Education in Crisis
Arming for the Brains Race
The launch of Sputnik re-raised the question of an American educational crisis; experts advocated broad school reforms to prepare American pupils and the nation for the "coming brains race."
George J. Hecht, "The Coming International Brains Race," Parents' Magazine 11 (November 1956), 35.
The alleged crisis of education after Sputnik "granted leverage to barriers against federal aid for eduction“ and provided the climate for the National Defense Education Act (1958) that sought to advance education in math, science, and physics, the "national security disciplines“. Students receiving loans made possible by the NDEA had to sign loyalty oaths.
Students in a Washington high school make use of the lab they acquired in 1958.