Education – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

‘Revolt in the Classroom
(The Saturday Review, 1943)

This 1943 article by the noted American sociologist, Willard Waller (1899 – 1945), reported on the impact that W.W. II was having on the American educational system. Waller pointed out that during the course of 1942-43 school year, as many as 189,000 teachers had left their classrooms in order to work in defense plants. The author argued four distinct points that would halt the mass exodus – among them was the cry that salaries of teachers must be raised to the point where they match favorably with industry.

A 1944 photo-essay on this topic can be read here…

American Illiteracy in 1920
(Time Magazine, 1923)

The census-takers of 1920 to the people of America:

Can you read and write?

Five million men and women of America responded:

We cannot!

Trying to Understand Learning Disabilities
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

The kids who are discussed in this article would be called LD today – you don’t want to know how they were referred to in the early Twenties. Back then there were no Federally-funded commissions thronging with sympathetic PhD candidates to ramble on about convergence issues, processing concerns, the-classroom-learning-environment and the Learning Disabled. There were only frustrated kids, frustrated teachers and broken-hearted parents. This 1937 news article reports on the pioneering teachers at Seward Park High School in New York City and the earliest attempts to address the needs of students who suffered from language processing disorders, dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia and America’s favorite – good ol’ ADHD.

‘Our Schools Are A Scandal”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1946)

Ten million Americans can’t read and write, thousands of teachers are underpaid and, try as they may, our poorer states cannot afford to do anything about it. Every Congress since 1919 has refused to improve the situation… The truth seems to be that schools are no longer America’s sweetheart. When there is money to be divided in a state, roads come first, public health second and schools third.

Click here to read about an American woman who grew heartily sick of the socialists who loitered on every street corner during the Great Depression…

They Molded the American Mind
(’48 Magazine, 1948)

In 1948 the American history professor Henry Steele Commager (1902 – 1998) read this article that named the most powerful men in Cold War Washington – he then began to compose a list of his own, a list that he felt was far more permanent in nature. Commager wrote the names of the most influential thinkers of the past 100 years, leaders and writers who he credited for having supplied us with our symbols, our values, our ideas and ideals.

Schools Should Not Fly ”An Emblem Of War”
(Literary Digest, 1929)

Here is one from the everything old is new again collection. This 1929 article asks whether it was appropriate for schools to fly the American flag, believing as the this one cleric did, that the starry banner is an emblem of war.

Decline of Religiosity Among College Women
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:

Woman is learning the same things that are taught to her brother; scientific theories destructive of the faith she imbued at home…The women are not doing their duty – they are giving too much time to outside interests – they are degenerating! Women smoking! Women drinking! Women preferring adventures and amusement to caring for families! The flapper – the short skirt – the lack of corsets…

Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.

Decline of Religiosity Among College Women
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:

Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.

Charles Darwin in the Schools
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

An article which discusses the growing number of state legislatures given the task to vote up or down on the issue as to whether or not to allow the Darwin theory of evolution to stand as a legitimate topic for discussion and instruction in their respective school systems. Mentioned in the article was one of the major players leading the charge on behalf of creationism: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925). The journalist interviewed many assorted hot-heads from the most polished universities on behalf of Darwinists and the reader will no doubt be amused to see that so many years have past yet the arguments remain exactly the same.

Three years after this article was printed Bryan would be standing in defense of Christian Fundamentalism during the famous Tennessee Scopes Trial.

The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Charles Darwin at number 43 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…

American Schools During the Great Depression
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)

This is a portion of a longer article about American children and their collective sufferings during the Great Depression that can be read here. The column attached pertains to a White House conference and the sorry state of American schools in 1940.

From Amazon: Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher