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“The Talent at its Command”: The First World War and the Vocational Aspect of Education, 1914–39

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

David H. Parker
David H. Parker*
Affiliation:
University of Plymouth, Devon, U.K.
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Extract

The First World War placed a high premium on the patriotism and efficiency of all sectors of British society. Sooner or later all the nation's resources, including transportation, mines, and factories, were placed under strict government control, and the lives of all its people subjected to a degree of central regulation undreamed of prior to 1914. Thousands of ordinary elementary schools provided most of the nation's industrial and agricultural workers and fighting men. Inexorably, and perhaps inevitably, during the four years of continual crisis these schools sought to inculcate attitudes that would strengthen national resolve and to intensify activities contributing materially to the war effort. Indeed, the schools became totally subject to the demands of war, and rightly so in most people's eyes.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , Fall 1995 , pp. 237 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the History of Education Society 

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