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The Politics of Knowledge: Teachers Unions, the
American Legion, and the American Way. |
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BY: Justin, Travis, Sammi, Kuniaki, and
Christina |
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After WWI, the American Legion joined with the
National Education Association in an effort to week out so-called radical
ideas from public schools (p. 317) |
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They campaigned against what they called
subversive teachers and radical ideas in the curriculum (p. 317) |
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In the 1930's, the National Association of
Manufacturers launched the "American Way" campaign through
schools and other organizations to try to create an automatic association
in the public mind between democracy and capitalism (p.317) |
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In attempting to protect their power,
administrative progressives established alliances with business elites.
Both groups advocated scientific management and hierarchical control (p.
318) |
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Schools were being blamed for America's
difficulties in international competition with Japan and West Germany
(p.318) |
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Teachers believed their major hope for obtaining
decent wages and working conditions was unionism and joining forces with
organized labor. These struggles
pitted teachers against admission (p. 318) |
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Teachers seek aid through mutual organization;
low salaries and a lack of retirement funds were problems (p. 319) |
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Teachers were at the bottom of the chain of
command; teachers became objects of
scientific management(p. 319) |
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Teachers began to organize to gain influence on
educational policy as well as seeking better wages and working conditions
(p. 320) |
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Scientific management through merit pay began to
increase (p. 320) |
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Issues with educational policy began multiplying
between teachers and administration. (p.321) |
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Ella Flag Young was one of the first women in
the US to hold the position of superintendent. She believed in democratic control of the schools and had
good relations with the Chicago Federation of Teachers or CFT. (p.321) |
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Formed by 10 teachers in 1857 with the common
objective of upgrading the teaching profession (p.323) |
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In the 1950's, the federal government began to
assume the leadership role in national educational policy (p. 326) |
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Originally, each teacher was allowed one vote in
the NEA. This was changed to the
administrators of schools being allowed the votes. Thus, the NEA became an organization
dominated by administrators (p. 323) |
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The depression began to split the alliances
among local school administrators, local school boards, and local elites
(p.326) |
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The economic pressures of the depression caused
some leading educators to advocate use of the schools to bring about a
radical transformation of society (p. 328) |
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Government involvement created tension between
professional educators and the federal government as to each group's role
in control of youth (p. 327) |
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Members of the business and financial community
began to call for reductions in teacher salaries and educational programs
(p. 329) |
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The Advertising Federation of America
distributed pamphlets entitled “Facts You Should Know about Anti-
Advertising Propaganda in School Textbooks.” The pamphlets criticized
Rugg’s books for turning students against advertising (p. 341) |
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The federation declared that critics of
advertising were “those who prefer collectivism and regimentation by
political force” (p. 341) |
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They claimed that communism was the basis for
anti-advertising attitudes and the development of Consumers Union (p. 341) |
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September 1940, Time magazine reported that
members of the Binghamton, New York, school board called for public burning
of Rugg’s textbooks (p.342) |
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Demise of the Rugg books demonstrated the power
of public relations campaigns to associate in the public mind anything
critical of the United State’s economic and political system with
un-Americanism and communism (p.343) |
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Notes
