The 1930s Education: Headline Makers

Charles A. Beard (1874–1948) Born in Indiana, historian and educator Charles A. Beard studied at Oxford University in England and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1904. Leaving Columbia, Beard argued that America was developing into a modern industrial democracy, and that children had to be prepared for change. Although he was not a communist, Beard was denounced as one by the Hearst newspapers. Beard was one of the most influential historians of the 1930s, but during the next decade, he angered many by criticizing Roosevelt's foreign policy and underestimating the warlike intentions of Germany and Japan.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) Educator Mary McLeod Bethune was probably the most powerful African American woman in the United States in the 1930s. She founded Bethune-Cookman College in Jacksonville, Mississippi, in 1929, and a decade later it was one of the foremost teacher training colleges in the South. Bethune was a close advisor to Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) and informed her on civil rights. Bethune became the director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration (NYA), an agency that helped young people stay in school or find work. Bethune's efforts there helped more than 150,000 African American teenagers go on to high school.

Horace Mann Bond (1904–1972) Educator Horace Mann Bond's career demonstrates a problem faced by African Americans in the segregated South. Although he despised it, Bond had to work within the segregated system. He used his position as a prominent African American scholar to challenge the idea that blacks were of inferior intelligence than whites. But instead of challenging segregation, Bond worked to make sure that black schools received the same level of funding as white schools. Bond eventually became president of Fort Valley State College in Georgia, and later the first black president of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.

George S. Counts (1889–1974) George S. Counts made his name arguing that educators held the key to economic prosperity and social reform. He was at the forefront of the debate between conservatives, who wanted students to learn traditional subjects such as Latin and Greek, by traditional methods, and the progressives, who wanted a more critical, open-minded, and experiential approach. Counts was attacked as a communist, but in fact he worked to rid the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) of its communist factions. He wrote several books on academic freedom and worked as a university teacher until 1971.

Catherine Brieger Stern (1894–1973) Catherine Brieger Stern received her Ph.D. in physics and mathematics in 1918, but she also had a strong interest in literature. With her husband, Stern arrived in the United States from Germany in 1938. Her approach to teaching elementary mathematics and reading made her a leader in kindergarten education. As a progressive educator, Stern's method of teaching math involved games, puzzles, and practical activities. She taught reading skills through word games. Stern outlined her approach in several textbooks. Her work had a strong influence on the teaching of those subjects throughout the remainder of the twentieth century.

Loyd S. Tireman (1896–1959) Loyd S. Tireman's work with Spanish-speaking children in New Mexico met with much prejudice and opposition. He had noted in the 1920s that English-speaking children did much better in school than Spanish speakers. In 1930 he began teaching reading skills in English to Hispanic students. His experiments at the school in San Jose, New Mexico, helped other schools in the area to adjust their program to the needs of Hispanics. Most of Tireman's problems came from other educators, who saw Hispanics as racially inferior. Through his work, Tireman challenged the idea that nonwhites should be kept out of mainstream education.