TEXT A One of the most important
social developments that helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the
role of public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950’s and
1960’s on the schools. In the 1920’s, but especially in the Depression
conditions of the 1930’s, the United States experienced a declining birth rate--
every thousand women aged fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live
children in 1920, 89. 2 in 1930, 75. 8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940.
With the growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the
economic boom that followed it, young people married and established households
earlier and began to raise large families than had their predecessors during the
Depression. Birth rate rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118
in 1955. Although economics was probably the most important factor, it is not
the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed on the idea
of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers
began streaming into the first grade by the mid-1940’s and became a flood by
1950. The public school system suddenly found itself overtaxed. While the number
of school children rose because of wartime and postwar conditions, these same
conditions made the schools even less prepared to cope with the flood. The
wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945.
Moreover, during the war and in the boom times that followed, large numbers of
teachers left their profession for better- paying jobs elsewhere in the
economy. Therefore, in the 1950’S and 1960’s, the baby boom hit
an old- fashioned and inadequate school system. Consequently, it was
impossible to keep youths aged sixteen and older in school as in 1930’s and
early 1940’s. Schools were to find space and staff to teach younger
children aged from five to sixteen. With the baby boom, the focus of educators
and of laymen interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grade
and back to basic academic skills and discipline. The system no longer had much
interest in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older
youths. According to the passage, why did teachers leave the teaching profession after the outbreak of the war
A．They needed to be retrained. B．They were dissatisfied with the curriculum. C．Other jobs provided higher salaries. D．Teaching positions were scarce.