Going to School During the Great Depression

Children's Literature

The first open classroom experiments go way back to the 1930s, when some city schools called themselves progressive, relying on student interests and teacher freedom to drive learning. The ideas met with the same parental resistance they would meet forty years later. Most schools during the Great Depression, however, suffered from a severe lack of resources. Women were hired because they could be paid less. Rural schools often had no supplies and many children dropped out because they did not have proper clothes. By the time the New Deal was in place, though, schools were serving their first hot lunches. This book series covers schooling in six different eras and areas of American history—colonial, pioneer times, in the Confederacy, in the Union, during the Great Depression and during the civil rights movement. Each book is packed with excellent photographs or illustrations of students, teachers, classrooms and school supplies. Every picture will give students something to compare and contrast with their own experience. The narrative is textbook dry, but willing readers will find fascinating bits of information—like a map of the original Route 66 through the Dust Bowl or the fact there were often 30 to 50 students in a single classroom during the Depression. The layout is confusing, leaving the reader unclear about the separation between main text and boxed inserts. Each book in the series offers a brief but relatively thorough and easily understood explanation of the historical events of the time, as well as a short glossary, index and list of appropriate websites. It is a useful series for any classroom where the curriculum includes American history. Part of the "Going toSchool in History" series. 2002, Capstone Press, $22.60. Ages 7 to 14. Reviewer:Karen Leggett