The children in my fictional family are growing up in a rural Wisconsin community during the Depression era. Money is tight, so many of them have to start working at a young age. When did children have to start attending high school, rather than it being a privilege for those who could afford it?
One of my characters goes on to become a nurse. What kind of education was needed for that-- bare minimum-- in the 1940s? (This would be the later part of the decade, after WWII is over.)
Anything else I'm not thinking about for this time period?
Ms. Wright
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nov. 8, 2009 - 15 22
My grandparents grew up in the 1930 and 1940s in a rural Wisconsin community, both of them on farms, actually, and neither they nor their siblings ever had to leave school because there wasn't enough money. Everybody in their families graduated from high school, including their parents.
Your larger issue might be finding places for them to work in a rural community when there are adults looking for extra work as well. There aren't a lot of employment opportunities in rural communities, apart from seasonal work. Even stuff like canning factories was seasonal work, because you don't have anything to can in the middle of December.
My grandmother was a nurse, and you did need a high school diploma for that. I'm not sure what training she did beyond that.
----------“Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed.” -- Geoffrey Chaucer
“There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily.” -- Geoffrey Chaucer
21,489 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 18 13
Your larger issue might be finding places for them to work in a rural community when there are adults looking for extra work as well. There aren't a lot of employment opportunities in rural communities, apart from seasonal work. Even stuff like canning factories was seasonal work, because you don't have anything to can in the middle of December.
My grandmother was a nurse, and you did need a high school diploma for that. I'm not sure what training she did beyond that.
Thanks for the help! My characters are not farmers, but quite destitute actually due to bad luck. I'm thinking that although I want to write this for the 1930s and 40s, I might actually have in mind an earlier time period, perhaps the 1910s and 20s. I did have relatives from back then that quit school after the sixth grade, simply because they were capable of working and going to high school was not seen as essential in their immigrant subculture. So, I might have to rethink the whole "no education" thing. It's not essential to my plot, anyway.
I'll look further into the nursing education. The character who becomes a nurse has to travel to another town to go to high school. I wonder if there are any parts of Wisconsin that were remote enough to have to do that? Or maybe I'll just need to change my location to make it feasible.
45,006 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 20 56
Nursing at the time is a very practical education, rather than through a college. She will need to finish high school, but then she can enrol in a nursing course and learn pretty much on the job, plus classes during working hours. She will mostly likely live in a nurses' dormitory until she is qualified, and quite possibly after that, too!
15,172 / 50,000
nov. 9, 2009 - 00 08
Maybe up north where the towns are farther apart and there aren't as many people, though then you run into the finding work issue again. I live in the southern part of the state, and all the little towns are about five miles apart. Each of the towns had their own high schools, so you never really had to go farther than five miles to get to school. The school that my grandfather went to is only two or three miles away, and the one-room schoolhouse he went to the lower grades in is about a mile away. He walked to school when he was little, but I think there was a bus for the high school. My grandmother grew up outside the county seat and went to school in town. I think there were school buses for her, too. She's never told me any stories about walking to school, at least.
----------“Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed.” -- Geoffrey Chaucer
“There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily.” -- Geoffrey Chaucer