This paper examines the assumptions underlying and implicit within Paul Goodman's critique of the process of formal schooling. Three dimensions of this critique, historical, pedagogical, and social-psychological, are advanced to explain the precise manner in which Goodman analyses past, present, and future arrangements (or possibilities) for educating and the ways in which they impinge(d) on man's functioning within his environment.
Finally, the implications of Goodman's critique of formal schooling with respect to the provision of new styles and forms of learning, man's interactions within society, and the release or recovery of his “true” (or human) nature are briefly presented and assessed.
References
1.
This historical perspective is afforded generous airing in Goodman's article The present moment in education. Notre Dame Journal of Education, 1970, 1, 17–32.
2.
For Goodman's critique of formal schooling from the pedagogical perspective see his New Reformation: Notes of a Neolithic Conservative. New York: Random House, 1970, Chapter 3. Here, and in a later section of this paper, the incidental education process is described.
3.
See, e.g., Goodman's Compulsory Mis-Education. New York: Horizon Press, 1964.
4.
Goodman develops this theme in New Reformation, op. cit., and The Community of Scholars. New York: Random House, 1962.
5.
Goodman stresses this point in Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., and The universal trap. In SchreiberDaniel(Ed.) Profile of the School Dropout. New York: Vintage Books, 1968, 372–382.
6.
In this respect, the incidental education process appears nothing more than providing an optimum environment which is invigorating and “friendly” enough to energize the individual into drawing out his basic nature.
7.
See, e.g., Goodman's New Reformation, op. cit., and the final chapter Crisis and new spirit in his Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals. New York: Random House, 1962, 274–289.
8.
GoodmanP.No processing whatever. In GrossB., and R. (Eds.) Radical School Reform. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969, 98–106. Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., chapter 1.
9.
Goodman, New Reformation, op. cit., 69.
10.
Goodman, The Community of Scholars, op. cit., 161.
11.
GoodmanP.Freedom and learning. In GorowitzS. (Ed.) Freedom and Order in the University. New York: Random House, 1967, 31–41.
12.
Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., 140.
13.
GoodmanP., Growing Up Absurd. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960.
14.
GoodmanP.High school is too much. Psychology Today, 1970, 4, 5, 25–26.
Goodman, The Community of Scholars, op. cit., 146.
17.
Goodman, New Reformation, op. cit., 70–72.
18.
GoodmanP.How the school establishment hoaxes the public. Phi Delta Kappan, 1968, 40, 18–19.
19.
The startling similarity between Goodman's version of past learners (as evidenced in the historical perspective) and the kind mentioned here cannot be overestimated.
20.
GoodmanP.Deschooling society: Pitiful waste of youthful years. Urban Review1971, 52, 252, 22–23.
21.
GoodmanP.Are the schools that necessary?National Catholic Reporter, 1968, 4, 30, 8.
Goodman, The present moment in education, op. cit., 22. Such tactics are described in the following sections of this paper.
24.
PerlsF.HefferlineR.GoodmanP.Gestalt Therapy. New York: Julian Press, 1951, 316.
25.
Goodman, The present moment in education, op. cit., 21.
26.
Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., 140.
27.
Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., 89.
28.
Goodman, New Reformation, op. cit., 92.
29.
Goodman, New Reformation, op. cit., 70–71.
30.
Goodman, The Community of Scholars, op. cit., 134.
31.
Goodman, New Reformation, op. cit., 75.
32.
Goodman, The present moment in education, op. cit., 19.
33.
Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education, op. cit., 56.
34.
GoodmanP.Mini-schools: A prescription for the reading problem. In RyanK.CooperJ. (Eds.) Kaleidoscope: Readings in Education. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1972, 252–258.
35.
GoodmanP.The community of scholars, 1962. Commentary, 1962, 33, 205–207.
