The 1950s: Postwar Changes in Society and Education

1
The 1950s Postwar Changesin Society and
Education

• Chapter 3
• Bonnie Pazin
• ILEAD 5

2
Overview

• Facts Timeline
• Television
• Suburbia
• Interstates
• The Eisenhower Administration
• National Defense Education Act
• The Atomic Age Cold War
• Civil Defense in Education

3
Facts of the 1950s

• Population 151,684,000 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce,
• Bureau of the Census)
• Unemployed  3,288,000
• Life expectancy   Women 71.1,  men  65.6
• Car Sales  6,665,800
• Average Salary  2,992
• Labor Force male/female 5/2
• Cost of a loaf of bread  0.14
• Bomb shelter plans, like the government pamphlet
  You Can Survive, become widely available

4
Terms of the 1950s

• Heightened cold war
• Red scare/espionage
• decade of quiet conformism
• Atomic age and the bomb shelter
• Space race
• Suburbia
• Interstate Highways
• Juvenile Delinquents
• Maladjusted Youth
• Affluent America
• McCarthyism
• Progressivism
• Rock and Roll
• Beat Generation

5
Events Technology Timeline

• 1950 - President  Harry Truman  ( 'til 1952)
  approves production of the hydrogen bomb and
  Sends air force and navy to Korea in June.
• 1951 - Transcontinental television begins with a
  speech by Pres. Truman. 
• Dwight D. Eisenhower  is president  from 1953
  until 1961
• 1952 - The Immigration and Naturalization Act of
  1952 is signed, removing racial and ethnic
  barriers to becoming a U.S. citizen. 
• 1953 -  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are
  electrocuted for their part in W.W.II espionage. 
  
• 1953 - Fighting ends in Korea. 
• 1954 -  U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins
  televised hearings into alleged Communists in the
  army. 
• 1954 - Racial segregation is ruled
  unconstitutional in public schools by the U.S.
  Supreme Court. 
• 1955 -  Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on
  a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. 
• 1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the
  Congress of Industrial Organizations merge making
  the new AFL-CIO an organization with 15 million
  members. 
• 1955  Dr. Jonas Salk  developed a vaccine for 
  polio
• 1956 - The Federal Highway Act is signed, marking
  the beginning of work on the interstate highway
  system.
• 1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite,
  successfully orbits the earth. 
• December 10, 1958 - The first domestic
  jet-airline passenger service is begun by
  National Airlines between New York City and
  Miami. 
• 1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become the forty-ninth
  and fiftieth states. 

6
A Legal End to Desegregation

• Until 1954, an official policy of " separate but
  equal " opportunities for blacks -- determined to
  be the correct method to insure that all children
  in America received an adequate and equal
  education in public schools
• In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other
  members of the Supreme Court wrote in Brown v.
  the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
• separate facilities for blacks did not make those
  facilities equal according to the Constitution
• Integration was begun across the nation
• In 1956,  Autherine J.Lucy successfully enrolled
  in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.
• In 1957, Elizabeth Eckford was the first black
  teenager to enter then all-white Little Rock
  Central High School , Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Although integration took place quietly in most
  towns, the conflict at Central High School in
  Little Rock was the first of many confrontations
  in Arkansas which showed that public opinion on
  this issue was divided.

7
Good Economic Times

• GNP increased from 285 billion in 1950 to 501
  billion in 1960
• Manufacturings income increased from 76 billion
  in 1950 to 126 billion in 1960
• Service sector more than doubled from 22 billion
  in 1950 to 44.5 billion in 1960
• Unemployment rate at a low 4
• Inflation rate less than 2 annually

8
Developments in Science Technology

• Dr. Jonas Salk develops Polio Vaccine (1955)
• Development of the computer
• UNIVAC The world's first commercial computer
  began use on June 14, 1951. 
• UNIVAC weighed eight tons
• Fortran programming language developed by IBM
• The advent of television

9
The advent of television

• 1950 3.9 million homes with a television
• 1960 46 million homes with a television
• TV news coverage of major events were a more
  dramatic than the newspaper
• Created a framework of popular culture and values
  the Dick and Jane perspective on how
  Americans should live

10
Changes in Pop Culture

• Rock and Roll
• Elvis Presley
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Beat Generation
• Writers like Jack Kerouac
• First all color TV show
• Howdy Doody 1955

11
Beginnings of Juvenile Deliquency

• H.G. Good in A History of Education
• When student given free use of car, school marks
  go down
• Much confusion and disorder of unruly pupils
  teachers resign
• Schools accused of breeding deliquency what can
  they do to prevent it?
• Studies and scales created to predict probable
  delinquency

12
Rising Birth Rate

• Generation of Baby Boomers
• Population rose from 152 million in 1950 to 181
  million in 1960
• Led to the resettlement of Americans to outlying
  areas of big cities

13
Growth of Suburbia

• White middle class ethnic group moving to suburbs
• New economic affluence
• Changes in home building and ownership
• Could build relatively inexpensive tract homes
  move from apartments to single family homes
• Ex. Levittown, NY and PA William Levitt often
  called the Henry Ford of Housing
• Interstates make commuting possible

14
Interstates and a highly mobile society

• Suburbia facilitated by Eisenhowers large
  federal subsidies for interstate highway
  construction
• 1956 National Defense Highway Act provides for
  building 41,000 of freeways
• Interstates reduced isolation by geography
• Made commuting possible and began the idea of
  rush hour traffic

15
Educational Pattern until 1950s

• Large cities large urban school district with
  elementary and secondary under jurisdiction of a
  single board and superintendent of schools
• At end of WWII, large urban schools seen as
  strongest sectors of American public education
• Facilities
• Richness of curriculum
• Size of administrative and teaching personnel
• Rural areas often had single school, one room
  districts

16
Demographic and Educational Shift in the 1950s

• As suburbs develop, large cities found with
  declining urban tax base and declining of schools
• Changing demographics in urban areas
• Black and hispanic ethnic groups moving towards
  inner cities
• Inner city population would generate new needs
  for education (not addressed until the 60s)
• Rural schools being consolidated into larger,
  more efficient, modern districts

17
Demographic and Educational Shift in the 1950s

• Metropolitan areas rings of suburbs around
  cities
• Each suburb had its own
• local municipal government
• Elementary and secondary school districts
• Bedroom communities
• Largely-male workforce commuted to work each day
• Women returned to homemakers

18
Demographic and Educational Shift in the 1950s

• Young families producing school age children
• Need for teachers and new schools grew
• In 1950 24.3 million elementary students grew
  to 35.5 million in 1960

19
Surburban School Growth

• Brick and Mortar period of school construction
• Eisenhower administration supported federal aid
  to school construction
• Was reluctant to do so
• Generally followed Republican ideology of local
  control

20
Teacher Shortage

• H.G. Good, in his book History of Education,
  wrote of a teacher shortage that became prevalent
  after WWII
• Shortage made greater by the increase in children
  (also a shortage of classrooms)
• Summer workshops for talented students were being
  created
• Television introduced into schools to help with
  shortage could place hundreds of students with
  a few teachers aids and teachers could be in
  classrooms

21
Television in the Classroom

• Television was thought to save teachers time and
  classroom space
• Telecasts fixed the students attention
• Telecasts were by experts in field who had time
  to perfect lessons
• Television could not be a replacement for labs
  and hands-on learning
• Control of curriculum was limited by the course
  of study
• Prepare class for film, present the telecast,
  conduct exercises for their comprehension

22
Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Succeeded Truman
• Republican Nominee
• Defeated Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and again in
  1956
• President from 1953-1961
• Popular war hero
• Distinguished career as allied supreme commander
  in WWII
• President of Columbia University
• Commander of NATO

23
I Like Ike

• Dwight D. Ike Eisenhower was a moderate, middle
  of the road Republican
• As Cold War between US and USSR escalated,
  Eisenhower was a commanding, reassuring father
  figure as the US lived with the threat of
  nuclear war

24
The Time of the Eisenhower Administration

• US generally economically prosperous and
  affluent growing middle class
• Eisenhower did not attempt to reverse major
  trends of New Deal
• Had two premises to his foreign policy
• Avoiding the catastrophe of nuclear war
• Maintaining national security through nuclear
  deterrence

25
Interest in Federal Aid to Education

• Focused on unequal educational opportunity
• Disparities between North South, urban rural
• Inequalities between black and white segregated
  scools
• Inadequate physical plants
• Teacher shortages
• Outdated curriculum

26
Eisenhower on Education

• Truman, his predecessor, believed that the
  federal government had a role in advancing
  education
• Eisenhower believed education should be handled
  at state and local level
• Did not believe federal government had large role
  in education

27
Eisenhower on Education

• Despite his reluctance he was drawn into
  education issues
• Establishment of Department of Health, Education
  and Welfare (1953)
• Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in
  public schools was unconstitutional (1954)
• Little Rock, Arkansas desegregation controversy
• Enactment of the National Defense Education Act
  (NDEA 1957)

28
SPUTNIK

• October 4, 1957
• Soviets launch successfully a space satellite
• that orbited the earth
• Generated international, widespread criticism of
  American education especially in math, science
  and technology
• Seen as a decline in academic rigor allowing USSR
  to take the lead in the space race
• By concentrating more rigorously on math
  science in US schools, Americans could reclaim
  the lead

29
National Defense Education Act

• 1957 -- National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
• Gave assistance to
• Science Technology
• Math
• Foreign language instruction
• Guidance
• Based on premise that federal government had an
  interest in these areas related to national
  defense
• Eisenhower stated that it would strengthen our
  schools and advance our national security

30
National Defense Education Act

• Over 100 million annually sent to aid public
  education
• Led to curricular developments
• New Math
• New Chemistry, New Physics
• Increase in Foreign Language Study
• Technology education studies
• Teachers institutes were created
• Brought classroom teachers to colleges
  universities over the summer to work with
  innovators in their fields

31
Is American education doing its job?

• Critic Rudolph Flesch in his book Why Johnny
  Can't Read, claimed that the American educational
  system was not doing its job. 
• Other voices in the movement to revamp American
  schools were
• Arthur Bestor- Educational Wastelands
• Albert Lynd- Quackery in the Public Schools
• Robert Hutchins - The Conflict in Education
• Admiral Hyman Rickover- Education and Freedom

32
Atomic Age

• In the aftermath of dropping of atomic bombs in
  the 1940s, US and Soviet Union raced to create a
  super bomb hydrogen bomb
• US detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1952
• Nine months later Soviets followed
• Throughout the cold war, the race escalated to
  potential for global holocaust

33
The War of the Future

• WWII demonstrated that war in the future would
  involve civilians as well as military
• National security and military preparedness
  needed to be accompanied by civilian defense
• Schools began instituting civil defense programs
  due to new methods of attack

34
Civil Defense

• Truman stated Education is our first line of
  defense. In the conflict of principal and policy
  which divides the world today, Americas hope,
  our hope, the hope of the world is education.
• Truman created the Federal Civil Defense
  Administration (1951)
• Encourage and coordinate nations civil
  preparedness

35
Civil Defense

• Civil defense educators began with broad goals
  and moved towards specific emergency procedures
  such as an atomic attack
• FCDA mobilized state and local agencies for the
  cause
• Produced educational materials about civil
  defense
• Much of education in general developed and
  promoted civil defense including state
  departments of education, US Office of Education,
  schools of education
• Most state departments of education prepared
  civil defense strategies and materials for use in
  schools
• Teachers were considered key people in civil
  defense

36
Civil Defense Curriculum and Instruction

• US Atomic Energy Commission developed workshops
  and institutes for teachers
• Schools of education developed programs
• Information about atomic energy infused into
  curriculum as units in existing science and
  social studies in high schools
• Elementary students even incorporated atomic
  energy into their readings
• Example a 2nd grade essay on good atoms

37
Civil Defense Education

• Strongly precautionary stance about its powers of
  mass destruction
• Units on communism were also developed at same
  time by state departments of education
• Impacted safety education, atomic bomb drills,
  changes in school architecture as well as through
  formal curriculum

38
Duck and Cover

• Civil Defense Education included inservice for
  teachers and classroom materials
• Films incorporated such as Duck and Cover
• Bert the Turtle ducks and covers during an atomic
  attack
• Followed by children ducking and covering during
  an attack
• Duck and Cover was included in the National Film
  Registry in the Library of Congress in 2004

39
Civil Defense in Schools

• Clara P. McMahon, Elementary School Journal
• Advised teachers that schools must adjust
  curriculum to incorporate qualities of students
  needed in an emergency
• Listed 9 desired skills including
• Acting without panic
• Administering simple first aid
• Thinking critically, problem solving
• Working well with others
• Recognizing and obeying air raid signals

40
Civil Defense in Schools

• Communities formed district-wide committees
  involving parents
• School districts sent letters home with students
• Parents were advised to discuss issues with their
  children

41
National PTA

• National Parent-Teacher Association in 1951
  advised members to develop positive mental health
  programs
• Alleviate childrens anxieties
• Parents and teachers urged to be calm

42
School Preparedness Procedures

• Many schools implemented procedures and actual
  bomb drills
• Smooth implementation was delegated to building
  principals
• Detroit public schools issued a directive,
  Protection of School Children in the New
  Emergency Preliminary Guide for Immediate
  Action with 10 steps for principals
• Detroit considered a high-profile target city due
  to auto industry and took serious precautions

43
Bomb Drills

• Large target cities were the first to begin
  atomic air raid drills
• New York
• LA
• Chicago
• Detroit
• Milwaukee
• Fort Worth
• San Francisco
• Philadelphia

44
3 Types of Drills

• No advanced warning
• Advanced warning
• Dispersal

45
No Advanced Warning

• Duck and cover drills were most common
• Pupils fell to the floor, crawled under desks and
  assumed the atomic head clutch position
• Backs to windows, faces between knees, hands
  clasped on back of neck, ears covered with arms
  and eyes closed
• Duck and Cover film and others used in class

46
Advanced Warning

• Assumed you had time to get to shelter in
  basement, hallways or others believed to be able
  to withstand a bomb blast
• Principal sounded alarm
• Students lined up and moved to designated areas
  sitting up against walls

47
Dispersal Drills

• Enough warning time to get home from school
• Conducted at end of school day
• Least common drill
• Done mostly in big cities like New York
• Provided little control over students movement
  and were not built-in to the standard civil
  defense education

48
ID Tags

• Modeled after GI dog tags and given to students
• New York City had biggest program

49
To be a child in the 1950s

• Threat of nuclear war important piece of their
  formative part of childhood and school
  experiences
• Bomb drills remain vivid memories both the
  drills and the anxiety associated with them
• Children had no escape due to television
• Psychology experts uncertain about effects of
  civil defense programs on children

50
School Architecture

• Growth of suburbia led to new schools being built
• Now served dual purpose
• Be functional for education
• Provide maximum shelter from nuclear attack
• Large banks of windows that maximized light and
  ventilation were eliminated for fear of glass in
  attack
• New designs featured more solid walls and bomb
  curtains in some places
• Architects felt it would shield from natural
  disasters also
• Schools could then be used as shelter for larger
  population if necessary

51
An example in Colorado

• The expanding student population of Grand
  Junction prompted the building of a new high
  school in 1955.
• It was designed in a clean lined, modern 1950s
  style by architect Paul Atchison of Denver.
• The auditorium was made large enough to serve
  also as a civic auditorium.

52
Issues to explore?

• Long term effects of civil defense education on
  todays curriculum
• Effects did civil defense education have on
  psychology
• Teacher shortage and movement to value teachers
  through salary and education
• Television in education how it was used and how
  it is used today
• How computer development affected education
• Movement to reform science education after
  Sputnik and the beginning of the space race
• The involvement of federal government in
  education vs. state and local governments
• Pop culture and education how they influence
  each other
• Rating Americas schools are the schools doing
  enough?
• Juvenile deliquency and schools part in control
  and prevention
• Architecture in the 50s schools and housing
  and effects on Suburbia, industry and education

53
References

• Good, H.G. (1962). A History of American
  Education, Second Edition. New York The
  Macmillan Company.
• Gutek, G. (2000). American Education 1945-2000
  A history and commentary. Long Grove, IL
  Waveland Press Inc.
• Lindop, E. (2002) America in the 1950s.
  Connecticut Twenty First Century Books.
• McMahon, Clara P. Civil Defense and Educational
  Goals. Elementary School Journal, Vol. 53, No. 8
  (Apr., 1953), pp. 440-442. Retrieved from
  www.jstor.org
• Mondale, S. and Patton, S. (2001). School The
  Story of American Public Education. Boston
  Beacon Press.
• Michel, George J. Success in National
  Educational Policy from Eisenhower to Carter.
  Peabody Journal of Education Vol. 57, No. 4
  (Jul., 1980), pp. 223-232. Retrieved from
  www.jstor.org

54
References

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