
19

physical cause drawing on a powerful social energy."
Goodman realized that there exists a need for
planning. There is either a plan or "no plan at all."
When there is no plan it is too easy to lose Sight of the
endeavor and to feel incompetent and to leave the matter
with the so-called experts. Hence, we give up our
initiative, our freedom, and anomie results. When making
plans all areas must be treated as a unit. "If you're
going to do any good physical or social planning, you'll
find the areas will be unified because the human animals
are unified."20 Physical planning should facilitate,
help actualize, and perfect valuable social motives.
Planning must take into consideration the social, economic,
and political conditions that prevail and that are held to
be of value.
For a plan to work, the physical plan
is only trivially important compared to the really
important thing: neighborhood functions. And in
order to make any community function work as com-

munity, you must give the community authority,
power to make decisions. The only way you will

100

ever get any neighborhood planning that amounts
to anything is to dare to decentralize the
administration and allow local initiative.21
Goodman is not suggesting that one can give initiative,
but one can stand aside and not interfere with another's
right to exercise initiative and make decisions. Yet
there are some things that we ought to plan for:
To eliminate the intermediary, that which is
neither use, nor making for use. We ought to
cut down commutation, transport, administration,
overhead, communications, hanging around waiting.
On the other hand, there are very similar functions
that we ought to encourage, like travel and trade,
brokering, amenity, conversation, and loitering
the things that make up the busy and idle city.é2
Goodman believes that there is a great deal of
similarity between designing an intentional community and
making an educational proposal.
One provides for the physical, economic, social,
and psychological needs Of the members hopefully
better than in ordinary society. Yet the over-
whelming evidence of all such places is that they
do not survive unless there is some nonrational
motive, religious or naturalist or pacifist, that
makes them have to survive.23
Goodman believes that in both city and educational
planning "to find value in Operations and materials, to
dignify workmanship and the workday, to make consummation
less isolated, more in-process-forward, to be growth as
well as good,"24 we must remember that the means color
and define the ends. They are inseparable.
This was the bases of Dewey's pragmatism, of

Wright's architecture and Goodman's utopian thinking.

What Goodman said of Dewey and Wright is also apprOpriate

101

to say of him: that he "wanted to train, teach--perhaps
accustom is the best word--the new generation to the
actualities of industrial and technical life, working
practically with the machinery, learning by doing. People
could then be at home in the modern world, and possibly

become free."24

FOOTNOTES : CHAPTER V

lGoodman, Communitas, p. 17.
2Ibid., pp. 3-21.

3Goodman, PeOple or Personnel, p. 16.

4Ibid., pp. 75-94.

5Ibid., p. 123.

6Ibid., p. 15.

7Ibid.

8Goodman, Communitas, p. 165.

91bid., pp. 170-172.

loGoodman, People or Personnel, p. 135.

llIbid., p. 35.

12Goodman, Communitas, p. 207.

13ibid., p. 166.

14
p. 157.
15

Goodman, Utgpian Essays and Practical Proposals,

Goodman, Communitas, p. 221.

l61bid.

l7Goodman, Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals,
pp. 120-122.

18Ibid., pp. 23-28.

19Goodman, The Society I Live In IS Mine, p. 127.

201bid., p. 128.

102

CV." .l‘m..Ml_‘. “Ham: ' ‘. E' . u..-

 

21
22
23
24

25

103

gpgg., p. 132.
Goodman, New Reformation, p. 199.
Epid,,p. 103.
gpgg., p. 199.

Goodman, Compulsory Mis-education, p.

42.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

104

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