





































Scrap Drives, Stamp Sales, and School Spirit: 
Examples of Elementary Social Studies During World War II. 

Sherry L. Field 

As the United States entered World 
War lIon December 8, 1941, schools 
continued to educate young Americans 
reliably, comfortably, safely. War 
was not a new topic to teachers or to 
students. They had been following 
current events in Europe and in the 
Pacific for some time. Still, the 
impending role which the elementary 
schools should assume during World War 
II became a topic of widespread 
discussion. While most educators may 
well have agreed that the schools 
would be an active participant 
throughout the war, as they had been 
in World War I, the level and 
intensity of activities which the 
school should undertake were 
contested. Some teachers supported 
almost total immersion in wartime 
activities. They claimed that the 
role of the schools was "to help win 
the war" (Stoddard, 1942, p. 53) and 
that schools must be "utilized to full 
capacity" (Redefer, 1942, p. 300). 
Others, on the other hand, recommended 
that schools conduct business as 
usual. Educators were sending and 
receiving mixed messages. While most 
elementary educators agreed with the 
necessity of revised roles, goals and 
aims, duties and curriculum for 
wartime elementary and high schools, a 
minority advised extreme caution in 
promoting wartime activities. 

Role of the Schools 

Alexander J. Stoddard, 
superintendent of schools in 
Philadelphia, recounted active 
participation in many schools through 
the national defense training program, 
and he delineated several 
responsibilities of wartime schools. 
He called for the clarification of the 
issues and aims of war and endorsed 
patience and calm among school 
children. Cleveland's superintendent 
Charles H. Lake (1942) recommended 
that a balance in education be kept, 
that real needs be anticipated, and 
that be 

, 
Progressive 
called for a 

needs under 
the 

icies. 
, Frederick 
director of The 

Education Association, 
chal ·curricular 

would "take 
time-worn 
In his 

routines" 
wartime 

37 

should not frustrate the major 
educational reforms began during the 
previous decade. Maud Frothingham 
Roby (1943), principal of Shepherd 
Elementary School in Washington, D.C., 
agreed that the school's role must be 
defined clearly in two ways: guiding 
maximum development of boys and girls 
to help win the war, and preparing 
young children for life after the war. 
Principal Harold Drummond (1943) from 
small Skellytown, Texas, called for a 
changing, non-static curriculum and 
faculties which would provide for rich 
development and awareness of community 
and international needs. These 
sentiments likely were not 
expressions for the educators only, 
but ones deeply felt by the public; a 
year later Drummond, for example, was 
Navy communication's officer on 
Guadalcanal (Davis,1988-1989). 

Individual educator and school 
action was important, but major 
organizational influence was also 
directed to the new circumstances. 
Among the most important were policy 
and action reports of the National 
Education Association and its major 
affiliates (1942), The John Dewey 
Society Sixth Yearbook (1942) , 
American Association of School 
Administrators (1942), and three 
policy reports from the National 
Council for the Social Studies: The 
Social Studies Mobilize for Victory 
(1942), Wartime Social Studies in the 
Elementary School (Chase, 1943), and 
The Social Studies Look Beyond the 
War. 

Elementary Social Studies In the Field 
of Battle: Applications in the 
Classroom 

A rich legacy of wartime efforts of 
school children has been recorded. 
They included instructional units, 
classroom enrichment activities, and 
school enterprises. These reports of 
classroom practice heightened by the 
United States' involvement in world 
war are and direct. They 
reveal an dimension of the 

of social studies 
World War II. 

Social studies education faced the 
extraordinary challenge of 
contribut to the maintenance of the 
existing itical order and all the 
while the curriculum to 
meet wartime needs. War-related 
activities in the social studies were 

for several reasons. 



differed from the commonplace 
routines, were flexible, not static, 
and were relevant to the larger social 
context in which Americans found 
themselves While specific activities 
and context varied from school to 
school, several major theme areas can 
be identified: war saving stamp and 
bond sales; scrap and salvage drives; 
the economics and practicalities of 
rationing and conservation efforts; 
civic education and community service; 
Victory Gardens; health and nutrition; 
democratic, patriotic, and 
citizenship-related activities; 
Air-Age education and geography; and 
general plans for educational 
improvement. 

Helping to Finance the War: War 
Savings Stamp and Bond Sales 

After December 7th, 1941, a shocked 
nation of citizens was called into 
service for its country. The aim was 
to win the war. The government 
immediately and, over years, 
repeatedly appealed to citizens to 
assist in raising money to fund the 
war. Teachers and school children 
were enlisted into war bond and war 
stamp sales campaigns with resounding 
success. A number of methods 
attracted the interest of pupils. One 
of these was plays. Patriotic plays 
were published for suggested 
production at school assemblies 
directly after the start of the war 
and later during successive defense 
savings campaigns. One play, 
"Investing for Uncle Sam" (Goebel, 
1942), had the unmistakable purpose to 
inform children about the importance 
of saving their pennies for war stamp 
purchases. As a group of children 
discussed their savings, they agreed 
that pennies have little value, except 
for buying chewing gum until John 
pipes in, "Well, I'm not buying gum. 
Every time I get a penny I put it in 
my pig bank. When I get ten pennies, 
I buy a stamp" (p. 44). As the play 
continued, different types of savings 
plans, the amount of interest earned 
on savings, and how the government 
used the contributions, were 
discussed. 

"Helping Your Uncle Sam" (Sister 
Josephine, 1942), another play, was 
created to inform and motivate, 
according to its author. She 
commented, "Three of my s, 
Clarice Marik, Ann Doris Sklar, and 
Helen Valigura originated this 
and wrote most of it" (p. 32). As 
proof of lessons well learned, Ernest, 
one of the in the play, tells the 
Postmaster, "You see, our mother gave 
each of us a nice new dime to 

38 

just as we please. At first, we 
thought we would buy candy. Then, 
when we remembered about our father 
who has gone to help Uncle Sam, we 
decided we would buy some Defense 
Stamps" (p. 32). A novel approach to 
defense savings was presented in the 
play, "Mother Goose Helps Defense" 
(Dalby, 1942). Little Miss Muffet and 
Jack Be Nimble joined other characters 
to encourage elementary students to 
buy defense stamps and bonds with 
verses such as, "I am Little Miss 
Muffet. I used to sit all day on a 
tuffet and eat curds and whey. I' m 
not going to be so lazy anymore. I am 
going to earn money and buy Defense 
Stamps" (p. 26). Through the use of 
creative dramatic presentations, 
social studies teachers sought to 
motivate children to do their 
patriotic duty by saving their money 
and spending it on war stamps and war 
bonds rather than on frivolous items. 

In other schools, three teachers 
shared their classes' war stamp and 
war bond sales projects. First, 
Mildred I. Heckman (1942), reported 
her 7A Franklin School Class 
undertaking. Two class managers were 
elected, and the remaining twenty four 
class members were divided into two 
sales groups. On alternating months, 
one group served as salesmen to each 
of Franklin School's twelve rooms. 
Sales day was Tuesday, from 8: 10 to 
8:30 and 1:00 to 1:15. Accompanying 
photographs depicted class members 
conducting typical duties: displaying 
the award flag designed by the class, 
applying symbols to homeroom doors, 
preparing forms for weekly graphs, 
posting results of weekly sales, 
taking money and stamp orders, 
totaling stamp orders, counting money, 
buying stamps at the post office, and 
delivering stamps the following 
morning. Next, the second grade 
class of Ruth L. Hallenbeck (1943), 
decided to convert the schoolroom into 
a post office for their war stamp 
sales. Located in a rural area, the 
school stamp sales project was 
conceived as a form of community 
service. "Not only the children 
themselves profited, but the parents 
and other people in the neighborhood, 
who could thus buy their stamps at the 
schoolhouse" (.29) was how she 
described her c . success. Before 
their ect children made 
advertisement and constructed 
a office area from orange crates. 
Pupils elected a ; and 
planned the sale routine. The success 
of the project was revealed by teacher 
Hallenbeck, "Our little office often 
sells or ten dollars' worth of 
War in a day and seldom less 



than five dollars' worth" (p 29). 
Finally, the work of the primary 
department at Lulu J. Kisselbrack's 
( 1944) school was noted. The five 
primary teachers volunteered to 
oversee the War Stamp drive for a 
month at a time. Students presented 
pep talks to the school's pupils and 
constructed posters for display. One 
poster asserted: 

You must buy War Stamps 
To help Uncle Sam; 
We are buying War Stamps 
As fast as we can. (p.28). 

Once each week, the teacher in 
charge completed and deposited sales 
orders in the school of f ice. Later 
that day, stamps and bonds were 
delivered to her for distribution by 
her students. A large poster was 
placed prominently in the school 
hallway. Individual classroom sales 
were represented by airplanes, taking 
advantage of high interest in 
aircraft. During the second year of 
the war, .. our Pr imary Department 
over-reached the goal which had been 
set. The five classrooms purchased 
Stamps and Bonds well over $1000" (p. 
60). The story of the success of war 
stamp and war bond sales was reported 
often. 

Defense/War Savings efforts 
nationwide represented an overwhelming 
success. Some of these programs were 
recounted by Judy Graves (1942), a 
staff member for the Treasury 
Department. Graves noted school 
children f s vigorous participation in 
.. Stamp Days, Stamp Week, Defense 
Savings plays, Radio programs, 
assemblies, parades, rallies, and 
pageants" (p.18). Stamps and Bonds 
were also reported to be given as 
scholarships upon maturity; as 
memorials to schools; and as prizes in 
essay, poster, and speech contests. 
Sample slogans provided by children 
included " A dime a day to keep the 
Japs away", "Stamp out the Axis". and 
"Buy a stamp and lick the other side" 
(p. 18). Graves highlighted, too, the 
stamp-selling campaign in one 
unidentified midwestern city by noting 
that, once organized, "the city's 
seventy thousand school children were 
soon buying $6,000 worth of stamps a 
week. At the end of school year 
1941-42, $81,000,000 sales of War 
Bonds and War Stamps in schools was 
reported in a Childhood Education 
editorial. Nancy Larrick (1944) , a 
Treasury Department staff member, 
reported that "by January 1943, at 
least 90 percent of the country's 
200,000 schools" were sell 
and bonds with a total amount .. 

39 

over $300 million in War Savings" (pp 
41-42). 

School administrators also 
encouraged war bond and stamp sales 
in their districts and in individual 
schools. Jesse O. Sanderson (1943), 
superintendent of schools, Raleigh, 
North Carolina, revealed that 
"Hayes-Barton Elementary School, with 
an enrollment of 600 pupils, purchased 
365 bonds, the largest number of any 
of the schools" (p. 23) . In 
Cincinnati, Ohio, war stamp sales took 
place once a week, according to John 
F. Locke (1943), director of community 
relations. He reported over $200,000 
worth of stamps sold in the initial 
campaign, begun January 13, 1942 until 
the close of summer school. Louis 
Nusbaum (1943), associate 
superintendent of schools in 
Philadelphia, reported that "since the 
first of last year, a total of over 
$3,000,000 worth of bonds and stamps 
has been sold" (p. 23) Unmistakably, 
school children were persuasive 
salespeople. Perhaps the success of 
their community efforts and 
achievement of quality citizenship 
traits were best synthesized by 
Treasury Department staffer Nancy 
Larrick, "In every instance, the 
schools came through. They helped 
their town make its quota and learned 
the lessons of War Savings, civics, 
and cooperation in the process" (1942, 
p. 42) 

Scrap/Salvage Collection Drives 

Elementary school children joined 
with older boys and girls in a display 
of their loyalty and exemplary 
citizenship to the United States by 
participating in their schools' 
salvage programs. Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts school superintendent 
Edward J. Russell (1942) described 
this organization and implementation 
role of his schools as one "to achieve 
unity - unity in thought and action 
for the American people through the 
medium of their children" (p. 27). 
The Pittsfield Schools undertook a 
salvage program for collection of 
paper, rubber, metals, and rags. 
"Schools were designated as salvage 
centers and the community was 
subjected, through the children, to a 
barrage of (p. 
27) . According to , in just 
two weeks of implementation, the 
project received widespread community 
support from the adult population. He 
attributed the success of the salvage 

to Pittsfield's children. 
.. It pays to wait parents have 
been literal 

their 



children. Consequently, new salvage 
operations (such as fat conservation 
and tin-can processing) are not 
launched until the children thoroughly 
understand the project and are ready 
to interest their parents in it" (pp. 
27, 38). The Pittsfield salvage 
program appeared to have been 
successful, probably like countless 
others nationwide, because of the 
groundswell support of administrators, 
teachers, pupils, and community 
members. Through practical 
application of cooperation, sharing, 
willingness to work, and working for a 
common cause, young Americans received 
first-hand experience in the workings 
of democracy by way of these school 
sponsored, curricular activities. 

Cooperation with the government's 
request for systematic collection of 
scrap came from schools of all sizes. 
Many examples attest to schools' 
involvement. One merits special 
attention. The efforts of a 
one-teacher school in Tennessee grew 
to include the entire community and 
were reported by Norman Frost (1942), 
professor of rural education at George 
Peabody College for Teachers. First, 
teacher and pupils researched such 
questions as Why is waste paper 
needed? and What will be done with the 
paper collected? Students surveyed 
and mapped their community, 
interviewed community leaders, planned 
and implemented bi-monthly 
collections, secured scales, and wrote 
monthly reports for the community 
newspaper. Benefits of the school's 
waste paper drive, according to Frost, 
included growth in understanding, 
thinking, feeling, and patriotism. 
The wartime collection of scrap became 
an integral element of the school's 
social studies education. 

Early evidence of the success of 
school salvage drives came in October 
1942s The National Elementary 
Principal. "The elementary schools of 
this nation have never failed to help 
in an emergency. When paper was 
needed, we did so well that the call 
came to 'Hold offl'to (p. 64). An 
appeal followed in the journal for 
metal scraps. Childhood Education 
reported in the same month, October 
1942, that 162,000 tons of waste paper 
were collected by schools during the 
1941-42 school year. Salvage drive 
results in just one school, Hampden 
School No. 55 in Baltimore, were 
reported by principal Marie E. Wallace 
(1943) for the school year 1942-43: 

Sold more than $23,000 worth of 
stamps and bonds. 
Collected six truck loads of scrap 
metal. 

40 

Collected more than a thousand wire 
coat hangers and gave them to the 
Salvation Army. 
Collected more than two thousand 
old phonograph records. (p.33) 

Wallace also explained the formation 
of seven school committees to oversee 
school war work for the 1943-44 school 
year. Salvage activities were 
relegated to the Clean-Up-Committee 
which was also responsible for the 
appearance of the school building. 

Additional successful scrap drive 
projects were reported by W.W. D. 
Sones (1942), professor of education, 
University of Pittsburgh, and Margaret 
Noel (1944), fifth grade teacher in 
the Training School, State Teachers 
College, Fredonia, New York. 
According to Sones, Winnetka schools 
gathered enough scrap metal for two 
medium tanks. School children in 
Chicago collected over one hundred 
thousand tons of wastepaper in just 
five weeks. Bloomington, Illinois 
youngsters collected enough automobile 
license plates, 2,427 sets, to provide 
material for a small tank. Noel 
(1944) reported the success of the 
scrap metal, paper, rubber, rags, 
cordage, used light bulb, and tin can 
collections at her school. According 
to Noel, the collection drives were 
successful, not because of the amounts 
salvaged, but because every child had 
the opportunity to participate and 
feel useful. Social studies 
teachers promoted, organized, and 
administered countless salvage and 
scrap drives throughout World War II. 
They did so for many reasons. First, 
the government made frequent requests 
for teachers to participate in 
organized scrap collection campaigns. 
Second, social studies teachers 
desired taking advantage of a unique 
call to action, one which would extend 
beyond the classroom and into the 
community. Social studies teachers 
seized the opportunity to motivate 
their youngsters and extend 
citizenship education into a practical 
dimension. Social studies instruction 
was advanced far beyond classroom 
walls during the war because it was 
based in a fresh reality for a new 
generation of Americans. Through 
their social studies teachers, young 
citizens felt a keen sense of 

ibil to their nation. 
drives and similar promotions 

were a success because they could-and 
did-engage every student to do his 
patriotic duty. 

Economics, Rationing, Conservation: 
Wartime Civilian Life and the Schools 



As the hardships of wartime 
civilian living increased, social 
studies teachers were encouraged to 
include economics and conservation 
units of study in their curriculum. 
Rationing, when it became 
commonplace, was added to the social 
studies curriculum. 

During the summer of 1942, the 
Office of Price Administration held 
teacher training workshops across the 
nation for a week or more (Davis, 
1981). One to five day workshops were 
held in 177 locations. Workshop 
reports published in the July 1943 
issue of The Teachers College Journal 
revealed that "social studies teachers 
in many cities are having pupils study 
inflationary dangers, price control, 
and rationing through the use of 
current newspapers and magazines" (p. 
131) • Price control and rationing 
were urged as topics of study for 
every grade level. 

Teachers, supervisors, and 
administrators studied elementary 
school contributions to battle 
inflation and establish economic 
literacy at 1943 summer workshops held 
at the University of California at Los 
Angeles (Isle, 1943). Wartime 
economic purposes for elementary 
schools included: 

- To develop understanding of why 
scarce goods are rationed 
- To help elementary pupils make 
the most of available goods and 
services 
- To help make elementary pupils 
wise buyers 

To help elementary pupils do 
their part in maintaining price 
rationing and rationing regulations 
(p. 29). 

specific social-studies teaching 
activities were advocated. They 
included making maps and charts of 
sources of supplies, conversion of 
industries to wartime needs and uses 
of salvaged materials; classifying 
materials critical to the war effort; 
health studies; and plans for 
recreational activities not requiring 
use of automobiles (and gasoline 
consumptions). Evidence from several 
local schools noted use of some, if 
not all, of these instructional ideas. 

Elementary social studies teacher 
also taught about rubber shortages 
and ways of dealing with the problem 
to the benefit of the community. For 
example, Alvin C. Eurich (1942), 
director of consumer division, Office 
of Price Administration, revealed that 
a California school a 
clothing whereby children 
could outgrown rubbers, 

41 

boots, shoes, and clothing for those 
of another size. The Radnor Township 
schools in Wayne, Pennsylvania, also 
initiated a Rubber Garment Exchange 
(Sones, 1942). There, a clearinghouse 
for outgrown galoshes, rubbers I and 
raincoats was organized for 
redistribution to smaller children. 
In Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, former 
second grade teacher Ellen H. Kitler 
(1942) provided a detailed plan by 
which teachers could initiate similar 
rubber exchanges. She included a 
letter to parents which she suggested 
that teachers copy. It explained the 
purposes of the exchange I suggested 
lessons in care of rubber clothing and 
galoshes. She also suggested 
additional unit plan ideas on rubber 
conservation and synthetic rubber. 
Likewise, the first grade students of 
Julia O'Brien (1943), in Garden City, 
New York, learned about scarcities in 
their everyday lives through daily 
discussion time. According to 
O'Brien, her children came to 
understand "how to get enough food and 
supplies for our armies here and 
overseas, how to get enough food for 
our allies, and how to get enough food 
for our own people" (p. 31). Topics 
of discussion included food 
conservation; the effects of rationing 
milk, butter and meat; and speculation 
about possible shoe rationing. 

Extremely practical methods of 
studying the economics of rationing 
were practiced in a wide variety of 
ways in many of the nation's schools. 
principal Ella S. Beall (1943) of 
Baltimore's Betsy Ross School No. 68 
reported, "Several classes were very 
much interested in the rationing 
program of the country. They learned 
the products that had to be rationed 
and the reasons that made such 
measures necessary. They set up 
stores in their classrooms, made play 
ration books, and practiced making 
purchases using both money and the 
correct stamps and point values. The 
care of shoes and clothing was 
stressed" (po 24). School No. 122 in 
New York City was portrayed "Studying 
Food Rationing" in the June 1943 issue 
of Grade Teacher. Four photographs 
depicted students in their school 
store explaining the pOint system, 

coupons from ration books, 
and foodstuffs. The second 
grade class of Glenn Morris (1943) 
determined to the war effort in 
another manner. During a class 
discussion, a photograph of parachutes 
and the number of women' s stockings 
needed to make one parachute prompted 
a decision to study nylon and silk. 
Children also agreed to save enough 

to make a parachute and to 



learn more about paratroopers and 
conservation. Although the results of 
the class project were not reported, 
stated objectives of the unit of study 
likely promoted sensible patriotism, 
enriched character training, and 
acquisition of the ability to work 
together. Second grade teacher Luella 
Herbst, Irving School, Bozeman, 
Montana, organized a realistic grocery 
store in her classroom. Ration points 
were clearly displayed with all foods, 
and students used facsimiles of ration 
books to buy and sell grocery items. 
The aim of the project, to realize 
patient cooperation, appeared to be 
taking place in the two accompanying 
photographs (Pletsch, 1944). 

An unusual type of collection drive 
was described in the September 1944 
issue of Grade Teacher in "Milkweed in 
the War. " The government asked 
children to assist in the collection 
of milkweed fiber to be used as a 
substitute for kapok in life jackets 
and aviator's suits. Supply lines for 
kapok importation from Java were 
blocked by Japanese forces, and a 
suitable replacement had been found in 
milkweed. Useful information about 
how to find, recognize, collect, dry, 
and store milkweed pods were given. 
Several photographs accompanied the 
narrative, including one of pupils 
from a school in Belmont County, Ohio 
displaying their collection and 
closeups of the plant to aid 
recognition. Collection stories from 
three schools in Utah and Michigan 
were presented. An Indian training 
schools' pupils in northwest Utah 
collected enough milkweed to make 50 
life jackets. A school in Michigan 
achieved its goal of collecting enough 
floss to supply a life jacket for 
every Armed Forces member from their 
community. Another Michigan school 
had a milkweed picnic and harvested 
enough pods to buy school supplies, 
war bonds, and gifts for the Red 
Cross. 

Collection drives went hand in hand 
with conservation studies. Lillian O. 
Bahr (1943) , sixth grade critic 
teacher at State Teachers College, Eau 
Claire, Wisconsin, described her 
class' study of the effect of the war 
on farming, industry, and home life. 
Class members studied the history of 
farming, factors that affect farming, 
and how the war had changed farming. 
Study of a local industry, an 
egg-powder plant, added to the class' 
inquiry into commerce and new 
technology. A segment on home life 
followed. Typical activities included 
reading books and reporting on farm 
duties, discussing of labor 
and raised two area 

42 

plants converted to defense work, and 
visiting a farm. Bahr claimed that 
the major objective, to help children 
adjust their daily living to the 
requirements of war, was achieved. 
Another conservation unit prepared by 
Paul Hensarling, principal of Franklin 
Elementary School in Port Arthur, 
Texas, reported topics for discussion, 
research activities, practice 
activities, and creative activities. 
He reported that all fifteen hundred 
children in his school participated in 
discussion groups. Topics discussed 
included care of personal belongings; 
kinds of thrift measures to be taken 
at home and at school; and saving 
school supplies, money, and scrap for 
the war effort. Pupils also 
experienced thrift measures by 
conserving paper, keeping a scrap box, 
using old newspapers, and harvesting a 
Victory Garden. Creative activities 
included writing plays and poems, 
making scrapbooks of newspaper 
clippings, and making conservation 
posters. Such studies fit 
conveniently into the unit or project 
approach to classroom curriculum. 

Enlivened attention was drawn to 
the nation's natural resources as 
supplies became shorted and were 
rationed. When oil and gas, rubber, 
coal, and agricultural products were 
rationed, some teachers planned units 
of study for their social studies 
classes to highlight shortages and the 
necessity of civilian rationing. "The 
Study of Coal" (Watrous, 1945), for 
example, provided useful information 
to teachers about the properties of 
coal, how coal was mined, and uses of 
coal. Two pages of photographs 
accompanied the informational 
narrative. These photographs depicted 
the safety features of a Pennsylvania 
coalminer's uniform, anthracite 
miners, and the transportation of coal 
by rail. Teacher Esther Z. Schwartz 
(1943, 1945) wrote two articles 
promoting the conservation of rubber. 
She described several practical 
applications initiated by her class' 
study of rubber production and 
synthetic rubber. These included care 
for rubber articles, mending torn 
rubber items, and repairing bicycle 
tires, certainly matters within 
children's experiences. She advocated 
emphasis on home articles and their 
care. Several topics generated for 
discussion included the cost of 
producing rubber, the prospects for 
post-war production, and the growing 
use of plastics as a replacement for 
rubber. In the midst of the war I 
teachers were asked to enforce strict 
school rules concerning care of school 
equipment and supplies. Since "much 



of school play apparatus and equipment 
is made from priority materials" 
(Peavy, 1943, p. 58), teachers should 
teach regular lessons about proper 
care of play equipment and supplies, 
as well as concern for the care of 
articles of personal clothing made 
from priority materials. 

Wartime inflation was surely on 
teachers minds, but little evidence 
points to elementary school children 
studying about this phenomenon. In 
fact, only one article advocated that 
children be taught more about 
inflation than learning the mere 
principles and practices of food, gas, 
and clothing rationing. James E. 
Mendenhall (1945) , Chief of 
Educational Services, Office of Price 
Administration, compared inflation 
during World War I with that of World 
War II (97% during World War I as 
compared to 29% during World War II). 
According to Mendenhall, prices were 
held in check by government controls, 
and he encouraged teachers to continue 
lessons and projects related to 
rationing and price control. School 
children embraced difficult economic 
hardships with vigor. They were 
encouraged by their social studies 
teachers to understand the basic 
reasons necessitating rationing. 
Indeed, some teachers planned 
elaborate projects to give meaning 
about the larger economy to their 
students. Learning about rationing 
and shortages of raw materials and 
accepting those shortages cheerfully 
was one method by which children could 
show their patriotism. Participating 
in various forms of community service 
activities was another. 
Civics Education/Community Service 

The elementary school social 
studies curriculum of the era featured 
a formal program of studies from 
family to school and community for 
young children. Reflecting Hanna' s 
"expanding environments" schema 
(Hanna, 1987), this curriculum 
organization introduced children to 
topics believed meaningful to them in 
their early years. World War II 
precipitated a small change in 
emphasis from simply informing 
children about family, horne, school 
and community to creating in children 
a desire to offer their service to 
their families and communities as part 
of their civic duty. 

Children's civic duty was conceived 
in various ways by educators. For 
example, principal Maud Frothingham 
Roby (1943) wrote, "Our responsibility 
lies largely in strengthening the horne 
front" (p. 267) _ to Roby, 
teachers should encourage pupils 

43 

to assume "their share of the 
responsibility in the horne for the 
care of younger children, for 
household duties, and the running of 
errands" (p. 268). M. Flavia Taylor 
(1943), social studies teacher, 
Hamil ton Junior High School, McKees 
Rocks, Pennsylvania, explained horne 
responsibility. Primary school 
children were to help with work at 
horne to free their parents for wartime 
duties and were to be obedient in 
order that their parents and other 
adults could conduct their 
responsibilities efficiently_ In 
Baltimore, teachers were advised by 
assistant superintendent Mary A. Adams 
(1942) to emphasize that "the people 
of Baltimore must adjust effectively 
to the changes resulting from the 
tremendous impact of the war program 
of this city" (p. 14). For elementary 
pupils, this meant engaging in horne 
and family duties. Children were to 
understand the increased work 
responsibilities of their parents and 
to help at horne with arrangements for 
blackouts and safety. Similarly, J. 
Edward Bond (1942) stressed horne 
safety and preparedness as a part of 
pupils' civic responsibilities. New 
York University Center for Safety 
Education instructor, H. Louise 
Cottrell (1942) also emphasized 
several civilian defense duties of 
school children in a unit of study. 
Pupils were encouraged to oversee 
preparation of first aid kits for air 
raid shelters and learn blackout 
procedures for their homes. Cottrell 
provided checklists for horne safety 
inspections as well as lists of foods 
which could be gathered for horne use 
in time of emergency. The social 
nature of civic and community 
education was promoted by Daisy 
Parton, an education professor at the 
University of Alabama. She endorsed 
providing children with various work 
and group living experiences, such as 
"raising and caring for animals, 
cultivating flowers and vegetables, 
arranging and caring for materials in 
the classroom, making and keeping the 
surroundings clean and attractive, 
collecting needed salvage, preparing 
and serving food, selling wanted 
articles, conserving materials and 
property, and caring for and helping 
younger children" (p. 162). 

school students were not to 
in the uncertainties and 
wart ime . They were to 

simply to study about, 
"community helpers." Perhaps the 
frankest explanation for involving 
elementary children in home, school, 
and activities, was offered 
by Harold A. 



Shaterian, "war activities 
provide an opportunity for developing 
good public relations the 
elementary schools can be the link 
between the school and all the people, 
for it is the elementary school which 
reaches the greatest number of parents 
in the community" (1943, p. 34). 

One of the regularly -appearing 
features in American Childhood, 
"Lessons in Social Studies· focused on 
the concept of personal responsibility 
(Hanthorn, 1942). In one, a lesson 
for children to read aloud was 
provided with the text: 

us. 

Our country is at war. 
That means there is danger. 
We boys and girls are brave. 
We can obey orders. 
We can look after ourselves. 
We know just what to do. 
And we will do it. 
Mother does not have to look after 

We will help little children, too. 
We can take responsibility (p.S). 

Along with oral reading, teachers were 
encouraged to utilize discussion 
periods with suggested topics "I Play 
in Safe Places", "How I Help Care for 
My Little Sister", and "Soldiers Obey 
Orders". According to Hanthorn, 
"When a child has honestly mastered 
some selfish impulse and replaced it 
with an act of obedience, much has 
been accomplished toward real 
citizenship" (p.S). 

Community service endeavors were a 
tangible means by which children could 
give aid to their immediate 
surroundings. In doing so, boys and 
girls undoubtedly helped keep morales 
high on the home front through their 
enthusiasm. Their community projects, 
initiated in social studies classes, 
called attention to the need for the 
larger society to remain positive, 
enthusiastic, and active in 
conservation and defense savings 
efforts. Giving service to the 
community was clearly understood to 
promote "good" citizenship. 

Loyal Americans: Citizenship 
Education 

Much attention was accorded the 
symbolic aspects of ism in 
citizenship education the war 
years. For example, "Our Flag" I an 
exemplary patriotic unit of study, was 
created by Sylvia Stark and Velma H. 
Orner (1943). Citing high interest 
created through their children's 
Victory campaign work as an impetus I 
the social studies teachers planned 

44 

and implemented the patriotic unit. 
Several objectives were identified: 

To make better citizens of our youth 
and to instill the respect due our 
flag. 

To present the history of our flag, 
the origin of Flag Day, and what 
stars, stripes and colors in the 
flag mean. 

To know correct form in using and 
displaying the flag. 

To learn more about how to respect our 
flag. 

To learn the "Pledge of Allegiance" 
and the "American's Creed." 

To learn our national and patriotic 
songs and what such means to a 
country (p. 36). 

A wide assortment of activities helped 
achieve the unit objectives, such as a 
field trip to an army camp to witness 
a flag ceremony and to a state 
historical museum to view different 
flags; a display of library books 
about the flag; and collection of 
flags brought from home by pupils. 
Additionally, children were encouraged 
to make posters showing proper display 
of the flag; to write original poems 
and stories; to listen to stories 
about the flag; to learn various 
patriotic songs; and to make 
scrapbooks displaying their unit of 
work. Provided, too, were unit 
culminating activities which included 
production of a patriotic pageant and 
a twenty-five item unit test, and two 
bibliographies for teachers and 
children. 

During a period of classroom focus 
upon highly symbolic elements of 
citizenship education, much attention 
was afforded the flag salute and 
activities such as those carried on by 
Stark and Omer (1943). The right of 
American citizens not to participate 
in the flag salute was decided by the 
Supreme Court in a landmark case, W. 
Virginia State Board of Education v. 
Barnett (1943). Even in a time of 
crisis in the United States, the civil 
rights of its citizens were upheld. 

Patriotic pageants and plays 
regularly appeared in journals for 
elementary school teachers, and their 
number and sense of increased 
as the war Dramatic 

variety of 
, ion of 

nation's of 
the war effort conservat and 
selling war One play, "The 
Women of the Revolution" (Coffin, 
1943) f was particularly unusual for 
the time in its of women. 
Teacher Eleanor () allowed 
her "Miss America" character to convey 



changing attitudes in the play "We Who 
Serve. n "Miss America" opened the 
play with conviction, "Only a few 
months ago, I was a symbol for peace 
and harmony. Now I stand for strength 
and preparedness." 

Another play intended to encourage 
patriotism and "help children to 
evaluate their own part in a total 
war" was "They Also Serve" by Alma 
Nelson Moscati (1943), a teacher in 
Public School No. 27, Jersey City, New 
Jersey. In this play, an assortment 
of flowers and insects conferred with 
Mother Nature about their part in the 
war effort. Another type of patriotic 
play contributed practical suggestions 
about ways to participate in Victory 
work at home. Children and their 
parents who viewed such plays as itA 
Soldier Hears From Home" by Pearl 
Laushel, a second grade teacher at 
Goodrich School in Akron, Ohio, surely 
heard the message that their duty was 
wholeheartedly to participate in the 
war effort. The drama's action 
highlighted Joe and Gary, soldiers who 
are reading a letter from Joe's 
family. Back home, Joe's family was 
"doing their bit" to help the war 
campaign, such as going without meat 
and butter, working to buy stamps and 
bonds, and collecting scrap. 

Elementary social studies teachers 
found ways other than the production 
of plays to help their pupils learn 
lessons of good citizenship. Many 
teachers likely utilized methods such 
as having their children carefully 
copy wartime sentiments and 
information during "seatwork" time. 
Reproducible "seatwork" lessons 
regularly appeared in The Instructor, 
and often their themes were 
war-related or related to traits that 
make exemplary young citizens. For 
example, second grade teacher 
Josephine Bristol Beck (1943), at 
Barnum School, Birmingham, Michigan, 
provided "Seatwork on War Stamps." 
The lesson was divided into four 
segments for "Yes or No Answers," 
"Fill in the Blank Sentences," and 
"Circle Correct Words." Children were 
to answer "Yes" or "No" to statements 
such as: 

We can buy War stamps at school. 
We buy as many War stamps as we can. 
There are some one-cent War 
Ten-cent War Stamps are brown. 
It is patriotic to War Stamps. 
We put War 

(p. 9). 

In the "Circle Correct Words" 
children were instructed to a 
circle around the words that you could 
find in a War Stamp album," and 

45 

could choose from words such as 
airplane, stamp, defense, pond, lamp, 
milk, postal, bond, affix, savings, 
coastal, and value. "Primary Patriotic 
Seatwork", another example, was 
reported by Elsie Sprunk (1943), a 
teacher in the public school of 
Bayard, New Mexico. For one segment, 
pupils studied the flag pictured, 
colored the flag, and crossed out the 
wrong numbers in the following 
statements: 

The flag has (7, 10) red stripes. 
The flag has (4, 6) white stripes. 
The flag has (48, 50) stars. 

(p.lO) 

Children also were to observe three 
soldiers pictured and "draw a line 
under the sentences that are right": 

The soldiers have on coats. 
The soldiers are running. 
The soldiers stand straight. 
Two soldiers have guns. 
The soldiers have hats 

(p. 10) 

Even though these sentiments use 
militaristic examples and are somewhat 
unsophisticated, teachers who required 
such activities certainly believed 
that they were contributing to the 
development of appropriately patriotic 
sentiments in their students. 

Patriotic activities which would 
encourage good citizenship and good 
character development were believed to 
be extremely important to the 
maintenance of high civilian morale 
during the war years. Social studies 
teachers enjoyed an enthusiastic, 
supportive audience eager to aid the 
nation's fighting men. Lesson 
planning most likely included regular 
emphasis upon war themes, in small, 
daily activities such as flag rituals 
and singing patriotic songs, and in 
large, ambitious, projects such as 
salvage and scrap campaigns, war bond 
and war stamp sales, Victory gardens, 
and pageants. Important lessons, such 
as understanding life in a democracy 
and the interdependence of citizens in 
a democracy, were included in large 
units of study. Just as important, 
however, were seemingly insignificant 
rituals of patriotic songs, 
of doing patriotic seatwork, and of 
learning to work together in group 

ects. 

Geography: A Renewed Emphasis in the 
Social Studies 

"On December 
discovered 
David Koch (1 

7, 1941, America 
claimed G. 



of geography at Indiana State Teachers 
College. Koch reported a renewed 
interest in geography studies as the 
global war accelerated. William S. 
Miller (1944) noted that just before 
and since Pearl Harbor, the demand for 
world globes had "exceeded the ability 
of all globe factories to meet 
requirements" (p. 25). Of course, 
geography experts realized that public 
interest in geography largely resulted 
from of personal interest in the 
locations of war actions and related 
to the welfare of loved ones and 
acquaintances. Yet, even with an 
acknowledged personal stake in 
acquiring knowledge about location or 
place geography, Americans were 
believed by some to be facing a great 
challenge, even a crisis in the 
curriculum area of geography in a 
world preparing for postwar needs 
(Miller, 1944, p. 25). Koch (1944) 
stormed that "the people of the United 
States are geographically illiterate" 
(p. 32). He was joined in his battle 
cry by W.M. Gregory of the School of 
Education, Western Reserve University, 
Cleveland: "Our common knowledge of 
foreign affairs upon which to build 
any policy is close to nil" (1943, p. 
474) • 

Geography was widely touted to be a 
basic necessity for coming peacetime 
needs. Monica H. Kusch (1942), a 
teacher in the Washington School of 
Chicago Heights, Illinois, stressed 
that,to make a lasting peace and a 
fruitful present, pupils "must know 
the conditions existing in all regions 
of the world. They must know the 
geography of the whole world" (p. 25). 
Many experts sought a metamorphosis of 
existing static geography courses into 
an active study of how the world's 
people use their environment in 
addition to the generally understood 
matters of names, places, directions, 
regions, and climates. Koch (1944), 
assistant professor of geography at 
Indiana State Teachers College, asked 
that future geography instruction 
concern itself with "all these 
features, both cultural and physical, 
which affect man's adjustments to his 
natural surroundings" (p. 32) . To 
help achieve this metamorphosis, the 
use of essential geographic tools, 
including globes, geo-political maps, 
textbooks, mot ion pictures, posters, 
charts, and pictures were emphasized 
(e.g. ,Gregory, 1943). Thomas M. 
Gilland(1943), of Noss 
Laboratory School Teachers 
College, California, Pennsylvania, 
cautioned teachers to be thoughtful 
and discriminating in their use of 

, periodicals or books, and 
radio broadcasts and 

46 

pictures because of inaccurate 
information which might exist in those 
materials. 

During prewar years, geography was 
limited mainly to elementary schools 
and school geography was characterized 
by major attention to names of places. 
Apparently, wartime recognition of 
inadequacies included deficiencies in 
the scope of place geography (many 
parts of the world had been studied 
too little and superficially - e.g., 
Far East, Africa) and in the random 
assignment of school geography to the 
elementary schools. Thus, the wartime 
argument for an increased geography 
called a) for more substantial 
geography - place, environmental and 
historical geography and b) the 
expansion of geography offerings to 
the high school and college levels. 

The "journey geography" concept of 
introducing various countries into 
social studies education by reading 
stories about the children living 
there continued somewhat during the 
period. During World War II, 
geography instruction was highlighted 
in Grade Teacher in more than twenty 
articles. Not surprisingly, only 
Allied nations were foci for study. 
In addition to the usual unit of study 
articles, "Modern Objective Tests" 
were provided with a featured country 
as focus. The Instructor carried 
geography-related articles in almost 
every issue from December 1941 to 
April 1945. Social Education included 
several articles about Latin America 
during the war years. Even The 
Harvard Educational Review published 
six geography-related articles between 
1943 and 1945. 

"Air Age" education was a recurrent 
theme in World War II-era textbooks. 
Early in the war, Human Geography for 
the Air Age (Render, 1942) emphasized 
the "wholeness" of geography study as 
a result of air transportation and 
cautioned against unsequenced 
instruction. By 1943, some mention of 
the war was surfacing in geography 
textbooks. For example, Exploring Our 
World (Barnes and Beck, 1943) included 
a short paragraph in its chapter about 
Japan. Chapters eight and nine of 
Toward New Frontiers of Our Global 
World (Englehardt, 1943) related to 
"The First Air War. n In Making the 
Goods We Need (Hanna, Quillen, and 
Sears, 1943), one was devoted 
to an factory and the 
construction of aircraft. Written to 
foster se1f- direction, cooperation, 
creativeness, social sensitivity, and 
critical thinking, the 

routes 
265) • 

highlighted "the 



(Hankins, 1944) featured the 
development of air travel as it 
related to the war situation. By 
1944, several texts were published 
with specific emphasis upon the war. 
Nations Beyond the Seas (Atwood and 
Thomas, 1944) provided a "war 
supplement" of twenty-one pages. Our 
Air-Age World: A Textbook in Global 
Geography (Packwood, Overton, and 
Wood, 1944) devoted its second of 
eight parts to "The United States in a 
Global War. Of A very primary look at 
World War II and its causes was found 
in Our Country's Story (Cavanagh, 
1945). It claimed, 

In some parts of the world, 
millions of men, women, and 
children were not free. During 
World War II, German and Japanese 
soldiers marched into one country 
after another. When a country was 
conquered, the people had to do 
whatever the soldiers told them. 
If they did not obey, they might be 
killed. 'We shall conquer the 
earth,' the leaders of the soldiers 
bragged. 'Everyone else in the 
world will be our slaves.' Then 
the Americans knew that they would 
have to fight again for freedom 
(pp. 68-69). 

Fortunately, most textbooks did not 
share such a narrow view of the world 
crisis and the causes for World War 
II. 

The social studies in elementary 
schools emerged during World War II as 
a curriculum field of prominence. 
During the war years, social studies 
enjoyed important activity and utility 
as it likely never had before. The 
practices reported symbolically and 
rhetorically argued for attention to 
the war in schools. Attention to 
geography, history, and citizenship 
education, heightened in the prewar 
years, increased in scope from 
1941-1945. Victory and defense 
savings campaigns, initiated by the 
United states government but often 
implemented by social studies 
teachers, were overwhelmingly 
successful. Social studies pupils 
were energized with information 
previously unknown before the air 
Geography and history received 
benefits of added interest in war 
locations and causes for the conflict. 
Called into service to collect scrap, 
sell bonds and stamps, conserve 
resources, and maintain good 
citizenship traits and high morale, 
social studies pupils and their 
teachers activated for victory. 

47 

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49 


