1950-1980

Abstract:
This era of history in schools is one of major reform. It starts out with the preparing the baby boomers for nuclear attacks, giving them vaccines, and gearing their education toward a technologically advanced future. About half of high school graduates were now college bound and society viewed a high school diploma as a necessity. Of course these are all facts depicting the situation for white Americans. Segregation was perfectly legal according to the Plessey v Ferguson case that stated it was legal as long as the facilities were equal. This was the precedent until Linda Brown, her parents, Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP, and twelve other families brought a case to the Supreme Court. In the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas the decision was that in education segregation is inherently unequal. The way our government works is the judicial branch decides the legality of a situation but it is the executive branch that enforces those rules. School administrators and state governments could just ignore a court order. Lyndon Johnson was the president that gave the court decision some teeth when he signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. This stated that schools who were not segregated would not receive federal funding. Soon other groups started demanding equal rights. Title 9 was passed which prohibited school programs that discriminated against women. An example would be in extracurricular activities. In 1976 IDEA was passed, which is Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. So by the end of this era schools looked very different than they did in 1950.

Reflection:
I think it is amazing how in the span of 30 short years how much change and how many different people are now allowed in public schools. In the grand scheme of things this country is less than 250 years old. In the reading even children whose parents are illegal aliens are allowed to go to school. Basically this country now believes that every child of school age is allowed and should go to public school.