[60 years ago this month, President Lyndon B. Johnson—fresh off his successful re-election campaign—created his Great Society program, pushing Congress to help him (as he put it in his 1964 speech acceptance the presidential nomination) “build a great society, a place where the meaning of man’s life matches the marvels of man’s labor.” So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a number of Great Society laws, leading up to a post on what we still desperately need to learn from these histories.]
On two specific
significant laws, and one broader effect of the Great Society.
As the son
of a lifelong early
childhood educator I am perhaps biased, but to my mind one of the most
under-appreciated (and certainly one of the most transformative) of the Great
Society laws would be the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Part of Johnson’s overarching concept
of a “War
on Poverty,” this hugely influential law represented a major reform of and
deepened federal commitment to public education in the United States overall,
and disadvantaged students and families in particular. The Act’s dual
emphases on guaranteeing equal access and shrinking achievement gaps comprised
a radical new perspective on how the federal government should approach education
policy, one supported by significant and ongoing commitments of money and other
resources, and over the sixty years since those emphases have been complemented
and extended by additions involving bilingual education and stronger protections
against discrimination (toward students and teachers alike), among others.
Later in
1965 (it was a very busy year for Great Society laws and programs!), a separate
Congressional law created the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA), which became instantly and remains to this day the most
prominent federal arts organization. The NEA’s original mission statement linked
both the organization and the arts themselves directly to education, in and out
of classrooms: the NEA is “dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both
new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing
leadership in arts education.” But at the same time, the NEA’s significant annual grant funding in particular is
importantly available to any and all artists and creators, individuals and
communities, with no necessary connection to particular educational
institutions nor to educational goals (which of course are far from the only place
or role for the arts in society). These are complementary but far from directly
overlapping 1965 laws, that is.
But I do
want to push further with my connection between these two laws in one
additional and important way. I agree with the framing that the Education Act
was tied to the War on Poverty, as access to education is crucial to connecting
all children, families, and communities to the opportunities that can help alleviate
poverty and lead to better futures. But to quote one of our most famous
teacher characters, “medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble
pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love,
these are what we stay alive for.” I really love that the Great Society
supported the arts in education as well as the arts overall, and expressed clearly
through such emphases and priorities that both arts education and the arts are
part of all lives and communities, rather than in any way more elective or
elite. We would do well to extend that emphasis today.
Next Great
Society law tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think?
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