Mounted by leading progressive intellectuals, a trenchant social critique of capitalism and the American school system fortified activist educators of the Depression era. Who wanted to achieve social justice and a reasonable quality of life for all Americans, albeit without social upheaval. Working far out of the mainstream, community school organizers found a favorable venue for disseminating their ideas in books and professional journals. Such as Progressive Education and the Journal of Educational Sociology. Which occasionally featured articles on the community-centered school. A term that had currency by the mid-1930s. Two rural community schools of the Depression era are particularly noteworthy. Nambé, New Mexico, and Arthurdale, West Virginia. >> The community school at Nambé operated from 1937 to 1942. Populated mainly by the descendants of Spanish-American settlers who arrived from Mexico as early as 1711. And built their adobe houses on the red clay banks of the shallow Nambé River, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The village of Nambé was a drought-stricken, erosion-blighted village. Located 18 miles north of Sante Fe at the foot of the heavily forested Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A Sante Fe resident and publisher, Cyrus McCormick, and his wife, Florence, provided the original impetus for the Nambé Community School. Convinced that the local school, a pre-kindergarten through eight-grade facility could better serve the economically distressed area in a radically altered form. The McCormicks arranged with Professor Loyd S Tireman of the University of New Mexico to help create a community-centered school. The McCormicks agreed to underwrite the school for five years. >> Following a town meeting at which a majority of the villagers approved the concept, the local superintendent and Tireman began to organize the school and hire the teachers. Consistent with the results of a community survey, Nambé's elementary and secondary curriculums focused on the natural sciences. With a particular emphasis on health education and land management. School studies related directly to problems and issues in the Nambé community. Second and third-grade work, for example, included studies of indigenous flora and fauna in connection with the school garden, nutrition, and sanitation. Fourth and fifth-graders focused on the physical properties and public health social dimensions of water use and conservation. Students in the upper grades investigated problems of land use. Literacy was taught in the context of Nambé community studies. English was the only language of instruction. Beyond its educational role, the Nambé School was a center for community health and social services. A Spanish-speaking public health nurse organized a school community health education program and primary care clinic. Promoting land use management skills, the school helped link the community`s hardscrabble farmers to county and state extension forest and conservation services. It also connected unemployed adults and youths to federal National Youth Administration and Works Progress Administration projects. And the school was the community center for recreation and entertainment. >> These curricular and community outreach efforts, however, could not be sustained. One immediate problem was the high turnover rate of teachers. Most of whom were non-Spanish speaking. And Nambé may have offered more rustication than many of the Anglo teachers were willing to tolerate. The teachers also had to contend with Tireman's combative personality. The hard-driving director was abrasive and heavy-handed with his subordinates, most of whom were women. Tireman, the outsider, the reforming professional, alienated the villagers. His approach was politically conservative and narrowly based on an Anglo standard of culture. Any cultural attribute, real or imagined, that to his mind threatened the political status quo was anathema. And while he sincerely wanted to improve the living conditions of Spanish-speaking subsistence farmers in the Southwest, he could not envision these people in the American economic mainstream. Tireman wanted to educate the villagers to become effective and productive subsistence farmers. He failed to comprehend that many of the school's parents wanted their children to graduate high school and attend college. He said, quote, our job is not to prepare these children for college. But to live happier and more efficiently in this community, unquote. After five years of operation, the Nambé Community School ended in the summer of 1942. Residents voted in a community meeting to return the school to the Santa Fe School District. In effect, restoring its status as an ordinary rural school. The villagers had grown increasingly fearful that community-centered schooling was depriving their children of a demanding education. And the knowledge and skills they needed to become productive, socially mobile workers adapting to a changing economy. In the end, Nambé was a client-centered project that offered its clients no means for political empowerment or democratic self-development. And it even worked to suppress their educational dreams. In our next episode, we turn to the community school at Arthurdale, West Virgina. Which was founded in response to Depression-era economic and social conditions. [MUSIC]
