Education – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

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

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

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

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

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

The Kick-in-the-Pants from Sputnik
(Coronet Magazine, 1964)

American Colleges During W.W. I
(Home Sector, 1919)

Here is a book review of The Colleges In The War And Afterward (1919) by Parke Rexford Kolbe:

One obtains a very clear picture of our educational institutions during the war and a definite feeling of the difficulties encountered when agencies which were quite individualistic, quite self-dependent, suddenly found themselves mere sub-departments of the War Department submitting to a command from higher authority as if they had been used to it all their lives…

‘Learn War No More”
(Literary Digest, 1927)

Following World War One there existed a poor taste in the collective mouths of all the participating combatant nations; as a result, 1927 saw a small rebellion against much of the military training taking place on some U.S. campuses. This article lists a number restrictions that various academic institutions had placed on those military organizations active on college and high school grounds.

The Lure of College Atheism…(The Literary Digest, 1923)

They enter college as Christians and graduate as atheists or agnostics’, say some whose sons and daughters come home with a sheepskin showing proficiency in the arts and sciences and little, or none at all, in religion. The college is repeatedly blamed for this vital lack, and is not infrequently defended of the charge of failing to establish a religious background for the student.

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era

How One School Turned Itself Around
(Pageant Magazine, 1961)

When the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in the Autumn of 1957 it shocked the American people and set in motion an event that was quickly labeled the Sputnik Crises. Almost at once, school boards all across the fruited plane resolved to improve their math and science programs in order to ensure the blessings of liberty for generations yet unborn.

One of these institutions was Laguna Beach High School in Southern California and the attached article, Turning Bad Schools into Good Schools, will tell you about the various steps they had taken in order to alter their curriculum and the prevailing campus culture as well.

We were gratified to learn that some fifty-odd years later, Laguna Beach High is still one of the finest schools in the country.

Whither Latin?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1952)

This article charts the decline of Latin as an academic study in American schools. The disappearance of Latin began in the Thirties and steadily snowballed to such a point that by 1952 its absence was finally noticed.

Is Latin on its way out in high schools? The answer is a confident ‘NO.’
It’s hard to see how it can go any lower,’ declares Dr. John F. Latimer, head of Latin studies
at George Washington University.

The Onslaught of Standardized Tests
(World Week, 1958)

Written in 1958 with the aid of the Educational Testing Service, (Princeton, New Jersey), the article attempted to persuade America’s high school students to get used to standardized tests because they’re a really cool idea and they’ll make your life better. Illustrations are provided to indicate how the testing work and how well such tests had proved useful to the Air Force in weeding out sub-standard candidates for flight training. The journalist seemed to imply throughout these columns that the egg-heads were really doing us all a big, big favor by creating these tests.

The Case For Social Studies
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)

Although the author of this article, educator Cedric Fowler, does not offer a name for the subject he is proposing, it will not take you very long to recognize it as social studies. Fowler argued that the text books available at that time were more suited to the Nineteenth Century than the tumultuous Thirties, ignoring all the various hot topics of the day that would have made subjects such as history, geography and civics come alive for those students who were enrolled at the time of the Great Depression.

Life has become more complex for young Americans since the time of their fathers and grandfathers, and educational method has become more complex and more comprehensive with it… The work of Dewey, Thorndike and a score of other authorities has liberated the schoolroom from its stuffy atmosphere, has made it possible for it to become an ante-room to adult life.

Educating the Negro
(The Independent, 1921)

Attached is a 1921 account of the Hampton Institute; it’s past, present and future is entirely outlined in this magazine article that was written by a celebrated journalist of the time, Mr. Talcott Williams (1849 – 1928).

Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive.

Oldest Schoolhouse in America?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

A minor dust-up between Florida and New York as to which of the two had the oldest schoolhouse.

‘The O School”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School in Chicago turned some heads when it first opened. As you read the attached column you will learn about the unorthodox approach they bring to the subject of educating the autistic and the emotionally disturbed. With the fullness of time it has been revealed that they must be doing something right – it has been in business since 1944.

Spotlight on U.S. Schools in the Late Forties
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1947)

One can’t but help but cry a little when reading that the Americans of 1947 actually believed that their public school system was substandard; they had no idea the depths this same system would be thrust just thirty years hence. The Forties was a time when most school teachers believed that the school’s biggest problem was talking in the classroom or lingering in the halls. However, this article lists the ten firsts that both state and Federal governments had initiated in order to make a fine education system better.

E-Learning in the Fifties
(Pageant Magazine, 1958)

This article from the late Fifties refers to the educational benefits that existed in the form of tape recordings, television, films and slide shows and what a glorious discovery it was that they came along when they did to aid in the teacher shortages of the time. Today we have decades of studies that show what among these tools has been useful and what has failed.

In the 1940s Color TV was Anticipated as a Tool with Which Art Students Could Learn…