Depression Thirties
Produced in 2005
Sacramento, CA
Musical lyrics: We’re in the money, we’re in the
money. We've got a lot of what it takes to get along. We’re in the money,
the sky in sunny…
Description: Photo of people standing in a bread line; photo of men
in suits and hats standing in line at soup kitchen; photo of crowd
standing in front of large white building with sign reading End Poverty
League, Inc.
Narrator: The decade of the thirties
and the Great Depression saw setbacks when many schools for adults were
temporarily closed and programs were curtailed in others.
By 1933, California adult education, in its typical response to national social
issues, was involved in Works Progress Administration, WPA funded programs.
Vocational rehabilitation programs grew with federal encouragement.
Description: Slide showing timeline: 1933 – Works
Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC);
photo of work crews of shirtless men digging ditches; photo of five
men in front of wood clapboard house;
Narrator: George C. Mann was appointed
the Chief of the Division of Adult Education in 1934. The first handbook
of Adult Education was published in 1937.
Description: Photo of George C. Mann, distinguished
bespectacled, gentleman wearing a suit pictured in newsletter entitled
Council News; photo of handbook cover
Slide showing timeline of enrollment growth: 1856 – 300 students;
1910 – 3,000 students; 1920 – 74,000 students; 1930 – 346,000 students;
1940 – 546,000 students
Narrator: Adult Education enrollment
began to grow again, and was reaching more than half a million people by
1940. At that time, California had a population of about eight million,
of whom five million were adults. Roughly 10 percent of these adults attended
some public school class during the year 1939 to 40.