Curricula

CURRICULA

Life Adjustment

Educational methods changed significantly during the 1950s as Americans started to reap the benefits of a strong economy, with a job waiting for almost every able-bodied adult. To face this new, prosperous world, schools changed curricula. Teaching students "life adjustment" took precedence over the traditional skills of math, science, and reading. Schools emphasized mental, physical, and emotional aspects of a child's life. The humanities and life skills became the new focus of educators. Home-economics classes and government classes attained record enrollments as citizenship and managing the home and family became high priorities. Comprehensive high schools offered a wide variety of vocational training as well as numerous electives in such areas as photography, botanical care, and baby care. Audio-visual aids, modern laboratory equipment, and supplemental reference materials regularly enhanced education in the modern school system.

Higher Education

Universities and colleges, for the first tim e in decades, required philosophy as a general-education course to ensure a more liberal education. In March 1950 the New York Times reported that 34 percent of U.S. colleges required history, up from 18 percent in 1942. Science-based graduates decreased and home-economics graduates increased. Critics charged that the educational system had become soft and called for renewed emphasis on the hard sciences and mathematics.

EDUCATION: A BABY-SITTING SERVICE

Writer William Faulkner, speaking at Princeton University in March 1958, warned parents and educators that school were turning into "baby-sitting organizations."

BACK TO BASICS

Education should stress "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."

—Sen. J. William Fulbright speaking against lax curricula, January 1958.

Sputnik Rocks the World

In October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a small satellite that orbited the globe. Sputnik convinced Americans that Soviet scientific knowledge surpassed that of American scientists and that, as a result, the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to launch nuclear warheads at the United States from the Russian heartland. Suddenly, "life adjustment" took a backseat to national pride and security. Educators, government officials, and parents all laid the blame of "falling behind" on the quality of schools. The nation's educational system had become "too relaxed," "too lenient." It was now time to reverse the damage and return to the traditional studies of math, science, and reading. Quality education was perceived as vital to national defense. From all sides came demands for higher standards in schools and colleges, more training in science and mathematics, better provisions for gifted students, and more study required for all students. A strong curriculum-revision movement started in 1958 in the field of mathematics. Reformers also called for improved instruction in foreign languages as well as various revisions in curricula, teaching methods, and requirements. Educators suddenly found themselves facing a crisis.

Tracking

After stepping down as president of Harvard University, Conant, who had criticized the existence of a private school system earlier in the decade, devised a plan in 1958 to improve the nation's high schools. He developed a model school in which bright, average, and slow students all had specific educational "tracks" that they followed throughout their high-school careers. Each particular track would prepare students with similar abilities for a career. Through better planning and more parental involvement the education system, Conant contended, could be saved. Conant's plan closely resembled European models, in which students took periodic tests to advance. Failing a test condemned a student to a certain set of vocations, regardless of the student's personal wishes or professional aspirations.

Humanities

In 1952 the New York Times had reported a study that 90 percent of research funds at U.S. universities and colleges was being earmarked for physical and biological sciences. Educators expressed concerns about the lack of funding for the humanities and "soft" sciences. In 1956 the Council for Basic Education was founded to encourage the training of students in English, mathematics, science, history, and foreign languages. Those skills, the council contended, were undertaught. A year later educators reexamined those skills on a national scale, but, in the wake of Sputnik, humanities and social studies stood in line behind the sciences for support.

Meeting the Soviet Challenge

Noting the "Soviet challenge," President Dwight D. Eisenhower, during his 1958 state-of-the-union address, called for an expanded National Science Foundation program and new efforts by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to improve research and education in the sciences. A Gallup poll in April 1958 reported that high-school principals thought they were meeting the challenge and improving their schools' curricula.

Sources:

J. Ronald Oakley, God's Country: America in the Fifties (New York: Dembner Books, 1986);

Nathan M. Pusey, American Higher Education, 1945-1970: A Personal Report (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978).