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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
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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 

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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