Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T16:20:43.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Civilian Conservation Corps and American Education: Threat to Local Control?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Calvin W. Gower
Calvin W. Gower*
Affiliation:
St. Cloud State College, Minnesota
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“There is need for a shift of emphasis in the CCC. The whole concept should be that the CCC is an essential part of the American educational structure.” This statement by Clarence S. Marsh in May 1940 expressed one side of a significant controversy in American education during the 1930's and the early 1940's. The quarrel concerned the educational program of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs for youths and to aid in efforts to preserve the natural resources of the nation. Opponents of Marsh feared by the late 1930's that the school program of the CCC was an attempt to achieve federal control over the schools in an indirect and deceptive manner.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 1967 , pp. 58 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © 1967 History of Education Quarterly 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. C. S. Marsh, “The Future of the CCC,” Forum, CHI (May 1940), 287.Google Scholar

2. Congressional Record, 73d Congress, 862, 865, 879 (March 27, 1933); Irving Burton, “Experiment in Democracy,” Free America, V (May 1941), 3-4; Norman Thomas, “What Has Roosevelt Accomplished?” Nation, CXXXVI (April 12, 1933), 400; “The Peacetime Army,” New Republic, LXXIV (April 5, 1933), 202.Google Scholar

3. Statutes at Large, XLVIII, pt. 1, 22-23; Kenneth Holland and Frank Ernest Hill, Youth in the CCC (Washington, D.C., 1942), pp. 7, 27-28; James J. McEntee “Final Report of the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, April 1933, through June 30, 1942,” Record Group 35, Civilian Conservation Corps, National Archives, Washington, D.C., pp. 5-9. This group of records will be cited hereafter as: R. G. 35, National Archives.Google Scholar

4. Herman J. Muller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933–1942,” Historical Bulletin, XXVIII (March 1950), 59; “Conservation, Poor Young Men,” Time, XXXIII (February 6, 1939). 10-11; “Civilian Bosses for the CCC Urged in Youth Experts’ Study,” Newsweek, XVI (December 30, 1940), 31.Google Scholar

5. Minutes of April 27, 1933, U. S. Forest Service Committee, Vol. XII, Reference Data File, 1933–1942, 18 vols., compiled by John D. Guthrie and C. H. Tracy, 1943, R. G. 35, National Archives, no page numbers given.Google Scholar

6. Suggestions for Educational and Vocational Counselors for Forest Camps, May 1933, ibid. A detailed work on the CCC education program is: “Report of the Special Committee on Education in the Civilian Conservation Corps,” Washington, D.C., January 1939. (A 375 page mimeographed report.)Google Scholar

7. Welfare Regulations for the Civilian Conservation Corps,” May 29, 1933, ibid.; Chronological History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 7 vols., unpublished, R. G. 35, National Archives, Vol. I, Item 118, May 29, 1933.Google Scholar

8. Selected Minutes of the Advisory Council to the Director of the CCC, 1933–1942, R. G. 35, National Archives, June 14, 20, 1933.Google Scholar

9. Holland and Hill, Youth in the CCC, p. 95.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 96.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., p. 97.Google Scholar

12. Advisory Council Minutes, R. G. 35, National Archives, April 9, 1938.Google Scholar

13. Selected Documents from the Reference Data File, 1933–1942, R. G. 35, National Archives. The nine CCC corps areas are described in: Frank Ernest Hill, The School in the Camps (New York, 1935), page facing p. 1.Google Scholar

14. Chronological Index and Appendix, R. G. 35, National Archives, Item 218, December 7, 1933; Second Report of the Director of Emergency Conservation Work (Washington, 1934), p. 7.Google Scholar

15. Hill, The School in the Camps, p. 10; “Education for 300,000,” School Life, XIX (February 1934), 117; C. S. Marsh, “To C.C.C. Educational Advisers,” ibid., XX (March 1935), 163.Google Scholar

16. Third Report of the Director of Emergency Conservation Work (Washington, 1934), p. 4. (A mimeographed report this time.)Google Scholar

17. Marsh, “C.C.C. Education One Year Old,” School Life, XX (January 1935), 116.Google Scholar

18. Marsh, “To C.C.C. Educational Advisers,” ibid., XX (October 1934), 32.Google Scholar

19. Howard W. Oxley, “Cooperation with the C.C.C.” ibid., XXI (October 1935), 38.Google Scholar

20. Oxley, “Organizing for Education,” ibid., XXII (October 1936), 47; Oxley, “State Education Departments Aid C.C.C,” ibid., XXIII (November 1937), 73; “The Civilian Conservation Corps,” School and Society, XLIV (December 12, 1936), 772.Google Scholar

21. Holland and Hill, Youth in the C.C.C, pp. 153-54; “Activities of C.C.C. in 1938,” Monthly Labor Review, XLVIII (February 1939), 339; Oxley, “CCC Educational Achievements, 1938–9,” School Life, XXV (November 1939), 59.Google Scholar

22. Marsh, “To C.C.C. Educational Advisers,” ibid., XX (September 1934), 17; Chronological Index and Appendix, R. G. 35, National Archives, Item 274, June 15, 1934.Google Scholar

23. Mitchell, Jonathan, “Roosevelt's Tree Army: II,” New Republic, LXXXIII (June 12, 1935), 127.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., 128; Chronological History, R. G. 35, National Archives, Vol. III, Item 304, November 2, 1934; William F. Ogburn, You and Machines (Washington, D.C., 1934), pp. 20, 51; Paul Ellsworth Couch, Educational Emphasis in Civilian Conservation Corps Camps of the Seventh Corps Area, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, August 1944, pp. 57-59.Google Scholar

25. Edson, C A., “What's to Become of the CCC?” Forum, XCIII (April 1935), 245–47.Google Scholar

26. Farr, Henry L., “One Teacher's View of C.C.C.” School Life, XX (May 1935), 211.Google Scholar

27. Oxley, , “The Job of the Camp Adviser,” ibid., XXIII (September 1937), 24.Google Scholar

28. Marsh, , “The Future of the CCC,” Forum, CIII (May 1940), 283, 287. The NYA (National Youth Administration) was another New Deal measure designed to give aid to youth.Google Scholar

29. Lanigan, James S., “Education in the CCC: Weapon or Feint,” Education, LXI (October 1940), 91, 94.Google Scholar

30. Janney, John, “C-Boys to the Rescue,” American Magazine, CXXXI (June 1941), 101, 104.Google Scholar

31. Lukens, Fred E., “The CCC and the Schools,” Education, LXI (October 1940), 84–85; John A. Fox, “The Challenge to the CCC,” ibid., p. 66.Google Scholar

32. The Civilian Conservation Corps, The National Youth Administration, and The Public Schools (Washington, D.C. 1941), pp. 3-5, 24-25, 46-47.Google Scholar

33. Judd, Charles H., “The Real Youth Problem,” School and Society, LV (January 10, 1942), 29–33.Google Scholar

34. “The Relationship of Local Schools to Youth Work Programs,” School Review, L (February 1942), 99–101, 104.Google Scholar

35. Myers, George E., “The Relation of Local Schools to Youth Work Programs,” ibid., L (October 1942), 577, 582-83.Google Scholar