Notes on Educational Reform David Riesman

Publikation des Erich-Fromm-Archivs, Tübingen Publication of the Erich Fromm Archive, Tuebingen, Germany Copyright © beim Autor / by the author Notes on Educational Reform David Riesman "Notes on Educational Reform," in: B. Landis and E. S. Tauber (Eds.): In the Name of Life. Essays in Honor of Erich Fromm, New York (Holt, Rinehart and Winston) 1970, pp. 193-217. Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University, Dr. David Riesman has also taught at the Univer- sity of Chicago and at Yale. He initially took a law degree at Harvard and was once a deputy assis- tant district attorney in New York. His books include The Lonely Crowd, Individualism Reconsid- ered, Constraint and Variety in American Education, and Thorstein Veblen—Critical Interpretation. I am indebted for helpful suggestions to Michael Maccoby, Edwin Harwood, and Robert Bellah. Support for my research on higher education has come from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. Keeping in touch with efforts at educational re- Understandably, educational reform is in- form in American universities has become in- tertwined with other issues: for instance, with creasingly difficult. Several years ago only a few the attack on science as stultifying, "irrelevant," pacesetter institutions were experimenting with or dangerous to mankind; with programs in interdisciplinary courses, field study programs, black studies or in urban studies which often student-initiated courses, and independent study have the highest priority on a campus, fre- in their undergraduate programs. But today quently with the aim [194] of doing something these innovations have spread throughout aca- about white racism or ghetto poverty. In many demia in response to changed faculty attitudes colleges the proponents of participatory educa- and the newer youth subcultures.1 Exceptional tional democracy—carrying into (more or less) places like St. John's Colleges at Annapolis and voluntary associations the national principle of Santa Fe fight a continuing engagement in de- "one man, one vote"—contend that participa- fense of traditional curricula resting on a pro- tion per se is a more important reform than any gram of Great Books which must be accepted in substantive changes in styles of teaching and its entirety. However, elsewhere students as well learning. Correspondingly, whatever else may as faculty, who have been in constant communi- be happening on a campus, a drastic delegitima- cation with each other, have helped to spread tion of authority is proceeding, whether this be experiments begun in one locale all over the the authority of experts or professionals, of cur- academic map— generally with the consequence ricular programs, or of traditions of scholarship of minimizing the traditional curricular require- and learning. In the place of the older authority ments or eliminating them altogether. there has arisen what Erich Fromm in Escape from Freedom and Man for Himself described as anonymous authority: the authority of whatever 1 Both the sheer magnitude of change and the degree is denned as relevant and consonant with an to which it may promote homogeneity are suggested epoch of rapid social change, in short, with by Harold L. Hodgkinson, Institutions in Transition: A whatever extracurricular preoccupations stu- Study of Change in Higher Education, a publication of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 1970; dents and faculty now press upon their institu- for discussion of change in some pioneering liberal tions. arts colleges, see Morris Keeton and Conrad Hilberry, Though I do not agree with Erich Fromm in Struggle and Promise: A Future for Colleges (New some of his specific comments on education to- York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1969). page 1 of 15 Riesman, D., 1971 Notes on Educational Reform Publikation des Erich-Fromm-Archivs, Tübingen Publication of the Erich Fromm Archive, Tuebingen, Germany Copyright © beim Autor / by the author day, notably in connection with Summerhill, I event) even while one tries to move toward a believe that the implications of his general more hopeful future; thus he has recently writ- thought for the understanding of education are ten: "For many of the younger generation who very important. My own thinking about educa- belittle the value of traditional thought, I should tion and my work over many years as an educa- like to stress my conviction that even the most tional reformer are the beneficiaries of Erich radical development must have its continuity Fromm's work and example. For instance, the with the past; that we cannot progress by distinction he makes between rational and irra- throwing away the best achievements of the tional authority, analogous to the one he draws human mind—and that to be young is not between rational and irrational affects, is helpful enough!"4 to me when I reflect on the present battle over Beyond such conceptual clarifications, his authority in higher education.2 When he first influence has led me in my thinking about edu- made his distinction between rational and irra- cation and teaching to appreciate the impor- tional affects—thus arguing that there can be ra- tance of moral qualities in the scholar and tional love and rational hate—the intellectual teacher. Just as he asks investigators in scientific climate tended to regard rationality as affect- research to be open to observation and impres- free (and therefore, as good and trustworthy); sions and hunches, so also he argues in teaching while we move unevenly into an era which re- and in psychoanalysis for openness that lessens gards irrationality as life-giving and rationality as defensiveness and the need to impress others. merely a hang-up, the distinction, with values Contrary to the ideology of many Americans, reversed, remains.3 Fromm's thought is syncretic, perhaps especially males, he stresses the impor- not only with respect [195] to this ancient dual- tance of vulnerability as one of the qualities of ism of thought and feeling, but also with respect humaneness.5 While I know that in dealing with to the differences among the great world relig- sullen or actively hostile students my own resil- ions and such civil (or nonreligious) religions as iency leaves much to be desired and my good patriotism, socialism, or humanism. Characteris- humor often deserts me, Fromm's model of un- tic also is his insistence that the past should not sentimental vulnerability is something I try to at- be junked (an almost impossible effort in any tain. Generally speaking, he sees the importance for creative intellectual work of such moral 2 Many social critics, when they encounter what they qualities as this, as well as courage and faith; in- regard as excesses of reason, are tempted to turn telligence unanchored in the affective life is not against reason itself and to defend irrationality as enough. Indeed, I have observed that it is the somehow more deeply human. Fromm's distinction cultivation of these moral qualities which often preserves reason as essentially human, undercutting makes the difference between interesting, poten- the despair that leads to praising irrationality per se. tially significant work, and conventional aca- Cf. the candid, troubled discussion in George P. Elli- ott, "Revolution Instead—Notes on Passions and Poli- demic gamesmanship. (Needless to say, games- tics," an essay principally concerning education, The manship can take many forms: increasingly it Public Interest, 20 (1970), 65-89, especially pp. 85 ff. takes the form of desire to shock and to appear 3 The distinction is not a simple one, and there is no properly rebellious, a member of what Harold space here fully to explore Fromm's meaning. He Rosenberg once termed "the herd of independ- considers rational those affects which are conducive ent minds.") [196] to the optimal functioning of human beings, to the growth and unfolding of life; irrational affects are those which diminish or weaken the capacity for the Current Themes of Educational Reform art of life. Love might then be rational if not based on masochism or possessiveness. Hatred would generally be irrational, markedly so when it is of an idling kind, During the academic year 1968-1969, while on as in an idling motor, waiting for targets of opportunity—but arguably rational when reactive to a specific 4 See Erich Fromm, The Revolution of Hope: Toward threat to life. Whether an affect is rational or not says a Humanized Technology (New York: Harper & nothing about its comprehensibility through reason: Row, 1968), Foreword, p. xvii. both alike can be in principle understood. 5 5 See ibid., p. 85 and elsewhere. page 2 of 15 Riesman, D., 1971 Notes on Educational Reform Publikation des Erich-Fromm-Archivs, Tübingen Publication of the Erich Fromm Archive, Tuebingen, Germany Copyright © beim Autor / by the author leave from Harvard, I had the opportunity to business corporation, or a small town. discuss ideas and ideals of educational change In all these areas, the trend is away from and reform with students and faculty at a num- what is regarded as alienated learning and to- ber of places widely differing from each other: ward first-hand experience. An amateur spirit Stanford University (then engaged in a large self- prevails, which has its benign sides but also cer- study); the University of California at Davis and tain dangers. There is a frequent belief that at San Diego; the University of North Carolina theoretical work gets in the way of experience: (where the first two undergraduate years were a naive [197] underestimation of the epistemo- being examined by a student-faculty commit- logical problems of experience itself. Related to tee); the new College of the State University of this on many campuses is a rejection of rational- New York at Old Westbury which had just ism and of the search for objectivity in scholar- opened that year; Oakland University in Michi- ship, an attitude which identifies spontaneity gan; and, more briefly, Pitzer College in the with irrationality and regards cognition as neces- Claremont group of colleges.

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