The communism unit recommended to Virginia school divisions in 1964 was a part of a major curriculum project sponsored by the State Department of Education and developed over a five-year period of time. In addition to advocating the seven-week unit of study about communism, the government project focused attention on the free enterprise system and modified the traditional structure of the government course. Between 1959 and 1964, the Virginia State Department of Education produced two outline guides and a comprehensive instructional guide to assist teachers in the reorganization of the course.
The government project officially began in the summer of 1959 when the State Board of Education requested the State Department of Education to develop an instructional unit on the free enterprise system. Davis Y. Paschall, Superintendent of Public Instruction, appointed a committee, consisting of a local school district director of instruction and secondary teachers of government and economics, to work with the staff of the State Department of Education in developing the unit. The committee, known as the Teacher Committee, decided that the unit should be included in the twelfth-grade government course and that an outline for the entire course should be prepared. Paschall also appointed a committee, consisting of representatives of business, industry, law, government, and education, to review the work of the staff and the Teacher Committee. The staff, with the assistance of these two committees, developed the outline guide, "Virginia and U. S. Government." The State Board of Education distributed the guide to schools in September, 1960, approximately one year after the initial request had been made concerning economic education.
The second phase of the government project began in April, 1961, when the State Board of Education directed the State Department of Education to develop an instructional unit to assist teachers in developing units about communism. The department had received requests for the curriculum to include more instruction about communism, and the first guide had placed little emphasis on it.
Both of the committees involved in developing the first outline guide assisted the staff of the department with the second guide. In May, 1961, the State Department of Education issued the second guide, Communism in Contrast With the Principles of American Freedom, to be used in conjunction with the first guide, "Virginia and U. S. Government."
During the time of the development of the first two guides, the Commission on Constitutional Government assisted the State Department of Education in the government project. The commission, created by the General Assembly to promote states' rights, offered its assistance to the State Department of Education in promoting the study of constitutional government. As a result of this offer, the department involved the commission in the government project. In the summers of 1960 and 1961, the commission funded the teacher institutes offered by the department to acquaint teachers with the guide, "Virginia and U. S. Government." In 1961, the Commission on Constitutional Government unsuccessfully attempted to produce a manual about communism for student use. When this project was terminated, the commission continued assisting the department by reviewing, recommending, and purchasing books to be used with the second outline guide, Communism in Contrast With the Principles of American Freedom.
Beginning in the spring of 1963, staff members of the State Department of Education, assisted by an expanded Teacher Committee and the Review Committee, began work on the final product of the government curriculum project. The third guide, An Instructional Guide for Virginia and United States Government, was a comprehensive instructional guide and an expansion of the two earlier guides. The first two guides provided only brief content outlines while the third guide included an outline for the course, an analysis of recommended content, and an extensive bibliography. A major focus of the third guide was Unit V, “Totalitarianism” in Contrast With the Principles of American Freedom," which provided content for an in-depth study of communism. The guide also provided for detailed study of the American economic system.
In November, 1964, the State Board of Education published the third guide and distributed it to local school divisions. Teachers began using the guide in the 1964-1965 school year, five years after the initiation of the government project. / Ed. D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/38713 |
| Date | 08 July 2010 |
| Creators | Peters, Norma Jean |
| Contributors | Supervision, Fleming, Daniel B., Hunt, Thomas C., Small, Robert C. Jr., Morrill, Robert W., Salmon, Richard G. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 195 leave, BTD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 40262511, LD5655.V856_1977.P38.pdf |
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