Read Online Boomers: The Cold-War Generation Grows Up by Victor D. Brooks - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Victor D. Brooks
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Life
magazine spent much of the 1957â1958 school year publishing cover stories on âThe Crisis in Education,â filled with comparison photos of Russian and American school activities. One pair of images showed a group of serious-minded Soviet children huddled over an imposing array of scientific equipment, contrasted with an American classroom where carefree students were learning the newest popular dance. An educational journal noted that âup to Sputnik, Little Ivan, just like little Johnny, went to school period, no story, no comment, and no one gave a hoot about the fact that Ivan was learning not quite the same thing in school as Johnny. Now we have the âCold War Classroomâ with press lines almost to the point of hysteria, as average Americans cannot believe that the educational effort of âbackward Russia with savage Communist mastersâ could be so significant and important.â
Events over the next few months merely added to the growing sense of alarm. On the eve of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution in early November, Sputnik II was launched, and the thousand-pound sphere carried the first space passenger, a female terrier named Laika, who was placed in a pressurized cabin equipped with food dispensers and water. Laika did not survive a partial power failure, but the sound of a dog barking inside the massive craft scored another impressive Soviet propaganda triumph.
A December 1957 American launch attempt produced a stark contrast in space technology when the Vanguard rocket exploded into thousands of pieces, barely fifty feet above the Cape Canaveral launch pad. On the last day of January 1958 the United States salvaged a measure of pride when an army Jupiter rocket carried an 80-inch-long cylinder named Explorer I into successful orbit. America had entered the spacerace, and Explorer achieved an orbit an impressive 1,563 miles above Earth. Yet its 30-pound, six-inch-diameter size seemed puny, and the launch did little to convince many Americans that Soviet schools were not outperforming American institutions. While many proposals for educational reform were focused on colleges and high schools, millions of Boomer elementary school children would be affected by Sputnik.
Salt Lake City became one of the first school districts to add Russian to its elementary school curriculum. Children at Bonneville Elementary School were profiled studying the rather exotic language by using Soviet textbooks, since no Russian texts were currently printed in the United States. Because Soviet texts were filled with pro-Communist propaganda, questionable paragraphs were cut out with razor blades. One cheerful pupil insisted, âThis will help me get a good job with the government.â In Oklahoma City, TV station KBTA gave Russian courses for grade-school children three days a week while Portland, Oregon, elementary school kids peered through a telescope set up in a teacherâs garden as every morning at 6 A.M . they watched for Sputnik to pass over.
The Sputnik launch produced a barrage of calls for more toughness and rigor in American elementary schools. Substantial increases in foreign language, physical education, and science, down to the first-grade level, could be accomplished by cutting back on art and music instruction. Homework assignments could be substantially increased. The school year could be lengthened, and calls for that bane of childhood, year-round school, floated from one community to another. Yet most of these urgings proved to be less intrusive than children feared or educators hoped. Much of the new science education in elementary schools tended tobe more fun than drudgery. For example, a Riverside, California, elementary school quickly developed a science fair based on space exploration. A photo image shows a crowd of children, faces half hidden under cardboard space helmets, constructing a thirteen-foot-high cardboard rocket, control panel, and
Life
magazine spent much of the 1957â1958 school year publishing cover stories on âThe Crisis in Education,â filled with comparison photos of Russian and American school activities. One pair of images showed a group of serious-minded Soviet children huddled over an imposing array of scientific equipment, contrasted with an American classroom where carefree students were learning the newest popular dance. An educational journal noted that âup to Sputnik, Little Ivan, just like little Johnny, went to school period, no story, no comment, and no one gave a hoot about the fact that Ivan was learning not quite the same thing in school as Johnny. Now we have the âCold War Classroomâ with press lines almost to the point of hysteria, as average Americans cannot believe that the educational effort of âbackward Russia with savage Communist mastersâ could be so significant and important.â
Events over the next few months merely added to the growing sense of alarm. On the eve of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution in early November, Sputnik II was launched, and the thousand-pound sphere carried the first space passenger, a female terrier named Laika, who was placed in a pressurized cabin equipped with food dispensers and water. Laika did not survive a partial power failure, but the sound of a dog barking inside the massive craft scored another impressive Soviet propaganda triumph.
A December 1957 American launch attempt produced a stark contrast in space technology when the Vanguard rocket exploded into thousands of pieces, barely fifty feet above the Cape Canaveral launch pad. On the last day of January 1958 the United States salvaged a measure of pride when an army Jupiter rocket carried an 80-inch-long cylinder named Explorer I into successful orbit. America had entered the spacerace, and Explorer achieved an orbit an impressive 1,563 miles above Earth. Yet its 30-pound, six-inch-diameter size seemed puny, and the launch did little to convince many Americans that Soviet schools were not outperforming American institutions. While many proposals for educational reform were focused on colleges and high schools, millions of Boomer elementary school children would be affected by Sputnik.
Salt Lake City became one of the first school districts to add Russian to its elementary school curriculum. Children at Bonneville Elementary School were profiled studying the rather exotic language by using Soviet textbooks, since no Russian texts were currently printed in the United States. Because Soviet texts were filled with pro-Communist propaganda, questionable paragraphs were cut out with razor blades. One cheerful pupil insisted, âThis will help me get a good job with the government.â In Oklahoma City, TV station KBTA gave Russian courses for grade-school children three days a week while Portland, Oregon, elementary school kids peered through a telescope set up in a teacherâs garden as every morning at 6 A.M . they watched for Sputnik to pass over.
The Sputnik launch produced a barrage of calls for more toughness and rigor in American elementary schools. Substantial increases in foreign language, physical education, and science, down to the first-grade level, could be accomplished by cutting back on art and music instruction. Homework assignments could be substantially increased. The school year could be lengthened, and calls for that bane of childhood, year-round school, floated from one community to another. Yet most of these urgings proved to be less intrusive than children feared or educators hoped. Much of the new science education in elementary schools tended tobe more fun than drudgery. For example, a Riverside, California, elementary school quickly developed a science fair based on space exploration. A photo image shows a crowd of children, faces half hidden under cardboard space helmets, constructing a thirteen-foot-high cardboard rocket, control panel, and
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