1950s Education: Civil Defense and the Push for Curriculum Reform

1
1950s Education Civil Defense and the Push for
Curriculum Reform

• Dominant Interpretations Themes
• Chapter 3
• Bonnie Pazin
• ILEAD 5

2
Civil Defense Education and the Post-Sputnik Era

• Politics Eisenhower Administration
• Climate and Federal Government Role
• School Preparedness Safety Education
• Role of principals and teachers in schools
• Curriculum
• Science and math reform
• Issues carry forth to today
• Science/Technology and Math Curriculum
• Terrorism

3
General Climate of the 1950s

• Early 50s marked the detonation
• of the hydrogen bombs
• Space race escalated
• Hysteria and panic in general atmosphere fears
  of communism, atomic/nuclear bombs
• Civil defense education seen as a way to prepare
  the general public including school children
• Civil defense education seen as necessary, as
  future wars would involve both military and
  civilians in case of attack on US soil

4
Civil Defense Roots

• Truman stated Education is our first line of
  defense. In the conflict of principal and policy
  which divides the world today, Americas hope,
  our hope, the hope of the world is education.
• Truman created the Federal Civil Defense
  Administration (1951)
• Encourage and coordinate nations civil
  preparedness

5
The FCDA

• The Federal Civil Defense Administration (1951)
• Left practical implementation and funding to
  state and local governments
• Did not allocate federal funds to civil defense
  projects
• Produced educational and propaganda materials
  intended to mobilize state and local agencies and
  private individuals to spend their own funds to
  implement programs

6
Women Promote Civil Defense

• Katherine Graham Howard
• Deputy Administrator for the FCDA
• Tireless civil defense advocate
• Helped promote role of women in civil defense
• Civil defense seen as an opportunity for women to
  get involved play an important role
• Family seen as the unit of survival in civil
  defense women had key role in family

7
Example of Civil Defense PreparationThe Red
Scare in New Orleans

• Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Civil Defense
  maintained an active program to instruct citizens
  in procedures to follow in the event of nuclear
  attack.
• Fallout shelters were designated throughout the
  city, including the basements of the new City
  Hall and the new Main Library (where fallout
  shelter signs can still be seen).
• The city installed an elaborate warning system of
  76 large sirens and even built a fully equipped
  command center from which city officials could
  "safely" direct the operations of rescue and
  salvage following an attack.
• The bunker remains on the neutral ground between
  West End and Pontchartrain Boulevards, abandoned
  now, along with the fears that pervaded the 50s
  and 60s.
• Louisiana Photograph Collection. Municipal
  Government Collection Office of Civil Defense
  Series Taken from website http//nutrias.org/
  nopl/exhibits/ccmem.htm

• These are "ground observers," civilian volunteers
  trained by the Office of Civil Defense to spot
  enemy invaders, photographed atop the Hibernia
  Bank building in February, 1955.

8
Civil Defense and Education

• FCDA mobilized state and local agencies for the
  cause
• Did the best they could with no federal funds
• Often used other areas of the budget but had to
  justify and tie the original purpose of the
  budgeted area to civil defense
• FCDA produced educational materials about civil
  defense brochures, films, etc.
• Strongly precautionary stance about its powers of
  mass destruction
• Units on communism were also developed at same
  time by state departments of education
• Advised how to build fallout shelters, what to
  stockpile, how to survive atomic blast
• Over 100,000 Americans prepared their own fallout
  shelters

9
Civil Defense and Education

• Much of education in general developed and
  promoted civil defense including state
  departments of education, US Office of Education,
  schools of education
• Most state departments of education prepared
  civil defense strategies and materials for use in
  schools
• Teachers were considered key people in civil
  defense
• Teachers were to try to reduce potential for
  trauma in young children
• Impacted safety education, atomic bomb drills,
  changes in school architecture as well as through
  formal curriculum of science and math

10
Civil Defense in Schools

• Civil Defense became a way of life in American
  schools
• Clara P. McMahon, Elementary School Journal
• Advised teachers that schools must adjust
  curriculum to incorporate qualities of students
  needed in an emergency
• Listed 9 desired skills including
• Acting without panic
• Administering simple first aid
• Thinking critically, problem solving
• Working well with others
• Recognizing and obeying air raid signals

11
School Preparedness Procedures

• Many schools implemented procedures and actual
  bomb drills issued dog tags
• Smooth implementation was delegated to building
  principals
• Detroit public schools issued a directive,
  Protection of School Children in the New
  Emergency Preliminary Guide for Immediate
  Action with 10 steps for principals
• Detroit considered a high-profile target city due
  to auto industry and took serious precautions

12
Civil Defense Education Getting Parents Involved

• Civil defense educators saw schools as a
  communication channel to parents
• Communities formed district-wide committees
  involving parents
• School districts sent letters home with students
• Parents were advised to discuss issues with their
  children

13
Civil Defense Curriculum and Instruction in
Science Math

• US Atomic Energy Commission developed workshops
  and institutes for teachers
• Schools of education developed programs in higher
  ed
• Information about atomic energy infused into
  curriculum as units in existing science and
  social studies in high schools
• Elementary students even incorporated atomic
  energy into their readings
• Example a 2nd grade essay on good atoms

14
Educators drive for federal aid

• New civil defense ultimately allowed educators to
  demonstrate the importance of the nations
  schools to national security
• Hoped to use that to justify federal aid to
  education
• Educators response to civil defense in the 50s
  has been described as public uniformity and
  sometimes educators were more willing to comply
  with civil defense education than the FCDA needed
  (JoAnne Brown, Journal of American History)

15
The Time of the Eisenhower Administration

• US generally economically prosperous and
  affluent growing middle class rise of suburbia
  and development of highways
• Eisenhower a moderate Republican who was seen as
  a reassuring father figure in a frightening time
• Had two premises to his foreign policy
• Avoiding the catastrophe of nuclear war
• Maintaining national security through nuclear
  deterrence

16
Eisenhower on Education

• Truman, his predecessor, believed that the
  federal government had a role in advancing
  education
• Eisenhower, however, believed education should be
  handled at state and local levels
• Did not believe federal government had large role
  in education

17
Eisenhower on Education

• Despite his reluctance he was drawn into
  education issues
• Establishment of Department of Health, Education
  and Welfare (1953)
• Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in
  public schools was unconstitutional (1954)
• Little Rock, Arkansas desegregation controversy
• Enactment of the National Defense Education Act
  (NDEA 1957)

18
National Defense Education Act

• 1957 -- National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
• Gave assistance to
• Science Technology
• Math
• Foreign language instruction
• Guidance
• Based on premise that federal government had an
  interest in these areas related to national
  defense
• Eisenhower stated that it would strengthen our
  schools and advance our national security

19
National Defense Education Act

• Over 100 million annually sent to aid public
  education
• Led to curricular developments
• New Math
• New Chemistry, New Physics
• Increase in Foreign Language Study
• Technology education studies
• Teachers institutes were created
• Brought classroom teachers to colleges
  universities over the summer to work with
  innovators in their fields

20
Sputnik was the catalyst

• October 4, 1957
• Soviets launch successfully a space satellite
  that orbited the earth
• Generated international, widespread criticism of
  American education especially in math, science
  and technology
• Seen as a decline in academic rigor allowing USSR
  to take the lead in the space race
• By concentrating more rigorously on math
  science in US schools, Americans could reclaim
  the lead

21
F. James Rutherford

• F. James Rutherford
• American Association for the Advancement of
  Science, Sputnik in Science Education
• Speaks of pre- and post-Sputnik education
• Concerns in pre-Sputnik / Post WWII era concerned
  with demographics and returning veterans
• Often called post-Sputnik era, the concerns were
  curricular
• What was being taught and how
• Another key difference between pre and
  post-Sputnik eras was the assignment of blame
• Pre-Sputnik military and politicians received
  blame for Pearl Harbor and not educators
• Post-Sputnik blame shifted to schools
• In 2005, launched Project 2061 which is
  dedicated to scientific literacy by all

22
J. Myron Atkin

• Applying Historic Lessons To Current Educational
  Reform
• J. Myron Atkin, School of EducationStanford
  University
• never before had scientists from the highest
  echelons of the academic community had such a
  controlling influence on elementary and secondary
  school curriculum
• Began a trend that leads to todays education
• Not only did university professors criticize what
  they saw in schools, many became deeply and
  personally committed to change
• Experts turned their talents that had been used
  to create the bombs to peaceful efforts
• Had support of admiring and grateful public
• Had unprecedented influence in matters of public
  policy, including education

23
J. Myron Atkin (continued)

• Teachers in the 50s were assumed to have best
  knowledge of how to convey information scientific
  content to students, but the responsibility for
  content lay with the scientists
• Today the policymakers realize that teachers must
  be closely involved with content - key decisions
  made today by stakeholders including academia,
  teachers, parents, scientists, industry ,etc.
• Even though today science-related issues are at
  the forefront of society, it is harder and harder
  to get students involved

24
Rodger W. Bybee

• Rodger W. Bybee
• Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
  Education, National Research Council
• In the 50s a mathematical reform was already
  initiated by Max Beberman, University of Illinoic
  Committee on School Mathematics (UICSM)
• Sputnik was a historical turning point
  symbolized a threat to American security, to
  superiority in science and technology, progress,
  and political freedom
• US perceived itself as weak scientifically,
  technologically, militarily and economically
• Educational reform was broadened and accelerated
  supported by public, policy makers increased
  federal funding
• Called it the Golden Age of science and
  mathematics education

25
Civil Defense Today

• Civil Defense has continued through the years and
  is alive and well today
• Ex. Ronald Reagans Crisis Relocation Plan 1983
• Presently known as Homeland Security and
  Emergency Management
• Has taken new role after 9/11 and as threat of
  terrorism becomes more prevalent in U.S.

26
Dominant Perspective Research to be continued

• Long term effects of civil defense education
  today
• The notion that civil defense is alive and well
  as homeland security and terrorism
• Movement to reform science education after
  Sputnik and the beginning of the space race
• The involvement of federal government in
  education vs. state and local governments

27
Part 2 References

• Brown, JoAnne. A is for Atom, B is for Bomb
  Civil Defense In American Public Education,
  1948-1963. The Journal of American History, 75,
  No. 1 (June 1988), pp. 68-90. Retrieved
  September 15, 2006 from http//www.jstor.org/cgi-b
  in/jstor/printpage/00218723/di952432/95p0006c/0.pd
  f? backcontextpagedowhatAcrobatconfigjstoru
  serIDc07c22c5_at_unt.edu/01cce4403700501c76dd10.pdf
  
• http//www.wikipedia.org
• http//www.archives.nysed.gov/edpolicy/research/ch
  ronology1944.shtml
• http//www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html?src
  ln
• http//nutrias.org/nopl/exhibits/ccmem.htm
• http//www.conelrad.com/index.php
• http//www.loti.com/fifities_history/surviving_nuc
  lear_attack.htm

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Part 2 References

• American Association for the Advancement of
  Science
• Sputnik in Science Education
• http//www.nas.edu/sputnik/ruther1.htm
• The Sputnik Era Why is this educational reform
  different from all other Reforms?
• http//www.nas.edu/sputnik/bybee1.htm
• What We Have Learned and Where We Are Headed
  Lessons From The Sputnik Era
• http//www.nas.edu/sputnik/deboer.htm

29
Part 2 References

• Gutek, G. (2000). American Education 1945-2000
  A history and commentary. Long Grove, IL
  Waveland Press Inc.
• Good, H.G. (1962). A History of American
  Education, Second Edition. New York The
  Macmillan Company.
• McMahon, C. Civil Defense and Educational Goals.
  Elementary School Journal, Vol. 53, No. 8 (Apr.,
  1953), pp. 440-442
• The Nuclear Family retrieved from
  http//www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/pmccray/2020T
  he20Nuclear20Family.pdfsearch22atomic20honey
  mooners22