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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John’s Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 7902229 SMITH* SUSAN MARY EDUCATION WITHIN A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY: HUMANISTIC OUTLOOK. THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY* PH.D-* 1978 University Micjorilrns International 300 n z e e b r o a d, a n n a r b o r, mi 48106 0 Copyright by Susan Mary Smith 1978 EDUCATION WITHIN A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY: A HUMANISTIC OUTLOOK DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susan Mary Smith, B.A., M.A. * * * * The Ohio State University 1978 Reading Committee: Approved By Dr. Bernard Mehl Dr. Paul R. Klohr Dr. Robert E. Jewett Faculty of otfrpiculumsmjpiculum &Faculty & Foundations College of Education To my parents and To Bernie a real teacher and friend VITA November 11, 1947 ........ Born - Dubuque, Iowa 1970......... ............. B.A., Clarice College Dubuque, Iowa 1970-1972............. Teacher, West High School Waterloo, Iowa 1972-1975................. Teacher, Central High School Waterloo, Iowa 197^«..................... M.A., University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, Iowa 1975-197 6............ Academic Adviser, University College The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1976-197 8................. Teaching Assistant, College of Education, Faculty of Curriculum and Foundations The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Fields Foundations and Curriculum Studies in History of Education. Professor Bernard Mehl Studies in Philosophy of Education. Professor Bernard Mehl Studies in Curriculum Theory. Profeasor Paul Klohr Minor Fieldst Studies in Political Theory. Professor John R. Champlin Studies in History. Professor Robert Bremner Professor Marc Raphael Professor Richard Hopkins TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ii VITA iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II, THE EMERGING CAPITALISTIC SOCIETYi A SOURCE FOR TECHNOCRACY 6 III. CRITICS IDENTIFY THE TECHNOLOGICAL DILEMMA 36 IV. EDUCATION AS A HUMANISTIC ALTERNATIVE TO THE TECHNOLOGICAL DILEMMA 75 V. ACCOUNTABILITY MOVEMENT« A TESTING GROUND FOR EDUCATION 109 VI. IMPLICATIONS OF THIS STUDY FOR EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE 163 BIBLIOGRAPHY 182 iv LIST OP TABLES Table Page 1. Habermas' Interpretative Scheme............ 52 2. Theses Pertaining to School Administration Submitted for Doctoral Degrees in American Universities. 1910-1933* .................. 153 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...our chief duty consists, according to the profound saying of the Greek poet, Pindar, in becoming who we are, nothing is more important for each of us, or more difficult, than to become a man. Thus the chief task of education is above all to shape man, or to guide the evolving dynamism through which man forms himself as a man.l Man is a unit: his thinking, feeling, and his practice of life are inseparably connected.2 History is a kind of ecology which says that ideas and inventions must blend in with the history of a people or things go wrong. 3 ...man is the center and purpose of his lifej ...the growth and realization of man's individuality is an end that can never be subordinated to purposes which are supposed to have greater dignity.^ M o d e m man seems to equate freedom with lack of commitment. We pride ourselves in "doing our own thing," and not being "tied down." We believe that by throwing off external constraints— Church, family, repressive laws, etc.— we are 1Jacques Maritain, Education At The Crossroads (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19^3)» P* i* 2Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, In<ft., 1955* Fawcett Premier Books, 1955)* P* 239. ^Bernard Mehl, Classic Educational Ideas (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1972), p. 3* ^Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1941; Avon Books, 1965), p. 291. automatically free. And yet, there is the deep realization— during some unguarded moment— that we really don't have our own thing to do. We come to the realization that our society is "one-dimensional" and "our thing" in reality is "everybody else's thing." Erich Fromm has dealt with the qualitative aspects of freedom. As m o d e m men we forget: ...that we not only have to preserve and increase the traditional freedom, but that we have to gain a new kind of freedom, one which enables us to realize our own individual self, to have faith in this self and in life.5 M o d e m man seems to have concentrated on the quantitative aspects of freedom— "freedom from,"— ridding ourselves of external constraints. While "freedom from" is important, it does not automatically lead to "freedom to"— qualitative freedom. Fromm's thesis is that m o d e m man, though he has freed himself from the "bonds of pre-individualistic society,"6 has not gained freedom in a positive sense. In losing the constraints of that "pre-individualistic society," we also lost the security of that society. M o d e m man is now faced with feelings of powerlessness and isolation and to escape from these feelings he enters into new dependencies instead of gaining freedom in the "positive sense of the realization of his individual self; 5Ibid., p. 126. 6Ibid., p. viii. that is, the expression of his intellectual, emotional and sensuous potentialities."7 This study, in dealing with education, takes the stance that education, as Maritain says above, conceived as the shaping and guiding of "the evolving dynamism through which man form3 himself as a man,is necessarily related to freedom in that positive sense expressed by Fromm. We believe that schools can and do make sense out of the absurd in the m o d e m world. We believe that man must be central in any philosophy of education or society and that all educational and societal schemes should be judged on that score. As Mehl says* ...schools, like the Church, will remain, simply because they can provide sanctity and sanity to our age. To paraphrase Dostoevsky, "If faith in education is dead, than all is possible. To provide sanctity and sanity in a world devoted to technology and behavioral science is a profoundly difficult task. It demands: ...a deep sense of commitment to teaching and learning and a love of thdt history which is the harbinger of ambiguity necessary to the continuation of a foolish human condition which stops short of perfection.!0 This study will involve an historical-philosophical mode of inquiry into one of the most crucial and persistent problems 7Ibid. ^Maritain, Education At The Crossroads, 1. ^Mehl, Classic Educational Ideas, 8. 10Ibid., p. 2. in the foundations of educational theory and practice— namely the confrontation between a humanistic alternative and the increasingly technological pressures on society and schooling. The study, "The Emerging Capitalistic Society* A Source for Technocracy," will first explore, through the works of Max Weber and Erich Fromm, the early development of capitalism as a source of m o d e m alienation and fragmentation. It will then examine the aspects of "freedom from" vs. "freedom to" and the subordination of man’s central position to "suprapersonal forces." This will be followed by a theoretical examination of m o d e m technocratic society through the works of selected social critics* Herbert Marcuse, Jurgen Habermas, and Jacques Ellul. Returning to the Greek conception of "the good man in the good society," we will examine the transition of politics from "praxis" to "techne— the expert mastery of objectified tasks.This analysis will call for a "critical theory" of society as opposed to mere submission to the "objective exigencies" of m o d e m technocratic society. We will then present a view of "education as an art" whose primary aim is "the making of a man." We will examine the works of Jacques Maritain, Robert M.