ABSTRACT
The period of the Great Depression and its immediate aftermath, the Second World War years, present a special challenge to those who would make sense of its educational developments. In discussing these years, the enormous economic cataclysm that engulfed all of American society, including its schools. Black Americans suffered, both economically and educationally, even more than their white working-class or farm counterparts. The economic suffering of the groups during the 1920s was also accompanied by a substantial degree of educational deprivation. Soviet ideology assigned education a crucial role in the democratization process. The manifesto charged that American education had become "appallingly weak and ineffective," especially when compared to the levels of achievement in other countries. The National Youth Administration (NYA) was the major New Deal agency set up to deal with unemployment and its educational implications. Lack of any military involvement in the NYA allowed the agency to be much more flexible and experimental in its programs.
