Research Update: The Influence of the Spanish Flu on American Education


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Before our library session on Tuesday I had only been able to find newspaper articles mentioning school closings and a few deaths.  These were useful in helping me make the argument that the Spanish Flu had a short-term effect on schools and American education, but they got very repetitive and did not help me make a point about long term effects of the flu.  During and after the library session, I found many more newspaper articles and annual reports suggesting more diverse effects of the flu on schools.  For example, there may have been debate about teachers’ salaries during forced furloughs.  Some teachers were asked to serve as nurses during their time off.  Students were encouraged to spend their time outside, and in the South this often translated to working outdoors instead of keeping up with studies.  I think that I will be able to find evidence that there were at least a few long-term effects of the flu in various school systems across the country because some of my secondary sources on the flu briefly mention them.  I will try to contact my secondary sources’ contacts and also historians/archivists at Davidson, my high school, and various public school systems.