The 1950s Education: Topics in the News

ADULT EDUCATION

Before the 1950s, many Americans had believed that once you dropped out of or graduated from high school, your days as a student had ended. During the decade, however, adults who already had completed their formal schooling began returning to classrooms.

At the dawn of the decade, the average American worker had not graduated from high school. In 1950, just 58.2 percent of all fifth graders went on to receive secondary school diplomas. One of the incentives for adults to continue schooling directly related to salary and quality of life. Educated, skilled workers earned an average of $2,000 more per year than their uneducated, unskilled counterparts, which was quite a large sum at that time. Furthermore, on both a national and global level, a better-educated population would allow the United States to compete in the international marketplace and in the fast-growing world of science and technology.

Federal, state, and local governments began funding educational programs, allowing adults to study agriculture or home economics or to polish their writing and reading skills. To accommodate those in the workforce, classes were held during evenings and on weekends. Appropriations for such classes came mostly from local governments and rose from $129 million in 1950 to $228 million by 1959.

Alongside the trend for formal adult education came an increase in the desire for self-education, particularly among the middle class. In 1947, Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977), former president and then-chancellor of the University of Chicago, founded the Great Books Foundation. Its purpose was to "provide the means of general liberal education to all adults." By 1950, twelve hundred Great Books programs had been started in four hundred cities. Participants read works that the foundation designated as "Great Books" and came together to discuss them in churches, YMCAs, classrooms, and homes. Interestingly, the list included relatively few American authors. It was heavy on ancient Greek and Roman writers and Renaissance European authors.

CHURCH VERSUS STATE

During the 1950s, in a debate that would continue unresolved for decades, government officials, educators, and parents argued the merits of federal funding for private education. In 1950, more than three million students, approximately 10 percent of all youngsters enrolled in American institutions of learning, attended Catholic schools. Many of their parents paid taxes that went toward funding public education. Yet religious schools received no government monies, and parents had to fork out additional sums for tuition fees. On the other hand, opponents of parochial school funding claimed that parents sent their children to such schools by choice, and the concept of separation of church and state prohibited the use of government funds to subsidize parochial schools.

At the time, the movement to win government funding for parochial schools centered on transportation issues. In 1950, Massachusetts Congressman John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) failed in his efforts to convince the House Labor Committee to sanction federal funds for parochial school student bus service. At the state level, Massachusetts governor Paul A. Dever (1903–1958) ignored federal mandates by signing into law a bill allocating federal funds for parochial school busing. On the other side of the issue, the New Mexico state school board banned the transportation of parochial school students in state-owned buses and the distribution of free textbooks to such institutions, while Wisconsin ceased funding fourteen public schools that employed nuns as teachers.

James B. Conant (1893–1978), Harvard University president, added fuel to the debate when he declared that dual school systems, one public and one private, were damaging the American democracy. Conant claimed that the United States could preserve its social continuity only through a single education system. Other related, hotly debated issues included Bible-reading in public schools and the practice of public schools excusing children for one hour per week to attend religion classes.

CURRICULA

To match the rapidly changing times, educational methods and classroom curricula were altered dramatically during the 1950s. Initially, the philosophy of "progressive education" prevailed, emphasizing the individual student's mental, emotional, and physical development, and foregoing the traditional methods of teaching basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. High schools offered vocational training, plus such electives as photography, botany, and infant care. Modern laboratory equipment and audio-visual aids enhanced the education experience. At the college level, classes in philosophy became standard requirements for a liberal-arts degree, while science-based graduates decreased in number despite the growing high-tech industries.

Critics felt that these curriculum changes were leading to a "softening" of American education, and they campaigned for a return to emphasis on mathematics and the hard sciences. Novelist William Faulkner (1897–1962), speaking at Princeton University in 1958, declared that schools across the country were being transformed into little more than "babysitting organizations." In an address that same year, Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright (1905–1995) professed that education should spotlight "the rigorous training of the intellect rather than the gentle cultivation of the personality. Courses in life adjustment and coed cooking will not do the job. Mathematics, languages, the natural sciences, and history must once again become the core of the curriculum." In 1946, Fulbright, a former law professor, sponsored federal legislation to create an international educational exchange program. The program, named in his honor, continues to sponsor the studies of thousands of American students abroad.

Advocates of "progressive education" were not as persuaded by critics as they were by Sputnik, a small satellite that circled Earth launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Sputnik convinced Americans that their country had fallen behind the Soviets in the space race. Even more importantly, the belief was that the Soviets had developed the ability to launch nuclear missiles aimed at the United States.

Funding the Future Through R&D

In 1950, the National Science Foundation began gathering information on the amount of funding available from various sources for use in scientific research and development (R&D). It eventually reported that $334 million had been spent on university campuses during 1953; however, the total national disbursement was $5.2 billion. By 1960, these figures had increased to $825 million and $13.7 billion respectively.

Despite this expansion, the percentage of funds contributed to colleges by industry (as opposed to government) was diminishing. Although scientists and mathematicians trained by universities were finding jobs in the business sector after graduation, they were not funneling money back to their alma maters.

The next year, the United States was caught up in a curriculum-revision movement, stressing back-to-basics instruction in science, mathematics, reading skills, and foreign language study. The National Defense Education Act, passed by Congress in 1958, provided $887 million over four years for education that would help further national security goals. Among its provisions: financial assistance for instruction in science, mathematics, and foreign languages, and grants made available for the study of subjects directly related to national defense.

DESEGREGATING EDUCATION: SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL

For decades, public elementary and secondary schools in many parts of the United States were segregated: black children attended schoolhouses in one part of town, while white students went to other schools elsewhere. Segregationists (those that favored the separation of the races) argued that the separate schools offered similar educational opportunities for all youngsters. Plessy v. Ferguson, a 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, had determined that "separate but equal" facilities for blacks on board railroad trains were not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution's "equal protection under the law" clause. The arguments made in Plessy v. Ferguson also allowed states to operate separate schools as long as they offered students the same services.

In practice, however, the institutions serving white youngsters were far superior. They were newer, they were equipped with more up-to-date textbooks and facilities, and they were staffed with the best teachers. To civil rights advocates, the concept of "separate but equal" was a sham.

The Tragedy of Segregation

During the 1950s and 1960s, no other civil rights leader in America had the impact and influence of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968). In a 1955 speech, King condemned segregation and analyzed the reasons why his fellow black Americans had settled for the "separate but equal" concept. In the speech, he declared, "Many unconsciously wondered whether they deserved better conditions. Their minds were so conditioned to segregation that they submissively adjusted to things as they were. This is the ultimate tragedy of segregation. It not only harms one physically but injures one spiritually."

First, however, activists tackled the issue of blacks being denied entrance to universities based solely on their skin color. Because of his race, a black man, Heman Marion Sweatt (1912–1982), had been denied admission to the University of Texas Law School in 1946. A legal team from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the era's highest-profile civil rights organization, took up Sweatt's cause. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, which in June 1950 ruled in Sweatt's favor. The ruling led the university to establish a separate law school for blacks, which Sweatt declined to attend. Eventually, the court determined that the university had to admit Sweatt to its main law school. Its rationale: The new school was "not substantially equal to those available to white law students." At the same time, a black doctoral student was admitted to Oklahoma State University but was forced to sit isolated from his fellow students in classrooms, cafeterias, and libraries. The Supreme Court ruled that he must "receive the same treatment at the hands of the state as students of other races."

The individuals who worked to change the system were met with a fierce, determined resistance. Despite being ordered by the courts to admit black students, the University of Virginia, University of Tennessee, and University of North Carolina refused to do so. Pronounced Georgia governor Herman Talmadge (1913–), "As long as I am governor, Negroes will not be admitted to white schools." South Carolina governor James F. Byrnes (1879–1972) declared that he would "reluctantly" close schools before "mixing the races."

While attempting to secure law school admittance, Heman Sweatt (who at the time was working in a post office) was harassed by segregationists. He and his wife received threatening notes and telephone calls. His house was vandalized. His life was threatened. However, on September 19, 1950, Sweatt registered at the school.

DESEGREGATING EDUCATION: BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA, KANSAS

Throughout the 1950s, despite determined opposition from segregationists, the NAACP pushed on with its integration agenda. It quickly focused on primary and secondary schools.

In 1953, school integration cases were pending before the Supreme Court from five municipalities: Clarendon County, South Carolina; Prince Edward County, Virginia; Topeka, Kansas; Wilmington, Delaware; and Washington, D.C. All maintained separate schools for black and white students, using as a rationale the "separate but equal" argument. One of these cases, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, eventually came before the court. On May 17, 1954, the court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.

It determined that separate schools for black and white children were not equal, and that black students were being denied equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Even if school districts could prove that, within their systems, all academic programs, facilities, and teacher qualifications were the same, there still would be a negative effect of segregation on the individual student. Concluded the Court's chief justice, Earl Warren (1891–1974), "The doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated…are…deprived of the equal protection of laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

While determining that the "separate but equal" doctrine was unconstitutional, and that schools should be desegregated in a timely manner, the Supreme Court offered no course of action on how this might be accomplished. Instead, the court requested arguments in this regard from both sides of the case. This delay allowed segregationists the time to gather their resources and decide how they could obstruct the progress of school integration.

Not Just a Southern Issue

Not all of the states that defied Brown v. Board of Education were located in the South. In 1954, by a two-to-one margin, Michigan voters attempted to thwart integration by approving a state constitutional amendment allowing the abolition of public schools. As late as 1958, New York City schools were accused of segregating black youngsters and discriminating against Puerto Rican and Italian students.

Individuals or organizations supporting the equal rights of all Americans regardless of race, religion, or skin color met with harsh opposition. In 1951, four University of Connecticut fraternities—Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Nu, Kappa Sigma, and Sigma Chi—lost their national charters for breaking a ban on racial and religious discrimination.

Several Southern states immediately and openly defied the court decision. For example, in November 1954, voters in Georgia and Louisiana approved measures to continue segregated education. After considering the issues at hand, on May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court ruled that the implementation of desegregation was the responsibility of local school officials and the lower federal courts. No timetable was established; instead, the court implored that a "good faith" effort be made by each state to integrate the nation's public schools.

Instead of complying with the court, individual states continued their anti-integration efforts. In 1956, North Carolina voters approved a plan whereby local officials might close schools to avert integration. To work around the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Virginia and Florida instituted pupil-assignment systems, whereby black and white students could be separated based on newly defined school-district boundaries.

Violence flared when attempts were made to enroll black youngsters in all-white schools, with individual students coming face to face with harassment. One of the most brutal, and highly publicized, anti-integration incidents took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. At the opening of the 1957 and 1958 school year, five Arkansas school districts planned to integrate. Just before the first day of school on September 3, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus (1910–), a determined segregationist who believed that Brown v. Board of Education was illegal, declared that blood might be shed if black students attempted to enroll in Little Rock's Central High School. Faubus's comments led to a local court order that the integration should be canceled; however, a higher court overturned the decree.

On the night before the commencement of classes, Faubus directed the Arkansas National Guard to surround the school. This and subsequent actions led President Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969) to authorize federal

troops to insure the safe and peaceful enrollment of nine black students. Meanwhile, Faubus declared on national television that the students were the "cause" of the situation. He urged the use of violence to halt the integration, and declared that President Eisenhower had overextended his authority by intervening in what was a state and local issue. As the children attempted to attend school, they were spat on. Angry mobs yelled disgusting insults at them, including "Niggers go home."

Other anti-integration municipalities conjured up plans to avoid desegregation. By 1958, the city of Norfolk, Virginia, established a private educational system similar to one initiated in Arkansas after the Little Rock crisis. Here, students were enrolled in makeshift schools sponsored by churches and private organizations. That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not employ "evasive schemes" to preserve segregation. Nonetheless, at the close of the 1950s, five states—Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina—still maintained segregated schools.

The spiraling crisis in Little Rock jolted Americans and rippled across the globe. Segregationists felt that the federal government was oppressing them in a manner reminiscent of the pre-Civil War era, when the North and South had disagreed over the enslavement of blacks. Soviet Russian propaganda declared that the U.S. education system was racist, and that the violence surrounding school integration mirrored the problems of a permissive society.

DRAFTING COLLEGE STUDENTS

Prior to the United States' entry into World War II in 1941, American males were subjected to a draft, in which they were selected to serve in the military. In January 1951, U.S. involvement in the Korean conflict led to an active draft of males enrolled in college. Secretary of Defense George Marshall (1880–1959) announced that students could complete the academic year but must then enlist in the military branch of their choosing or risk being drafted. Marshall's proclamation led to a 50-percent drop in spring semester enrollments, as males were panicked into enlisting in order to maintain their choice of military branch.

Two months later, President Harry S Truman (1884–1972) sanctioned draft deferments for college students who maintained top grades and achieved high scores on aptitude tests. By October 1951, 339,056 students, or 37 percent of all those who had taken the tests, had earned deferments. Various draft boards then griped that they no longer could meet their quotas. Because of illiteracy, quite a few Southern boards suffered the same difficulty. In South Carolina, an astonishing 58 percent of all males aged twenty-five to thirty-five tested as functionally illiterate. Other percentages were equally appalling: Louisiana (48 percent); Mississippi (45 percent); Alabama (43 percent); and Georgia (36 percent).

THE "RED SCARE" IN EDUCATION

During the 1950s, many Americans believed that the very survival of their nation, their Constitution and Bill of Rights, and their democracy was being jeopardized by the Soviet Union and the communist-bloc nations. These fears translated into a "Red Scare": a belief that subversives, known as communists and socialists, were infiltrating American political, cultural, and social institutions. Educators at all levels of society came under special scrutiny because they are empowered to influence young people. Those who believed that communism posed a menace to America felt that educators should be scrutinized for their political beliefs and patriotism.

In early 1950, Earl James McGrath (1902–1993), the U.S. commissioner of education, cautioned against allowing communists to teach in public schools. That same year, the National Education Association prohibited communists from attending its annual convention. Local school districts began requiring employees to sign loyalty oaths in which they declared their allegiance to America and American ideals. Universities purged suspected subversives from their faculties.

Such actions caused tumult within school systems. So many alleged subversives were dismissed from the New York City public school system that a teacher shortage resulted. Additionally, such actions were controversial. In 1950, eight New York City teachers who were alleged to be communists were suspended without pay, even though there was no direct evidence of their disloyalty. Then, they were recommended for dismissal based on the Feinberg Law, a controversial statute that barred communists or suspected communists from teaching school. The New York Court of Appeals upheld the law, and the eight teachers were fired a year later. The rationale of the court was that "school authorities have the right and duty to screen" those who "shape the attitude of young minds toward the society in which they live.… " Also in 1951, twenty-six Philadelphia teachers were suspended after invoking the Fifth Amendment and declining to answer questions about their political affiliations.

The content of educational materials also came under investigation, leading to the censorship of school and library books. In 1951, the New York State Board of Regents sanctioned the examination of textbooks for subversive content. Comparable practices were instituted across the country.

At the university level, academics also were required to sign loyalty oaths. Many complained, noting that such demands infringed on their constitutional rights, not to mention their academic freedom. The loyalty oath question was argued before the Supreme Court in 1952. The court determined that individuals could not be denied employment "solely on the basis of organizational membership, regardless of their knowledge concerning the organization to which they had belonged." This decision resulted in the reinstatement of hundreds of university faculty who had lost their jobs over the loyalty issue. However, the issue remained controversial. In 1953, the American Association of University Professors issued a report stating that Communist Party membership was sufficient grounds to fire a faculty member. Yet the association also condemned loyalty oaths, book banning, and congressional investigations into the political beliefs and activities of American citizens.

SCHOOL SHORTAGES

After World War II, Americans by the millions married and promptly started families. The result was a baby boom, with the children of this generation coming to be known as baby boomers. The number of children attending school had remained virtually unchanged from the 1930s through 1952, which was the first year that baby boomers were enrolled in school. More followed each fall, causing school populations to increase every year by between 1.5 and 2 million. In fact, during the 1950s, the number of elementary school students across the nation expanded by 50 percent.

It was for good reason, then, that educators and school administrators became concerned about an emerging shortage of teachers, classrooms, and school supplies. As early as February 1950, the U.S. Office of Education proclaimed that the country's education system was in disarray. It was estimated that $10 billion would be required to hire more teachers and build or improve schools; the following year, the figure was readjusted to $14 billion. Meanwhile, the office reported that school expenditures were decreasing for municipalities with populations over 2,500. It was a situation that Earl James McGrath (1902–1993), the U.S. commissioner of education, labeled "shocking." McGrath noted that, in 1951, "one out of every five schoolhouses now in use throughout the United States should be abandoned or extensively remodeled because they are fire hazards, obsolete, or health risks." Twenty-five percent of all elementary school students attended schools that lacked indoor bathroom facilities! At mid-decade, 39,061 one-room, single-teacher schoolhouses still existed across the country.

Added to all this were rising concerns over teacher training. In 1951, a commission on teacher education and professional standards, sponsored by the National Educational Association, described education-oriented college training as "chaotic."

Local and state governments, already hard-pressed to fund education budgets, began requesting additional federal aid. However, attempts to add provisions to education bills resulted in their defeat. The amendments usually involved the promotion of integration or the funding of parochial schools. One school construction bill was defeated in Congress because of a rider, which called for funding only those states that complied with Brown v. Board of Education.

Additional federal monies were allocated for education during the decade, in particular after the Soviet Union's 1957 launching of Sputnik. However, the amounts were still insufficient. Too many American schools remained overcrowded and underfunded.

Dismal View

In 1950, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported that the annual cost of educating a child had risen 37 percent during the previous decade. Including inflation adjustments, the figure had increased from $92 per pupil in 1940 to $232 in 1950; by 1960, it was up to $433. Nonetheless, the percentage of national income devoted to education had decreased between 1940 and 1950, from 15.31 percent to 8.24 percent.

"U.S. education is undoubtedly worse than it was 25 years ago," declared educator Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) in 1951. "All we can say of American education is that it's a colossal housing project designed to keep young people out of worse places until they are able to go to work."

By 1956, the federal government was allocating just 4.5 percent of the cost of educating a student. The previous year, Earl James McGrath resigned as education commissioner, noting that insufficient government monies allotted for teaching the young "are making it impossible…to serve education in this country through this office."

TELEVISION'S EFFECT ON EDUCATION

As more American households purchased television sets in the 1950s, children increasingly spent more time indoors, gazing at the images on their TVs. As early as 1950, a study charted the amount of time students at Burdick Junior High in Stamford, Connecticut, a typical American school, spent watching television. The result: Youngsters watched TV for twenty-seven hours a week, almost the same amount of time they were spending in school.

Without doubt, television did increase the amount of information available to Americans of all ages. Previously, visual records of news events only could be viewed in movie theaters; now, news broadcasts and documentaries were seen at home. At the dawn of the television age, predictions were made regarding the medium's potential use as an educational tool. U.S. Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath, declared, "Through the use of television, educational institutions will be able to bring the greatest teachers, the finest artists, scientists, and philosophers into schools and homes." During the decade, closed-circuit televisions were used in high schools and universities to present education-oriented programming. Western Reserve became the first university to offer full-credit courses by television. Commercial television stations also began airing educational shows. One favorite was Ding Dong School (1952–56; 1959), a series tailored to young children. The host, Frances Horwich (1907–2001), head of the education department at Chicago's Roosevelt College, was better-known to viewers as "Miss Frances."

However, audiences of all ages primarily saw television as a medium for entertainment. This fact is perhaps best-illustrated by the 1956 cancellation of Ding Dong School, which had aired on NBC five days per week. It was replaced by The Price Is Right (1956–65; 1972–), a game show that continued to be broadcast for decades.