The 1920’s Education and Popular Culture

Progressive Education – John Dewey By 1914,1 million American students attended high school By 1926, 4 million high school students John Dewey introduces the idea of learn by doing-vocational ed. Teachers were challenged by immigrant students who did not speak English. Total cost of American education to taxpayers in the mid-1920s amounted to $2.7 billion a year. Park Whittier High School

Magazines Magazines, newspapers, and advertising promoted the flapper life style. A blend of fiction, cartoons, and articles which focused on tales of crime and “true confessions.” By end of the 1920.s magazines includes Time, Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, and Reader’s Digest boasted a circulation of over 2 million each. A. Hernandez

Magazines

Radio Average price in 1928: $ , NBC network formed 1927 CBS network formed Famous radio personalities: Graham McNance, WEAF broadcaster, H.V. Kalten Radio events: World News, Presidential addresses, The World Series, ( live 10/5/21 NY Yankees v NY Giants) 1929 Americans spent $850 million on radio equipment By 1930, 40% of U.S. households owned radios V. Zepeda

The Silver Screen By 1925, film-making had become the nation’s 4 th largest industry and had more than 20,000 movie theaters worldwide. By 1927 Films became more popular when sound was added and color soon after. Weekly attendance doubled for 40 million in l922 to 80 million by 1930, price of admission was 5 cents. First full length film was The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith which glorified the KKK First talkie was The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson Hammitt

Stars of the Silver Screen Mary Pickford Charlie Chaplin Rudolph Valentino Clara Bow

Stars of the Silver Screen Walt Disney, 1927

Literary Notables: The Lost Generation Sinclair Lewis, 1 st Noble Prize for literature: Main Street & Babbitt F. Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence Willa Cather: My Antonia John Dos Passos: Three Soldiers Poets Edna St. Vincent Millay: Ezra Pound T.S. Elliot: The Wasteland, CATS Lacy

Theater, Music, the Arts Eugene O’Neill’s play, The Hairy Ape, forced Americans to reflect upon modern isolation, confusion, and family conflict. George Gershwin, a composer, who fused traditional elements with jazz, Rhapsody in Blue Artists: Edward Hopper & Georgia O’Keeffe

Edward Hopper Room in New York

Georgia O’Keeffe Oriental Poppies

The Golden Age of Sports Football-Red Grange Boxing-Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney Tennis-Bill Tilden Baseball-Babe Ruth & Ty Cobb Golf-Bobby Jones Football was the dominant college sport Thousands of Americans took up sports R. Hernandez

Bobby Jones Jack Dempsey Gene Tunney Bill Tilden Ty CobbRed Grange