What were teachers like in america in 1945-1970?

Question

it is for my project. i need the role of the teacher.

Answer 1

Most were stern , morally upright role models for the children. many were not very well educated and had only one year of Normal School beyond high school.

Answer 2

Many were young women that were unmarried. Many married women stayed home and had children. As the need for teachers became greater, more married women stayed in the classroom.

Teachers were poorly paid. My first teaching job in 1974 was $8000 for the year! Back then, teachers had NO PLANNING PERIODS. Our teachers had to sit with us for lunch and make sure we weren't hiding the food we didn't want to eat inside our milk carton.

Our school district was so short of teachers that I was the temporary sub for the French teacher when I was a high school senior in 1970. I wasn't paid though. I lived in a very small town with a 100 square mile school district.

Answer 3

I recently read survey of teachers in the 1940s. The worst discipline problems they faced were students chewing gum in class and talking while waiting in line for something.
The teachers knew that if a kid got in trouble at school, he would be in worse trouble when he got home. Teachers were allowed to swat an unruly child on the "seat of learning" and to use soap to wash out the mouths of any student who was foolish enough to use a purple word in school.
Most of the teachers were women, since most of the able-bodied men had just returned from World War Two.
Kids respected their teachers then, did not come to school drunk or stoned, did not carry guns to school (although most of the boys had pocket-knives in their pockets).The teachers led their classes in the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, and often in a brief prayer before the day began. There were always pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in every classroom.
During the late 1950s, things began to change, and it was certainly not an improvement.
After Madelyn Murray O'Hare had prayer in school outlawed,
schools became dangerous places for students and teachers alike.

Answer 4

I would say most of them went by the book. I learned well, because I loved to learn. In 1963, I had a great teacher, I dedicated a poem to her. She had taught on an Indian reservastion. She taught us ABOUT LIFE. She told us that "If you think you are right, never let anyone make you believe you are wrong." She changed my life, and I will always be greatfull. MI. At that time, soul music and the Beatles were changing America. Kennedy was shot. I knew society was so much hyprocrycy. 4th grade. Then I got on a roll to learn things for myself. I learned most real important things by seeking it out in books not in school. The schools were too right wing conservative rich man perspective. Not the working class truth.
I tell my Grandchildren school teaches you one perspective, then you must seek out other perspectives, and decide for yourself the truth. The schools made people in history, my favorite subject, to be complete heros, with no faults. No true at all. We all are good and bad. Ex: Columbus. I would cringe at what I would see what the schools taught my children at school in history in the early 90's. Where is the truth? Facts, that's all you get. You must seek out the truth on your own, still today. But this one teacher, made us all feel like we were important, and felt cared about. It seemed like all the others were just teaching facts, not preparing us for life. That is what I think a teacher should be like. Make you feel cared about, and build you up, and let you know how fortunate you are to live in the U.S. and to have faith in yourself, and make you interested in the world around you, so you're eager to learn, what's going on, and want to understand as much as possible to navigate your way thru life. To tell us the truth. In the 60's we had drills in case of a missile attack. Can you believe that?

Answer 5

I went to school in rural northwestern PA during the 1960's and about half of the teachers were the most mean-spirited creatures I've ever met. Some of them beat children every morning. It was disgraceful child abuse.

Answer 6

Teachers in my day and age didn't have the problems that the teachers have today. Their time was spend on teaching, not on trying to teach kids that already think they know it all. Mothers were stay at home mothers, we got our upbringing at home and learning at school. Today, most Mothers have to work, and the teachers have to do it all.

Answer 7

Old and wrinkled, with grey hair. Today, in most cases, it is difficult to tell the teacher's from the students.

Answer 8

some of mine were prejudice. some were really good teachers that really cared about their students.

Answer 9

It was legal to beat the kids, or was that earlier?