The Greek word utopia has been used by those who envision a perfect world. The social refo

rmers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, like the British industrialist Robert Owen and the French theorist Charles Fourier, are considered Utopians because they believed in impossibly ideal conditions of social organization. Convinced that they possessed the truth, Utopians often exhibited a sense of mission by which they tried to persuade the unbeliever to accept the truth of their visions. Nonviolent but persuasive. Utopians relied heavily on providing unbelievers with information to convert them to the Utopian vision so that they joined the cause. Utopians relied on informal education to make their messages known to an ever-widening audience Owen and Fourier, for example, were tireless writers who produced volumes of essays and other publications. In particular, Owen was a frequent lecturer and organizer of committees designed to advance his Utopian beliefs.

Education was designed to create a popular movement for joining the Utopian cause. In this journalist or lecture stage, Utopian education consisted of two elements. First, it mentioned the ills of society and suggested how they might be remedied. Second, it presented a picture of life, often minutely detailed, in the new society.

Utopians believed that modern industrialism had caused individuals to lose interest in the values of both family and the larger society, resulting in personal and social disorganization. To overcome this sense of alienation Utopians sought to create perfectly integrated communities. Like the ancient Greek city-state, the new community would be a totally instructive environment. Work, leisure, art, and social and economic relationships would reinforce the sense of community and cultivate communitarian values. Fourier's form. of communal organization, the phalanstery, consisted of 2,000 members and was organized into flexible groups that provided for production, education, and recreation. In addition to communal workshops, kitchens, and laundries, the phalanstery would also provide libraries, concert halls, and study rooms for its members.

Utopian theorists, especially Owen, emphasized the education of the young in institutes and schools. The child, they reasoned, held the key to continuing the new society. Rejecting older concepts of child depravity and inherited human weakness, Utopians believed that human nature can be molded. Owen and other Utopians advocated beginning children's education as early as possible. Young children, they reasoned, were free of the prejudices and biases of the previously established social order. If they were educated in community nurseries, they would be free from the contaminating ideas of those who had not yet been cured of the vices of the established society. They could be shaped into the desired type of communitarian human beings. Community nurseries and infant schools performed a second function: freeing women from the burdens of child rearing and allowing them to have full equality with the male residents of Utopia.

According to Fourier, the family and the school in the previously established social order were agencies used to criticize and correct children. Fourier intended to replace them with associative or group-centered education in which peer friends would correct negative behavior. in the spirit of open friendship. Fourier's associative form. of education involved mutual criticism and group correction, which was a form. of character molding that brought about community social control and conformity. Fourier believed that children, like adults, had instincts and interests that should be encouraged rather than repressed. He envisioned a system of miniature work shops in which children could develop their industrious instincts.

His associative education was also intended to further the children's complete development. First, the body and its sense

A．They formally educated students in schools.

B．They expressed their ideas to audiences in writing and speaking.

C．They challenged non-Utopians to public debates.

D．They organized groups of Utopians to meet in people's homes.