“The rapidly vanishing teacher is a matter of major concern to all of us… [Since the war began] teachers make surveys, supervise salvage campaigns, collect for the Red Cross, organize stamp and bond sales in their schools. While the Luftwaffe was still [a capable force], teachers were told to be air-raid wardens – and they were air-raid wardens… She lends a hand with nursery schools to help other women to get fat pay envelopes in war plants… When ration books were issued, for example, teachers were delegated to handle the job. The schools were convenient places for registration and the teachers were an organized, available group in the community, qualified to wrestle with the complications of filling in this and that and to perform the clerical labor involved (without extra pay, of course)… Between 1942 – 1944 one-third of all teachers left teaching for other, more lucrative, fields.”.
Click here to read more about the teacher shortages during the war years.
More on the hard lot of teachers during the war can be read here.
