Education

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME:
​​​​​​​The Civilian Conservation Corps

LACK OF EDUCATION

      ("Several CCC Men Sit Around a Table Reading While Attending a Class at Camp Heyburn" uidaho.edu)

("Adult Education Program at CCC Camp, Maple Lake" mnhs.org)

Most enrollees could not read or write. Only one out of three had gone to high school.

"The President wanted to change certain outdated and harmful norms, such as illiteracy.  He reasoned that it was useless to pay the men to do a job for just a few years and then have them become unemployable again.  Thus while they were being paid, the young men had an incentive to study. Many of our boys couldn’t read or write.  So one of the first things that FDR said, ‘They will be taught to read and write. Nobody, no boy will leave our camps illiterate.'" (Charles Rivers 17)

The CCC taught enrollees more than reading and writing. The boys were also allowed to take a variety of classes.

("Enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama Pose in the Education Building" encyclopediaofalabama.org)

("Classes offered at Camp Pattison, Wisconsin" Semo 11)

"The aims of the educational program included: elimination of illiteracy, correction of deficiencies in elementary school subjects, vocational instruction, cultural and social training, character and citizenship development, and help in finding employment."  (Barnett 89)

(Cohen 63)

("Class III CCC Enrollees Studying Project Math" archives.gov)

(Cohen 63)

Regardless whether enrollees took formal camp education, they still gained many other skills. Enrollees learned to build roads and trails, bridges, dams, fences, retaining walls, break-waters, disposal systems, telephone lines, garages, and storehouses. They cut timber, fought forest fires, and maintained trucks, tractors, jack hammers, graders, and bulldozers.  They learned to survey, make and read maps, and draft plans. They served as clerks, bakers, stewards, masons, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, blacksmiths, blasters, radio operators, and more.

("Bridge Building With The CCC 33.585" archive.org 00:00:18-00:01:32)

(Cohen 123)

("Repairing truck brakes at Hemlock R. S. Camp" oregondigital.org)

("Compressor and jackhammer to drill rock for explosives, Lassen National Forest, California" oregondigital.org)

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