| 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 1950's. In the 1920's but especially {{U}}(21) {{/U}} the Depression of the 1930's, the United States experienced a {{U}}(22) {{/U}} birth rate. Then with the prosperity {{U}}(23) {{/U}}.on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it, young people married and {{U}}(24) {{/U}} households earlier and began to {{U}}(25) {{/U}} larger families than had their {{U}}(26) {{/U}} during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106. 2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955 {{U}}(27) {{/U}} economics was probably the most important {{U}}(28) {{/U}}. it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed {{U}}(29) {{/U}} the idea of the family also helps to {{U}}(30) {{/U}} this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming {{U}}(31) {{/U}} the first grade by the mid-1940's and became a {{U}}(32) {{/U}} by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself {{U}}(33) {{/U}}. The wartime economy-meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945. {{U}}(34) {{/U}} large numbers of teachers left their profession during that period for better-paying jobs elsewhere. {{U}}(35) {{/U}}, in the 1950's and 1960's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the custodial rhetoric of the 1930's no longer made {{U}}(36) {{/U}}: keeping youths ages sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high {{U}}(37) {{/U}} for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children. With the baby boom, the focus of educators {{U}}(38) {{/U}} turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and {{U}}(39) {{/U}}. The system no longer had much {{U}}(40) {{/U}} in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths. |