In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, a piece of legislation intended primarily to improve schooling in math, science, and engineering for American students. The act included grants to school districts for math and science programs, along with loans and scholarships that would allow promising students in math, science, and engineering to continue their studies at the university level. The act was passed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, which rattled the American public out of their complacent assumption of their country’s technological superiority. The NDEA was one of the earliest examples of federal funding directed towards education; it was previously held by most Americans that the responsibility for educating students lay with local governments. The consternation resulting from the launch of Sputnik, however, pushed these reservations to the side, and opened the door to the sort of massive federal interventions in American schooling that we now take for granted.
The Place of War in Classical Education
The Place of War in Classical Education
The Place of War in Classical Education
In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, a piece of legislation intended primarily to improve schooling in math, science, and engineering for American students. The act included grants to school districts for math and science programs, along with loans and scholarships that would allow promising students in math, science, and engineering to continue their studies at the university level. The act was passed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, which rattled the American public out of their complacent assumption of their country’s technological superiority. The NDEA was one of the earliest examples of federal funding directed towards education; it was previously held by most Americans that the responsibility for educating students lay with local governments. The consternation resulting from the launch of Sputnik, however, pushed these reservations to the side, and opened the door to the sort of massive federal interventions in American schooling that we now take for granted.