This monograph relates the numerous problems involved in developing an experimental community named Lake Village in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Formulated by several psychologists, the experiment is an off-shoot of a conference on alternative communities held in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1966. The community centers around an educational strategy that would rear children from birth and show how their academic, social, and emotional development could be accelerated. Some major problems encountered were conflicts among individuals and cliques, cultural separation of the youth and elders, financial difficulties due to withdrawal of grants and other funding, and difficulty in determining a purpose and meaning of the community satisfactory to all and possible to live by. The original community dissolved from the magnification of tensions; however, another communal group formed around child care needs, developing into a seemingly more stable community. A description of the school, called the Learning Village, is included. It has four divisions: infant program, nursery program, pre-elementary program, and elementary school up to the second grade. In general, the Learning Village program appears successful despite the difficulties experienced. (ND)