World War II had mixed effects on education in the United States.
The effects of the war on education during the war can be considered devastating. As expected, the government’s focus shifted more to financing the war than financing social programming. As a result, much of the funding reserved for schools was directed toward materials and resources to support the Allied war effort. Many students and teachers also enlisted, causing high school enrollments to drop from 6.7 million students to 5.5 million students between 1941 and 1944. By the 1944, the number of teachers had decreased by a third.
Interestingly, the military enrollment mandated by the war had a less negative impact than expected. To enroll in the military, enlistees had to pass an academic test. Seeing that many enlistees failed the test, many military officers voiced criticisms of the progressive education movement. They thought that the “child-centered” and “social reconstructionist” approach of the progressive method did not impart the necessary knowledge to form an effective military force. They argued that a more formalized curriculum focusing on subjects beneficial to defense was needed. Although the officers’ arguments technically only concerned education for military enlistees, their criticisms led to the whole idea of progressive education falling out of favor in the US and led to more formalized curricula being implemented during the postwar years. Do you think this mindset shift was beneficial in the long run?
Perhaps less controversial were the effects of the war on educational opportunities for veterans and women. Because many men dropped out of the workforce to fight the war, women filled in the gaps they left. Because of this, many more women found employment in the teaching field and were offered more educational opportunities. During the postwar years, many veterans who had not yet completed their education returned home from war, and there was a government effort to assist them in their educational endeavors. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (also called the GI Bill) provided subsidies for over eight million veterans to attend school. This act dramatically increased the number of people who completed college.
The war also had some other mixed effects. First, the postwar baby boom caused school enrollment to increased, which necessitated the building of larger schools. Because of this student boom, there was a teacher shortage that caused teacher certification requirements to be lowered to meet the demand for teachers. Some small school districts joined with other districts to form larger districts that could better bear the increased costs of larger schools.
Food for thought: to what extent was WWII’s impact on education positive? How do you think our education system would be different today had the war not happened?
Sources:
http://www.theedadvocate.org/uncovering-devastating-impact-world-war-ii-american-education/
https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/ae8.html
https://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/articles/proged.html
I thought your blog post was a clear insight into life during the war for the majority of citizens. It's interesting as to how life seems to change drastically during times of war, and how the government focuses on prioritizing production and financing the war rather than a lot of other important things, like public education. Another sector that was less important was public health, and since more and more people worked in factories to help support the war, the number of accidents and exposures to dangerous chemicals increased the number of health problems that plagued the public. In fact, health care costs rose after the war ended.
ReplyDeleteSources: https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/wars-operations/ww2.asp
https://mises.org/blog/why-health-care-costs-exploded-after-world-war-ii
I liked your article because it took a couple different perspectives on the effects of education during WW2. I didn't know that during WW2 caused teacher certification requirements to be lowered, and on top of that, there was shortage due to the increase of demand of teachers. I think that in terms of WW2's positive impact, I think that it did increase the population of people who could get educated (ie: women becoming teachers). I think that education wise, if the war did not happen,the accessibility to education would be decreased since the government, because of WW2, took education into their own hands such as the GI Bill. Another interesting effect of World War 2 is the spread of job opportunities to women because of the labor gap that was left due to men going to war. Check it out at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-7/apush-us-wwii/a/american-women-and-world-war-ii
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the writing style of this blog post including the questions at the end. I believe that education number did dip during the war. However, wouldn't the number go back to the norm post-war or still be lower due to loss of human life? Either way, to fill the shortage opened up opportunities for women to get into the teaching field.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, war is good business as it stimulates the economy to produce war needed items. People not in direct combat would probably leave their studies to work in the manufacturing of such goods. Education probably hit a slump during the wartime and then rebounded back after the war.