There have been many world affairs such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War that have shaped how American schools are today.  During the 1900s, the school environment became more complex, where it was viewed as a link to employment.  In other words, people were no longer attending school just because they had the option to do so.  During the twentieth century, enrollment, attendance, and graduation rates increased.         

     During the Great Depression, families suffered due to unemployment.  Children attended school because they were guaranteed a meal.  While at school, children learned a “life-education curriculum in which vocational education played a diminished role” (Altenbaugh, 276). This idea was adopted by Charles M. Prosser, who believed that unemployment would continue and that students who dropped out of school would become a “permanent underclass” (Altenbaugh, 276).  Courses taught diet, etiquette and dating.  Prosser basically changed the purpose of traditional education toward “custodianship of the young based on the conviction that there were not meaningful jobs for them” (Altenbaugh, 277).

      The twentieth century introduced policies and ideas that were very different from previous eras.  Due to these changes, schools culturally changed.  Students began their own culture that went against adults’ values.  Adults feared their children were adopting bad habits, and going against the educational system.  Altenbaugh later said, “By 1960, adult fixation on youth deviancy waned as the period of schooling lengthened and the reality of a distinct youth culture became accepted” (Altenbaugh 293).