University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1976 The creation and survival of private, countercultural, transcendent communities of learning-living. Leo James Hoar University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Hoar, Leo James, "The creation and survival of private, countercultural, transcendent communities of learning-living." (1976). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3153. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3153 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE CREATION AND SURVIVAL OF PRIVATE, COUNTERCULTURAL, TRANSCENDENT COMMUNITIES OF LEARNING- LTV ENG A Dissertation Presented By LEO JAMES HOAR Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION December 1976 Education (c) Leo James Hoar 1976 All Rights Reserved ii THE CREATION AND SURVIVAL OF PRIVATE, COUNTERCULTURAL, TRANSCENDENT COMMUNITIES OF LEARNING-LIVING A Dissertation Presented By LEO JAMES HOAR ( Dr. Mario D. Fantinf, Dean School of Education December 1976 Community can be defined simply as a group in which free conversation can take place. Community is where I can share my innermost thoughts, bring out the depths of my own feelings, and know they will be understood. These days there is a great search for community, partly because our human experience of community has largely evaporated and we are longely. Rollo May iv DEDICATION To my parents, who probably had something like this in mind. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At the outset I wish to recognize the intellectual, moral, fraternal and practical support of both my Comprehensive Committee and my Dissertation Committee, for their strength in calling me to courage, the courage to be. The inspiration for this dissertation topic derives from countless hours of sharing hopes, dreams and ideals with such fine people. In particular, I owe a very deep debt to Dr. Harvey B. Scribner, for his unique human qualities and outstanding moral virtues in confronting all that is not in concert with the laws of nature and with the beauty of living a truly human life. He has taught me to be exact, disciplined, optimistic; he has afforded me the inspiration to know that education is for all people. To Dr. Sidney B. Simon, who has truly caused me to clarify my life, who has given me support, affirmation and validation in my personal growth. He has opened me up to countibss possibilities through choosing, prizing, acting, consistently and publicly, in light of values that have meaning. To Dr. Benjamin Ricci, for the intimate opportunity to share in the life them and always of a person who has the capacity to ride out rough seas, calm courage to risk manage to stay afloat and be right. He taught me to have the all even when lacking support. what is authentic To Dr. Robert Mackin, for his precision in knowing and enduring in alternative education. vi To Dr. Norma Jean Anderson, for her compassion, understanding and constant availability to the graduate student community. To Leonard B. Stevens, for his outstanding kindness in assisting me in texts and textures. To Dorothy Pilkington, who personally invited me to study at the University of Massachusetts, and for keeping me to the task. To Jean Home, for preparing the typing at my comprehensive exam and for catering caringly to the bureaucratic process at the university. To Ed Crowley, long-time friend, for causing me to remain unbounded in the quest for an effective design for this thesis, and for causing me to transcend the parochial. To Deena K. Stryker, for her energy and persistence in editing and typing this dissertation, and affording me constructive criticism of my ideas. To John Horak for his aid in many technical and research matters. To my famil y and friends: Dan, Judy and Adam Kelly, Ralph and Elaine Atkins and family, John and Chris Williams and family, Dan and Bonnie Freitas and family, Jerry Spafford, Gene Honan, Matt O’Connor and William O'Shea for their support, self and to love, concern and assistance, which enabled me to realize a better proclaimed better express this realized self in what I have written and publicly to be myself. vii To students, faculty, colleagues, and parents of students who have called me to a clearer enlightenment of the importance of living and learning. And just behind these extraordinarily creative people, there are others too numerous to name, who called me to the three R's: Reform, Radicalize and Recreate. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page I. INTRODUCTION The Myth of the Melting Pot 5 Integration and the Generation Gap 8 The Student as Product 9 Definition of Terms 10 The Importance of Education 20 Characteristics of Contemporary Schools • • 22 The Question of Equality 26 II. HISTORICAL REVIEW 31 Part One: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. 33 Early Influence of the Church on the American Colonies 34 The Enlightenment 36 Political Change 40 The Growth of Capitalism 41 Old and New World Goals ......... 43 The Development of Private Schools .... 45 Part Two: The Nineteenth Century 49 Capitalist Expansion 50 Social Mobility and Education 51 Origins of Class and Race Bias •••••. 53 Paternalistic Voluntarism. 54 The Lancasterian Method 55 Democratic Localism. 57 Corporate Voluntarism 59 Horace Mann's Common Schools 62 The Schools as Sifters 65 The Shift to Professionals 68 Race, Caste and Class 71 CHAPTER Page Part Three: The Early Twentieth Century .... 73 Americanization 74 Humanization 75 The Stanford- Binet. 76 Meritocracy. 78 Summary 79 III. INEQUALITY AND CONTEMPORARY RE FORMERS 80 An Overview. 82 Proposals for Reform 94 The Radical Critics 104 The Free School Movement 110 IV. A MODEL FOR LEARNING-LIVING COMMUNITIES 121 Introduction 122 Reasons for Choosing Community .... 126 Children in Communities 133 Values and Community 140 Individuality and Community 141 The Model 149 Formation of the Community ...... 151 Structure Physical Setting Skills Curriculum Power Enabling Legislation 165 Accountability 155 Funding* 155 Legal Precedents 172 177 V. CONCLUSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY 196 206 APPENDIX x ABSTRACT THE CREATION AND SURVIVAL OF PRIVATE, COUNTERCULTURAL, TRANSCENDENT COMMUNITIES OF LEARNING-LIVING (February 1977) Leo James Hoar, B.A. , St. Anselm's College M. Ed. , Springfield College; CAGS, Springfield College Ed. D. , University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Harvey B. Scribner The dissertation reviews the historical development and social phenomena of the present American educational scene as the major components in designing the schools for systems of management. Recognizing the need for a myriad of educational services in a problem-oriented society, the author creates a different type of educational experience, the private, coirn tercultural, transcendent community of learning living. The model's foci are drawn from the following two points. 1) Old and new communities and communal-life styles; and 2) contemporary experiments in communal based education. In designing the living-learning community, a major emphasis addressed the three words—How to Live! living and The experimental model affirms the following: 1) communal peer instruction demonstrates other viable ways for people to learn. The learning process enhances the children participating, through real tasks and xi on-going contacts, in the adult world which childhood frequently banishes. 2) Living-learning communities draw the society closer to an integrated, yet pluralistic society. As time passes, the social mobility increases as a direct result of better learning experiences. Interaction between the different communities helps to end the man-made dichotomy between city and country, physical and intellectual work. 3) Communities of living learning bring to the various professional and governmental establishments anew richness and more humane ideals. Funding for private, countercultural, learning-living communities is through a system of government vouchers. Two existing proposals for vouchers systems are reviewed. The legal precedents for this undertaking are described, with indications of their future applicability to the question of compulsory attendance and freedom of choice in education. It is the writer's contention that addressing the educational dilemma at its roots, the effort will inspire future researchers in sociology, psychology, and education to contribute to a widely applicable, long-term solution. xii PREFACE We are living at a time when one age is dying and the new age is not yet bom. We cannot doubt this as we look about us to see the radical changes in sexual mores, in marriage styles, in family structures, in education, in religion, technology, and almost every other aspect of modem life. And behind it all is the threat of the atom bomb, which recedes into the distance but never disappears. To live with sensitivity in this age of limbo indeed requires courage. A choice confronts us. Shall we, as we feel our foundations shaking, withdraw in anxiety and panic? Frightened by the loss of our familiar mooring places, shall we become paralyzed and cover our inaction with apathy? If we do those tilings, we will