The Jewish Day School Agenda in the Post-WWII Period (1945-1970). Abstract One of the most significant educational changes that took place during the post-World War II period in America would be the creation of Jewish Day Schools. These schools were formed so Jewish-American students could attend and study at an all-Jewish school, rather than the public schools around them. These schools allow students to study in Hebrew and English and be surrounded by peers like themselves. But, as private schools always do, they had philosophies and missions that they supported and followed. Many of those included things such as the creation of day schools, Jewish Americans were able to foster a sense of closeness and comfort within the Jewish community, …show more content…
The primary educational institutions for the majority of children in America were the public school systems in the period between World War I and World War II. For Jewish-American children, their primary source of schooling was attending public schools for secular studies and synagogues on the weekend for Jewish education. However, due to the influx of Jewish Day Schools after WWII, Jewish Americans were now able to monitor their children’s education as well as find comfort within the Jewish community, and uphold their religion and culture all in one place. The main goal of these schools was to educate the youth, but these schools also had an underlying goal: fostering a sense of Jewish pride in their students. At present, there is a wealth of data on primary school-aged Jewish-American children in the post-WWII period. However, there is not much analysis of this data, and the existing analyses do not emphasize the goal Jewish Day Schools had in nurturing that sense of Jewish pride in its students. The results of this study seek to close that gap. This will be accomplished by exploring and highlighting how changes in the education of elementary-aged Jewish-American children strengthened and promoted the Jewish pride movement. The research in this study is important due to the discussion of …show more content…
These changes were often meant to improve upon things that the war had exposed the educational system was lacking, or they were added to promote democracy, the war, the military, and patriotism. In the American public school system, “When the schools closed on Friday 5 December (1941) they had purposes and they followed many roads to achieve those purposes. When the schools opened on Monday 8 December, they had one dominant purpose - complete intelligent, and enthusiastic cooperation in the war effort.” This quote reflects the changes in the United States' educational goals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the United States' involvement in World War II. “The modification of existing mathematics and science courses, incorporating a material of a practical or military nature, was also widespread.” However, mathematics was not the only subject being objected to wartime curriculum changes. “War themes dominated most subjects, with New York City children learning to spell bombardier and torpedo, write compositions on military topics, and study ‘the way zebras, grasshoppers, and worms are camouflaged.” Mathematics, writing, reading, social studies, and even science were impacted by American curriculum changes during World War II. The landscape of Jewish-American education changed drastically immediately following World War II. Many day schools opened in the 1940s
In 1944 the world was caught in one of the greatest wars of all time, World War II. The whole United States was mobilized to assist in the war effort. As history was being made overseas, as citizens learned to do without many amenities of life, and as families grieved over loved ones lost in the war, two students on BYU campus were beginning a history of their own. Chauncey and Bertha Riddle met in the summer of 1944 and seven months later were engaged to be married. Chauncey was eighteen and a half and Bertha nineteen as they knelt across the altar in the St. George temple five months after their engagement. Little did they know that in just the first years of marriage they would be involved with the effects of a significant historical event, the atomic bomb, as well as government legislation, the GI Bill, that would not only affect the course of their lives but also the course of the entire country.
American women in World War II brought significant changes which although people expectation that life would go back to normal they modify their lifestyle making women free of society pressure and norms, because the war changed the traditional way to see a woman and their roles leading to a new society where women were allowed to study and work in the same way than men. Creating a legacy with the principles of today’s society.
Gatto begins his article by explaining that boredom is an everyday issue in modern schooling. Teachers struggle with boredom due to the attitudes and behavior of students and find it exhausting to teach kids when they behave in an immature manner. However, students also become frustrated with the repetition of useless information, as well as being forced to fit society’s standards. Gatto shifts the focus to his thoughts on the importance of mandatory schooling. He thinks that the lengthy school days are completely unnecessary. There are homeschoolers who go without the eight-hour school days and become just as successful as others. For example, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln- who are historical icons- received little to no schooling at all. Mandatory school attendance did not become important until the early 1900s when James Bryant Conant, who was a poison gas specialist in Prussia during
Botstein once argued in his book Jefferson’s Children that “the American high school are obsolete”. In detail, the dissemination that the current method of education has entirely strangled the scheme is an important issue which has to be scrutinized critically.
I chose to write about Jewish-Americans after my mother, who was raised Christian, chose to identify herself as Jewish. In my reading I examined Jewish culture and how it is in American society. I looked at how Jewish-American culture has become a prominent component of American society. I looked at the historical forces that have shaped Jewish-American experience in the United States. I looked at demographics of where most Jewish-Americans live. I examined how Jewish-Americans have contributed to our culturally pluralistic society in the United States.
...sts discovered when they tried to cater to the individual needs of immigrants, to emphasize one objective is to sacrifice the other. The plight of blacks and women in the first part of the 20th century suggests that even the noblest of philosophies are not guaranteed to serve individuals in practice. Further, federal intervention into education, such as with the No Child Left Behind Act, should give educators pause to question what educational oversights would cause the federal government to intervene in its historical role as protector of the overlooked and unnoticed. Finally, the success of Catholic schools in the 1950’s and 1960’s is suggestive of the value of a standard, academic curriculum, but one must remember that Catholic schools enjoy the luxury of choosing the students they educate.
World War II opened a new chapter in the lives of Depression-weary Americans. The United States of America had an unusual importance in the war, it had been spared the physical destruction that had taken place throughout the world. Americans on the home front did not see the fighting and brutality as other countries experienced it. However, the events and changes on the home front due to the World War transformed America. One of the greatest conversions was that of the American woman. Women around the country were transformed from the average house wife into a person with a voice and most importantly a purpose.
The American home front during World War II is recalled warmly in popular memory and cultural myth as a time of unprecedented national unity, years in which Americans stuck together in common cause. World War II brought many new ideas and changes to American life. Even though World War II brought no physical destruction to the United States mainland, it did affect American society. Every aspect of American life was altered by U.S. involvement in the war including demographics, the labor force, economics and cultural trends.
Jeffries, John. Wartime America: The World War II Home Front. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996. Print. American Way.
The United States and World War II. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. Print. The. Feis, Herbert.
World War II changed the world as a whole, but in this essay I am going to talk about how it changed America. After the war, many groups and organizations were created. The United Nations was born on October 24, 1945. This was a group meant to keep peace between nations. Tensions were still high between the United States and the Soviet Union after the war. Nevertheless, things were booming like never before here in our home country. With equal rights for women and African Americans, economic growth, and anti- war organizations became pro- war after Pearl Harbor. These are the ways I am going to discuss to you how World War Two changed our great country.
...n left out of the United States elementary schools and looked over when World War II is being taught. (Roxworthy, 2013)
New York: William Morrow. Lipsett, S. M. & Co., P.A. and Ladd, E. C. (1971) The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon "Jewish Academics in the United States: Their Achievements, Culture and Politics." American Jewish Yearbook -. Cited for Zuckerman, Harriet (1977).
The 1930s was a bad time for public schooling, because with the Great Depression occurring at the same time, most kids could not afford the necessary clothes, shoes, textbooks, or supplies (American Cultural History). For example in To Kill a Mockingbird, Walter Cunningham’s family was so poor they had to pay with goods rather than actual money and because of that I bet they did not have proper school supplies. In today’s society, the school systems make sure kids can get what they need, through fee waivers or charities giving out supplies. Another example of the hard times i...
My Jewish learning. Web. 10 Sep. 2011. Jewish_Family.shtml.>.