In “Education” by E.B. White, he analyzes the difference of country schools versus public schools. His son has attended a public school and they will be switching him. White, attending a public school all his life, and his wife having attended a private school her whole life, they both have had different thoughts of the two different learning styles. They spent all summer worried about the transition for their son; however, their son himself was very concerned. His text has a lot of the American Culture described in the subject of education. Many times you hear stories about parents deciding whether public or private schools are best for their children. White grows to admire his sons teacher as he explains the positive aspects he is having. At the end of the day there were satisfied about their choice and how fast he was learning.

White wrote “Education” in 1939, the time of the Great Depression in America. The effects that this time period brought to people is shown in White’s writing. While he is comparing and contrasting between the two styles of school, he uses angry, dark, and dramatic vocabulary to describe school aspects. His word choice not only accounted for his emotions, but the world’s as a whole. For example, he describes the public school having only two teachers and a “…chemical toilet in the basement…” (White 305). Due to the depression, schools were either shut down or had their school come to an end early. Schools could not afford to pay the salary of teachers or administrative costs. Matthew Lynch wrote an article, “Comprehending how the Great Depression Influenced American Education”, stating “This drastically reduced the number of teachers, resulting in increased class sizes.” This explains when White mentions that the teachers had no time for individual instruction because there were so few teachers, but still a good amount of children.

Many children no longer attended school during the Great Depression. Families financially struggled all throughout the depression. Since families income would cut dramatically, often times kids were also put to work in unsafe conditions to help provide. Children mostly worked in factories that would make clothing. However, because of the Great Depression and the unsafe conditions kids were put into, there were laws made which still apply today. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 not only set minimum wage and maximum of hours worked per day, but more importantly established the law of children under the age of 16 not being able to work in manufacture or mining (Child Labor, History.com).

White uses the literary device of pathos by describing the way his son gets picked up in the mornings. Along with pathos it is the use of personification: “This flashy vehicle was as punctual as death: seeing us waiting at the cold crib, it would sweep to a halt, open its mouth, suck the boy in, and spring away with an angry growl” (White 305). The way he describes a bus picking up his son by comparing it to death is a very dark way of comparing the two which adds a lot of emotion. His comparison is very depressing and you can tell how people’s attitudes were during these hard times. After the depression took place many humans had lost hope.

Private schools are usually known to have more money  It is noted by Lynch, “The crisis was so pervasive that students were required to bring their own supplies and, in some extreme cases, even pay for tuition.” His comparison of the country school versus city school portrays the country school to be a lot better during the time being. He describes that his scholar “… was worked on for six or seven hours…he played games supervised by an athletic instructor, and in a cafeteria he ate lunch worked out by a dietitian” (White 305). With the assumption, White had to pay some sort of tuition for his scholar to attend school and he was getting more attention than the city school that only had two teachers.

E.B. White and his wives decision to send their scholar to the country school was overall worth the stress. White says, “… the only difference we can discover in the two school experiences is that in the country he sleeps better at night- and that problem is more the air than the education” (White 306). I think White is directing this line to the attitudes of the people in public that they release into society. People in town may have been more affected by the depression than those in the country. When parents and teachers are affected by situations like the Great Depression it has a toll not only on their children and students lifestyle but also their academic experience.

Works cited:

“Child Labor .” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor.

“Comprehending How The Great Depression Influenced American Education.” The Edvocate, 2 Sept. 2016, www.theedadvocate.org/comprehending-great-depression-influenced-american-education/.