Education During the Cold War: Coming of Age (1950s/1960s)

“It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts…it is to teach them to think.” (Robert M. Hutchins; 1945)

Ready to begin new jobs, new families, and new lives, thousands of young American servicemen returned to the United States after World War II ready to leave behind the tragedy of war and resume American life as they had left it.  However, World War II shattered the previous way of American life.  America could no longer reign in the Western Hemisphere and remain detached from European affairs; indeed, World War II placed a spotlight on America, forcing the country to enter the global arena to assert its freedom and superiority against rising powers like Soviet Russia.  Originating in the aftermath of World War II, the Cold War placed democratic America in direct opposition against communist Soviet Russia.  These two global superpowers would spend the latter half of the 20^th century competing to achieve dominance in science, technology, and weaponry.  From the infamous Space Race to the Cuban Missile Crisis, tensions between the United States and the USSR continued to rise throughout the 1950s and 1960s, fueling a drive in America to combat the communist Russian enemy in every measurable facet, including education.   

The post-war baby boom, which created an influx in the number of students entering American public schools, combined with growing tensions between America and Soviet Russia, forced Americans to reevaluate the American education system.  The classroom had evolved into a battleground, an arena for challenging young minds to exceed the intellectual capacities of other world powers, specifically the Soviet Union.  As nations competed to excel in areas of science and technology, American leaders and educators suddenly realized the critical impact that educating new generations of Americans had on attaining United States dominance in global affairs.  The August 1958 issue of the American School Board Journal, articles and editorial revealed the shifting perceptions of American education.  While educators continued to place high value on academic achievement, educators began instituting new regulations and educational approaches to ensure the products of the American education system would prove valuable assets in America’s quest for global superiority. 

To ensure superiority in the global arena, and to provide superior education, American educators began eliminating old, out-dated educational approaches.  The role of education was no longer to provide children with fun and entertainment; instead, education needed to prepare America’s youngest citizens for life in a highly competitive world.  As one article in the 1958 issue highlighted, many schools underwent construction or renovation to incorporate rooms promoting life skills and career preparation.  To be productive and valuable American citizens, educators insisted that students needed to exit school with the superior academic and life skills needed to propel American in front of global competitors.  

Beyond traditional classrooms, newly constructed schools often contained a variety of specialized academic and auxiliary areas in order to assist students in obtaining superior education and experience in life-like situations.   Food laboratories, clothing laboratories, living room unit and craft centers, music rooms, vocational agriculture and industrial arts shops, art rooms, typing rooms, and laboratories designed for specific sciences (i.e. physics, biology, chemistry) provided students with unique educational experiences representative of the “real-world”, ensuring that students entered the American workforce with the necessary knowledge, experience, and competencies to serve as valuable assets to the United States economy. 

In addition to more vocationally-geared education, educators began placing a stronger emphasis on science and mathematics instruction, reflecting the heightening race between America and Soviet Russia to gain world dominance in space exploration, weapon creation, and technological innovation.  Many articles within this periodical addressed concerns of educators that traditional scientific and math training were inadequate in American schools.  Educators insisted the improvement of science training was an urgent need, “basic to our (America’s) national capacity for defense and for living as a free people” (p. 14).  Despite this drive to improve science and math instruction, educators also recognized the need to improve all areas of education for American students.  According to the President’s Committee on Scientists and Engineers, funneling all of America’s best talents into scientific and technical studies would prove self-destructive; instead, the committee called educators to continue the development of the arts, humanities, and social sciences in order to ensure that America’s citizens, the basis of democracy, were well-informed and well rounded in a variety of content areas.

An average American child spends approximately 180 days per year in school.  Most children attend school for 14 years, adding to a total of 2,520 days spent in school from Kindergarten to 12^th grade.  Throughout this time, children grow and mature within the classroom, interacting with their peers and teachers in order to gain insight about the world around them.  Most likely, the persistent drive from teachers and educators to meet high academic expectations forced children of these decades to mature quickly and at a young age.  The classroom had become a training ground, refining American children as powerful human weapons, capable of combating Soviet intelligence and securing American supremacy in global affairs.  

Children were stripped of their innocence, forced to acknowledge the precarious existence of mankind in the midst of developing nuclear weaponry, living in constant fear of a third world war.  Memories of childhood during these decades often include reminisces of infamous “Duck-and-Cover” Drills, futile measures to “protect” students in case of nuclear warfare.  Like the pages of the periodical, childhood experiences during the 1950s and 1960s were marred by the constant threat of nuclear destruction and global destruction.  Children could no longer mature at their leisure, reveling in years of blissful childhood innocence; instead, educators made it their mission to initiate children into the harsh realities of the world as soon as they entered the American public school system, forcing the young pliant minds to accept the reality of danger, warfare, and death and dismiss childish notions of security and peace.