Education and Popular Culture Education and Popular Culture in the 20sin the 20sHow do schools & mass media shape the Roaring 20s?

Education on the riseEducation on the rise

● Public school enrollment increases by 2.5 million students in the 1920s

● Secondary schools prepare students for job market (vocational education)

● Student dress, slang & behavior become the “norm” for pop culture

● School costs increase= tax increases for average citizens

1910

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1930

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1920s Fads1920s Fads

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1) Flagpole sitting

2) Dance Marathons

3) Barnstormers 4) Gam

es5) The Charleston

Mass Media & Pop. CultureMass Media & Pop. Culture

● Newspaper & magazine circulation increases causing more literacy

● Radio: allows people to hear live sporting events, news & entertainment

Sports Heroes Baseball: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig & Andrew “Rube” Foster

•Gertrude Ederie was first woman to swim the English Channel•Helen Willis dominated women’s tennis

•Jack Dempsey dominates boxing

That’s Entertainment!That’s Entertainment!

● 1928: First animated film

w/ sound “Steamboat Willie”

• George Gershwin = top composer of 1920s

● 1927: 1st movie with sound, “ The Jazz Singer”

● Charlie Chaplain: most famous silent movie stars

•Georgia O’ Keefe top 1920s artist

Famous American Writers & the “Lost Generation”

● F. Scott Fitzgerald = coined the term “jazz age”

● Ernest Hemingway = Criticizes the glorification of war

● Edna St. Vincent Millay = wrote poems celebrating youth & independence

● Sinclair Lewis = 1st American to

win the Nobel Prize in literature

Aviation HeroesAviation Heroes

Charles Lindbergh 1st person to fly solo non-stop across the

Atlantic Ocean (1927) NY-Paris Becomes instant celebrity

1st person to fly from HI to CA (1935)

Tries to circumnavigate the globe but plane disappears (1937)

1st woman to cross Atlantic (1928, 1932)

Amelia Earhart

Film Clips: Amelia

1. Why did the men running the derby want to cut the race short?

2. What does Putnam tell another female flier? Do you think Earhardt care about winning?

3. What does Earhardt decide to do next? Describe the journey.

4. What issues does Earhardt face when she tries to circumnavigate the globe?

5. Was Earhardt or her plane ever found? Why was she so important for the role of women during this era?