Museums, Imagination and Education (review)

354 Books Gropius’ architectural socialism was concerned with the equality of living standards and with providing for the complete set of activities in which people engaged. He was a revolutionary but not one in the romantic tradition. He was equitable and intelligent, concerned with introducing a ‘method‘ to deal with the social transformations that were emerging in the 20th century. His tragedy was that, although his stand against the stylistic mannerism of his time was highly successful, it was also misunderstood and abused. This is frequently the fate of successful schools of thought. His architecture rejected ‘style’ for a more honest approach-that of dealing with the functions that are performed in a building-yet, this approach to designing became a ‘style’ itself, the international style. The monograph fails to illuminate the significance of his revolution or its tragedy. There is no indication, neither descriptive nor visual, of the era Gropius was to terminate with his philosophy, nor is there an indication why his mission is so poorly understood and badly abused today. It would have been educational to illustrate buildings by his contemporaries and to see them in comparison with Gropius’ early work. The colored plates illustrate the fine condition of his early buildings. Their feeling of ‘modernism’confuse our sense of time. There is no mention that the photographs are contemporary; I know them to be so from other documentations. An explanation would have given proper meaning to the fine detailing and sensible methods of construction. Gropius was a genius of a teacher, but a most abused theoretician. I can recall long discussions at TAC (The Architects Collaborative) with ‘Grope’ about architectural provisions for the complete, balanced human life and his belief in the integrated method of working towards architectural solutions. He was very saddened to observe the proliferation of the international style and the ways in which his ideas became twisted in order to provide the theoretical justification for puritanical and cheap buildings. In the name of functionalism, which was meant to produce buildings as total responses to their way of usage, human values and senses were reduced to abstract design and stylistic interpretations. The symbolic and subliminal were wrongly abandoned for utilitarian solutions. There is a gloom pervading most of the colored illustrations . One can only wonder if they are reflections of the hordes of bad international style imitations that discolor so many environments. Learning to Be: The WorM of Education Today and Tomorrow, Edgar Faure, et al. Unesco, Paris, 1972. 298 pp., Paper. Reviewed by Barbara D. Finberg* This is a report of the International Commission on the Development of Education, appointed by the DirectorGeneral of Unesco. The Commission comprised Faure of France, chairman, and six other distinguished men from different countries and cultures: Chile, the Syrian Arab Republic, the People’s Republic of the Congo, the U.S.S.R., Iran and the U.S.A. They interpreted their task not as an exhaustive study of formal education but as a critical reflection on what knowledge of education in the past and present offers and what independent, objective minds agree upon as principles and goals for the development of education serving humankind in the development of education in a changing world. Education, in the Commission’s terms of reference, connoted ‘coherent and deliberate action aimed at the transmission of knowledge, the development of attitudes, and the training and betterment of man [woman] in all aspects and throughout.. .life’. The terms specifically provided that educational development should be considered within the framework of total development and should cover both developed and developing countries. *Carnegie Corporation of New York, 437 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y.10021, U.S.A. The book is divided into three parts: (1) Findings-the heritage of the past; present characteristics, needs, demands and resources; major schools of thought about the purposes of education; and methods and contents. (2) The challenges and goals of education now and for the future -changes in socioeconomic structures and the scientific and technological revolution that make renovation in education ‘imperative’ and new discoveries in social and physical sciences and technology and innovations in education that can be applied toward educational renovation . (3) Strategies and ways...