Analysis: Don't Make Slaves of Future Generations

Date: March 27, 1942

Author: Irving T. McDonald

Genre: speech

Summary Overview

In this speech given at the Annual Conference of Directors of Physical Education of the Massachusetts Public Schools, Irving T. McDonald—the librarian at Holy Cross College in Worcester—addressed public school physical education (PE) teachers, urging them to take advantage of their unique relationship with their students in the “informality of the gym and the hotly contested rivalry of the playing field.” PE teachers provided a model of health and strength that made them particularly effective role models, claims McDonald. In his speech he argues that these teachers were heroes to their students and, therefore, had a special responsibility not only to support the war effort but also to prepare the generation that would lead the world after the war. This speech was intended to energize the audience and to inspire them to lead their students; it also served to bolster the idea that teachers were a key part of the path to victory, an important message at a time when teachers were leaving the classroom in droves to join the armed forces or to pursue higher-paying jobs in wartime industries. In December 1944, the US commissioner on education John W. Studebaker published an article in Click magazine both bemoaning the loss of 115,000 teachers to the war and claiming that American students were receiving an inadequate education as a result. Like McDonald, Studebaker believed that winning the war was crucial but that having a generation of educated citizens ready to lead the world after the war was equally critical.

Defining Moment

In 1943, a Parents magazine article announced that “the teacher shortage threatens your child.” The war had exacerbated issues that had plagued the American education system for years, including student health, dropout rates, overcrowding, and the training and retention of qualified teachers. In addition, public expectations for American schools had never been higher, as the classroom was expected to provide a comprehensive education, support the war effort, and offer stability to children whose parents were fighting or working.

Qualified teachers were in short supply before the United States entered the war. The United States was experiencing an industrial boom, as the nation worked to supply the Allies with vital military supplies and equipment. This change in the economy created fairly high-paying jobs in industrial centers for men and women, while rural communities were hard hit. For example, in 1941, Kansas lowered teacher requirement to deal with its shortage, a strategy that was soon adopted by many states. After the United States entered the war, the situation rapidly grew worse. By 1943, two thousand rural schools were unable to open, while the teacher shortage across the nation reached seventy-five thousand. As states scrambled to keep schools open, they adjusted their requirements for teachers. Many districts allowed married women to teach for the first time and urged retired teachers to return to the classroom. Schools were consolidated, and small rural schools were closed. Subjects considered nonessential were cut, and teachers were encouraged to teach more than one subject and grade level in larger schools. Teacher wages were raised; training certificates became much easier to obtain, with summer and correspondence courses offered by many states; and existing degree requirements were waived. Still, by the end of 1944, there were over one hundred thousand teacher vacancies across the country.

As teachers fled the classroom, their students did too. Many teenagers felt that they needed to do their patriotic duty and support the war effort. Often their help was needed at home as parents worked or served in the military. Many were attracted by the lure of jobs in wartime industries; others, who had been sent from rural schools to large consolidated district schools far from home, found they were needed on their family farms.

For those who did stay in school, many high schools adjusted their curriculum to provide enhanced physical education. Before the war, physical education had focused on games and sports. After studies indicated that American teenagers were in poor shape compared to their European counterparts, PE classes began to emphasize strength and conditioning. At the same time, free or reduced-cost meal plans were offered to increase the nutrition available to students. More than six million children were part of a hot-lunch program during the war, and the government provided “penny milk,” a half-pint of milk for a penny, for all.

Author Biography

Irving T. McDonald was born in 1894. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he attended public schools, and he graduated from Holy Cross College in 1915. After a brief career as a public school teacher, he was drawn to acting and joined, and then managed, a vaudeville group that toured nationwide. He managed successful theaters in Worcester and wrote several successful plays and books in the 1920s, including a series of books for boys based on his college experience. He returned to Holy Cross in 1929 after being invited to create the Drama Department; he transferred to the English Department before being promoted to librarian. McDonald left Holy Cross in 1942 to work for the WRKO radio station in Boston and later for WEEI. He died in Florida on March 1, 1966.

Document Analysis

McDonald begins his speech to a conference of PE directors with a rousing pep talk. He tells the directors that they are performing a vital role in the war effort. They are the “potent instruments by which the salvation of our country will be effected, and the freedom of future generations made secure.” With the United States at war, McDonald notes that it is possible that the “final fight [will be] made on American soil.” McDonald argues that, though every effort must be made to win the war, it is shortsighted to think of winning the war without also training young people to lead after the war. Teachers are able and obligated to look past the immediate need to win the war because “into your hands has been confided the training of those upon whom America must depend to bring her safely, triumphantly, and worthily through the ultimate stages of this cosmic upheaval.”

McDonald makes the case that PE teachers are uniquely positioned to lead the next generation. They carry a “responsibility which can be negotiated by no other group of educators as effectively or as appropriately.” He acknowledges that this is a bold statement but argues that PE teachers have a broader duty than teachers of other subjects. They have a unique relationship with their students based on the “intimacy” found in the gymnasium and on the playing field. McDonald says that students learn “qualities of leadership” from them, and he reminds his audience that “youth is an age of hero-worship”—these PE directors are heroes to their students.

McDonald asserts that American students need to be led by teachers who are “strong in muscle as well as character… active in body as well as in mind.” He offers the example of German education, which successfully molded its youth by training both the body and the mind, though not to positive ends. McDonald argues that Americans have grown soft and that some critics have questioned whether they “still had the bone-structure, the stamina of soul and body, to do the things our fathers did—to work, to fight, sacrifice and suffer, to bleed and die.” Those who have wished that they could have shared in the great adventures of the past have been given a chance to prove themselves, says McDonald, and teachers can help by being “the custodians, examples and guides of this American generation.” When the war is won, teachers will be deserving of thanks.

Glossary

bequeath: to hand down; pass on

myrmidon: a person who does as commanded without question or scruple

patrimony: an estate inherited from one's father or ancestors; any quality or characteristic that is inherited

tincture: to impart a tint or color; tinge; to imbue or infuse with something

wastrel: a wasteful person; a good-for-nothing person

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Beevor, Antony. The Second World War. New York: Little, Brown, 2012. Digital file.

“McDonald, Irving Papers.” College of the Holy Cross Archives and Special Collections. College of Holy Cross, n.d. PDF file. 11 Feb. 2014

Ossian, Lisa L. The Forgotten Generation: American Children and World War II. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2011. Print.

Studebaker, John W. “Missing, 115,000 Teachers.” Click 7.12 (1944): 65. Print.