The effect of the baby boom on the schools helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education in the 1920's. In the 1920's, but especially in the Depression of the 1930's, the United States experienced a【C1】______ birth rate. Then with the prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it, young people married and【C2】______ households earlier and began to【C3】______ larger families than had their【C4】______ during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106. 2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955.【C5】______ economics was probably the most important determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed【C6】______ the idea of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming -【C7】________ the first grade by the mid-1940's and became a flood by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself 【C8】______ . The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945.【C9】______ , large numbers of teachers left their profession during that period for better-paying jobs elsewhere. 【C10】______ , in the 1950's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the custodial rhetoric of the 1930's no longer made sense; keeping youths ages sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children.