Adult Education 1940's

Adult Education in the 1940's

Joseph W. Haynes Jr.

EDSEC 631

 

     Every decade has its own characteristics, its own events that shape history and in this case Adult Education history.  The 1940's were a unique time in history, the long slow progress of coming out of the Great Depression and going through the 2^nd World War.  The ability for citizens to overcome disparity and state colleges to help and inspire those who wanted to help out in war time.

 

     Everyday life was a challenge for everyone.   The United States implemented rationing as a way to help stretch the use of certain items.  Gail Collins writes “The rationing of such staples as sugar, coffee, butter, certain types of meat, canned foods, gasoline, tires and stockings was only a few items the government controlled in those trying times..  Citizens were given stamps to buy certain products, with those people gathering with neighbors and sitting around the kitchen table and trading those stamps.  It was a time when neighbors pulled together and shared what they had, to make things a bit easier for all.”  “With the United States entry into the War in 1941 it brought the unemployment rate down below 10 percent.”  Even though more people were working the poor people continued to stay poor.

 

     The 1940's were also a time for invention in technology and weapons.  Wikipedia states “The Atanasoff-Berry computer was built between 1937 – 1942.”  In laymen terms it was considered the first electric digital computing device.  Wikipedia also states, “In 1941 the computer named “Colossus” was used by the British code breakers during World War II to break the German code machine The Enigma.” “It was also the first test of technology for an atomic weapon (Trinity Test; Manhattan Project).”  “There was also the invention of the radar, the ballistic missile and the jet aircraft.  On a more, non-military scale, the invention of the commercial television, the slinky, the microwave oven, Velcro, Tupperware and the Frisbee made life more enjoyable.”

 

     The 40's were a beginning of an era that inspired a group of people not only in education but in music, politics and sports.  Wikipedia states, “From swing music to Frank Sinatra to the early traces of Rock and Roll.  The Andrew Sister to the Ink Spots, this type of genre inspired all.” 

 

 America's Women, 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines' by Gail Collins

 

Wikipedia, web

Wikipedia, web

 

     “The world was also full of political leaders that would shape history forever.  Britain gave us Winston Churchill; the United States gave us Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The Soviet Union gave us Joseph Stalin, China Mao Zedong, Germany Adolf Hitler and Italy had Benito Mussolini.” 

       During World War II, sports were another event of great change. In baseball, many of the prominent players went to war.  In an article regarding The Belles of the Ball Game states, “This concerned major league owners because they feared that the military draft might lead to the suspension of play.  The owners then formed the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that lasted from 1943 to 1954..  The league even inspired a hit motion picture of 1992(A League of Their Own). It was so popular that by the end of their run that had attracted nearly 1 million fans.”

     One can look at some of the educational highlights of the1940's. One of the most important factors in Post War Adult Education was an assistant program set out to help the soldiers in the transition from wartime.  In 1944 Congress came up with just such a program. Wikipedia states, “The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, also known as the G.I. Bill.  The G.I. Bill was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans.  The benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend a university, high school or vocational education as well as one year of unemployment compensation.”

 

     Even before the Bill came into being, many universities assisted the military pre-war and during the war.  One of those universities was the University of Washington.  The location of the college, Seattle Washington, was a start off point.  “In the city, the Boeing plant was involved in building thousands of military airplanes.  In Puget Sound, the shipyards turned out a steady stream of warships.  There was even a top-secret federal facility that manufactured plutonium for one of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in August of 1945.”

 

 Wikipedia, web  

“Belles of the Ball Game”

Collier's 13, August 1949, 44

Wikipedia, GI Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944)(P.L. 78-346, 58  stat, 284m)

Professional and Continuing Education University of Washington, World War II Transforms and Expands Adult Education: New Industries, Jobs and Students Reflect Changing Needs the Fourth Decade:1940 to 1950

 

 

     The University of Washington states, “The University came up with the Extension Service which provided classes to workers in defense industries and also correspondence courses to men and women serving in the armed forces at home and abroad.  The President of Washington University, Lee Paul Sieg wanted to consider the long term future and expansion of adult education.  He urged the members of the Seattle Adult Education Council and the university to join in an adult education movement in a more direct manner.  The purpose was cooperation in providing several services of evening meetings which might be in the nature of debates, lectures, forums or discussions on current problems in democratic government led by university men.  They were able to add new statewide initiatives, including a Community Forum Program which “enabled approximately 50 communities to secure the services of some of their best professors for one day each month of the school year.” (professors spent months traveling to communities around the state meeting with high school students, parents, teachers, service clubs and alumni)”

     “In 1946 Division of Adult Education and Extension Services was created to carry the educational and services facilities of the University to every part of the state.  During World War II soldiers were able to take correspondence classes via the Extension Service while stationed in different locations.”

 

     Another university that was heavily involved with assisting the military was Oklahoma A&M or Oklahoma State as it is known today.  They offered classes for those women who wanted to become W.A.V.E.S   or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.  Oklahoma State web waves collection shows, “The women were trained to perform secretarial and clerical functions for the Navy in order to free more men to fight during World War II.  The first class of W.A.V.E.S had 644 women and each subsequent class yielded a maximum of 1250 graduated.  They had 12 weeks of extensive training with 8 hours a day of studying secretarial skills such as shorthand, stenography and typing plus more advanced courses in history and naval correspondence.”

 

 Professional and Continuing Education University of Washington, “World War II Transforms and Expands Adult Education: New Industries, Jobs, and Students Reflect Changing Needs the Fourth decade: 1940-1950

Oklahoma State web waves collection Oct. 9, 1942

 

       Colorado A&M also known as Colorado State played a role in helping in the education for military service.  Sarah Grant states, “In 1941 the University offered tuition free for national defense courses through the Department of Engineering.  They served more than 1500 servicemen during the war through pilot and clerical training and army engineering and veterinarian medicine program.  With the G.I Bill of Rights, as the war ended Colorado A&M saw the greatest surge of applicants in their history.” 

 

     From the Archives of Indiana University, comes the U.S.S Indiana University.  Yes a ship located in Bloomington, Indiana.  The University wanted to become a part of the war effort so they came up with a program for the Navy where students would be trained to become W.A.V.E.S/yeoman.  “They turned part of the University into a “ship” where women students  studied to do work for  the navy and it also gave them the skills to achieve careers in the business field.  It also planted a seed of further education with the students going further with their college education.”

     Another part of Adult Education during the 1940's was influenced by the educators themselves.  One of those people’s was Moses Michael Coady: (3 January 1882 – 28 July 1959).  Wikipedia states,”Moses was a Roman Catholic Priest who was credited with introducing an entirely new organizational technique: that of action based on preliminary study to the cooperative movement in Canada, example is a credit union.”

 

     Another educator was Malcolm S. Knowles, (b.1913 d. 1997).  Wikipedia states, “Knowles was an American educator, famous for the adoption of the theory of Andragogy and credited with being a fundamental influence in the development of the Humanist Learning Theory and the use of learner constructed contracts or plans to guide learning experience.”

 

United States Naval Training School and the U.S.S Indiana University.

Indiana University Archives Written by Sarah Grant: (CU Department of Public Relations intern, Journalism and Technical Communication, 2010, Wikipedia, 1940's

Posted January 7, 2013 by Nolan Eller

Wikipedia, web, Moses Coady

Malcolm Shepard Knowles. “Contemporary Author Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003 Gale Biography In Context Accessed 9/13/14. Document URL

 

     When you look back at the 1940's you begin to realize just how important that decade was.  The ingenuity and for-thought that colleges had to not only prepare for the present but to prepare for the future. The ability for educators to influence how adult education would be taught.  The federal government’s ability to come up with the GI Bill. 

     The Great Depression made it very difficult for any person to survive.  World War II happened, families were separated, lives lost, it’s a wonder how people thought they would make it out of the 40's.  With perseverance and hard work they got out of the depression, technology advanced and things were looking bright for the citizens of the United States and the world.