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The foremost technique for enforcing political conformity was the loyalty oath. In the 1920s some states required their teachers to swear not to teach ideas or doctrines “subversive” to the status quo. The definition of subversive was highly subjective and varied from state to state, encompassing anything from Marxism to civil rights to sexual liberation. The consequence of failing to swear such an oath, however, was clear to everyone: dismissal, a prospect truly intimidating during the Depression. By 1936 twenty-one states were making teachers take loyalty oaths; fourteen of those states had instituted the requirement since the onset of the Depression. Increasingly states also required children to say the pledge of allegiance before the school day began, a practice that would be declared unconstitutional in the 1940s. In the mid 1930s a last-minute rider attached to a congressional appropriation bill for Washington, D...
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This section contains 227 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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