Chapter 13

1. Education and National Policy.

"After WWII american Schools were increasingly linked to the policy needs of the federal government. The cold war between the United States and Soviet Union spawned demands for more academic courses in the schools and a greater emphasis on science and mathematics as a means of winning the weapons race with the Soviet Union".

NSF - National Science Foundation, NDEA - National Defense Education Act and the selective service all affected the curriculum of the schools.

2. The Cold War and National Educational Policy.

Selective Service Act - in the 1950's and 60's High School graduates could choose to go to college or enter the armed forces. The system favored people who could afford college and left the poor to attend the military. As a system of controlling human resources the Selective service act failed because it was based on the erroneous assumption that channeling talent into higher education would result in increased economic growth.

3. Ideological Management: Anti-communism

After WWII The American Legion continued its quest to purge from the schools, movies, radio and television anything that could possibly be related to communism. It became a witch hunt and many groups joined in to prosecute anyone they could. Willard Goslin, Superintendent of public schools in Pasadena California- proposed a tax increase and was charged as a communist by local community members and forced to resign.

4. Back to Basics: Scholars and Conservatives Take Charge

While anti communists were purging the schools of the commies - groups of scholars were demanding school curriculum be purged of anti-intellectualism. They were opposed to the life adjustment education movement. The life adjustment education curriculum contains no mention of mathematics, science, history, or foreign languages. These were non academic classes dealing with problems like improving ones personal appearance or selecting a family dentist. These academic groups wanted the public schools to reject the traditional emphasis on socialization and the social sorting function of schools. The public schools were criticized for not cultivating enough good students into science and engineering in the 1940's and 50's. . Federal aid lagged in coming to public schools and the government neither passed nor approved legislation for to fund public schools. Then on october 4th 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, and were the first nation to enter space -this indicated to most Americans that America was loosing the technological and military race. Then money began to flow into the public school system with a n emphasis on math and Science.

5. The National Defense Education Act

This legislation passed in 1958 was a national response to Sputnik 1. President Eisenhower demanded the United States meet the threat of communism by outmatching the Soviet Union in military power and technological advancement through education of the youth. He appropriated 15 million (each year for 4 years) for testing and identifying able students.

6. The War on Poverty

The main idea was that education could reduce the social class divisions and and eliminate poverty. The main areas of concern were unemployed and delinquent youth, disadvantaged students, Basically stating that a poor education restricts employment opportunities, which causes a low standard of living and leads to poor medical care, diet, housing, and education for the next generation. Micheal Harringtons book The Other America, Poverty in the United States, influenced the Kennedy administration that the class differences were causing a split in our country into two cultures. They wanted to use education to end poverty, education was considered a the hope of the poor and the method of the middle class to end crime and delinquency.

7. Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street

The idea was to cleanse the national broadcast net works of communism. Along came Sesame Street -so it was not all bad was not all good. Corporations, foundations, educators, and the federal government got together to make television an instrument of federal education policy.