1920s education

The 1920s was a great time of change for the United States. There were many advances in the time in areas such as religion, recreation and more, but today i will be focusing on the category of education. One of the most notable successes of the 20s was America’s economic prosperity, with more jobs, more money, and the new middle class. The middle class was made up of Americans working mainly white collar jobs, that was due to the rise in education at the time. Over the decade of the 1920s the number of high school students doubled from 2.2 million to more than 5 million, along with the college and universities attendance which tripled from 600000 in 1918 to 1.2 million in 1930. Due to the large change at the time, education provided the modern economy the skills it demanded in fields such as management, engineering, and economics. The rise in middle income jobs provided the government with more tax money, which in turn helped improve the already growing education system.  Due to students of the same age being grouped together at schools and colleges, a new social group was formed, distinct to the period of adolescence. The new period not only provided students with a time and place to prepare for the workplace but also as a area to develop themselves in ways such as social groups, hobbies, and interests. A large increase in activities such as fraternities, sororities, and organized sports helped shape the view of college that many of us have today. The 20s was the time of some of the most famous authors in existence such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. And while many of the authors might not have been young enough to receive an education from the new system, it provided them with a much larger customer base due to more people being able to read. With the popularity of learning growing, scientist were given a greater opportunity to share their learnings, one in particular being the english naturalist, Charles Darwin. With more people understanding science, Darwin’s theories of evolution gained support, causing issues with those defending traditional faith, also known as fundamentalist. The fundamentalist followed the bible literally, meaning science clearly went against their beliefs such as Adam and Eve. The issue caused numerous debates such as the famous Scopes trial, which helped put an end to the fundamentalists theories, but in the end was also connected to learning. Without the new education system of the 1920s, the decade would not have been the time of prosperity and change it is seen as today, in turn changing the economically prosperous country we know today.