Questions On The Great Depression

For my project, my topic that I will plan on developing into an educational lesson on will be about the key events and figures of the Great Depression. I will specifically focus my lessons on how the Great Depression affected the state of North Carolina. As an education major, I want my students’ to understand that it was not only just our whole country that suffered this devastating economically poor period of time, but each individual state faced both similar and different hardships of the Great Depression. I will be focusing my lesson on teaching eighth grade students. The North Carolina State Essential Standards and objectives that my lesson will focus on are: 8.E.1 “Understand the economic activities of North

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Two topics I enjoyed learning about most this semester were The Roaring 20’s and The Great Depression. Both units intrigued me, but The Great Depression was my favorite. Prior to starting the unit in class, I recently read The Grapes of Wrath. The novel helped my understanding during the unit because I was already mostly familiar with Hoovervilles, starvation of the people, the hopelessness, etc. Throughout my English class we went into deep discussion about the main topics just like we did in ours. I can’t imagine living during The Depression and it makes me rethink how I look at life. In our generation, we take many things for granted and after experiencing what those innocent people went through, we rarely go through anything as bad as The

During the Great Depression roughly 25% of the workers were 15 years old or younger, 20% of the children were starving and didn’t have access to new clothes and other necessities and about 40% of the young adults 16-24 were either unemployed or not in school. This shows that a great majority of the youth living during this time were not able to experience a normal childhood where they went to school and came home to play with their friends, because they had to work and were not able to attend school and get a proper education. Most of the kids also went to bed starving because their families could not afford to pay for food. Living as a child during the Great Depression was incredibly challenging

Thesis: In its duration and magnitude, the Great Depression was indefinitely more severe than any other episode of “hard times” in our history and it was the molding force of the America we live in today.

“The Great Depression was the most severe, prolonged economic crisis in American History. It displaced thousands of families, created hardships for millions of people, shaped an entire generation, and reshaped the way Americans viewed the role of their government,” (Cravens). Although the Great Depression had devastating effects on the United States, its impacts on family life and structure were the most devastating. Children had to take on more responsibilities by attempting to find jobs in a market where there were a scarce amount of jobs even available for adults. These children suffered a lot from the depression since their parents didn’t have the money to take care of them, but more children started finishing high school and going to college to get better jobs. Mothers were greatly affected by the Great Depression as well, they had to start working to help take care of their families. Most of the jobs a woman could find were very difficult, low paying jobs with long hours. Women additionally started separating from their husbands and started having less children. Families had to make do by budgeting, changing their shopping habits, and finding alternate ways of bringing money home.

The Great Depression, left the country in the worst economic crisis that any countries had seen, leaving a scar on the American society and culture. The Great Depression had also affect the public schools especially Chicago Public School, causing problems that even today we are still experiencing. The primary document I have choose is Chicago Public School and the Depression Years of 1928-1937 by Lyman B. Burbank. This primary document is interesting as I, myself went to a Chicago public school, both elementary and high school, and to see how the system has fail and how different mayors throughout the great depression tried to fix the problems.

A significant outcome of the Great Depression that impacted society was unemployment. Many people lost their jobs as a consequence of businesses becoming corrupt and often ceasing to operate. Due to the growing unemployment rates, people could “ill afford to maintain [homes]” (Text 3). Left without money or shelter, people were forced to beg for food and money.

I do not feel students have the ability to make adequate connections between the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. I feel this task to educate our youth is only going to get harder as our population that experience this first hand dwindles with age. When possible I would like the students to interview someone that experienced the Great Depression or even the Dust Bowl. I feel you can learn so much from those personal experiences.

Dietary diseases were high because some food such as milk, fruit, fresh vegetables, and eggs could not be bought with the family’s low income. The death rate for children suffering from undernourishment was increasing because children were losing their stamina and were unable to fight the disease off. There were kids who felt that they were an effect to their families or were to sad of their unemployment and helpless life and felt the need to leave their homes to find a life for themselves. They wanted to go out and explore the world on their own to have a better life and not sit around depending on their parents. It was 250,000 teenagers roaming the streets on freight trains look for a better life. Some people were admired by these teenagers for their spirit while others feared. It was a great percent of teenagers were in searching of employment. During this time, most of the African-American lived in countryside areas and worked on farms owned by white people. Even though these countryside African-Americans had lived in poverty most of their lives, the Great Depression was still a hard take. Their living conditions got worse due to the fact that some farmers they worked for lost all their land. Life for

"In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope-nothing of man" stated Former President Calvin Coolidge during the Great Depression. The Great Depression affected almost everyone in the United States. People had to learn to live on less, and still enjoy life when they could. When the stock market crashed, people were forced to payback their loans that they used to buy stocks. Most people had to sell their belongings in order to get money for their debts. Some people even had to sell their cars and

The Great Depression is one of the single most important events in the financial history of the United States and the world; the effects of and leading to the Great Depression lasted for several years (Shindo). The great depression was a very difficult time in the time that it occurred. It hit people hard and left an everlasting memory (Shindo.) It would lead to a lot of devastating events better all over would feel the affect of this crisis. It was a very unexpected and sudden event that would change America forever.

The Great Depression was the biggest slump in America. This happened after the stock market crash of October 1929. Due to this, banks failed, and lots more. This was the longest unemployment rate. People struggled with food, and all the products they needed to purchase for their families. The reason being why I chose this event as a very important event in US history, is because this was the biggest depression the US ever had. This proves to us that if we work hard to achieve what we want, we will get it. If we don’t, we will suffer the

The Great Depression affected the lives of millions of Americans and plunged even the wealthiest people into poverty. This twelve-year period started with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday. This led to a failing economy for many years. John Steinbeck is a well-known author who lived through this time period. One of his most famous works is a fiction novel titled Of Mice and Men, which is set during the Great Depression.

The Great Depression is associated with many images and ideas: stock brokers frantically selling, families waiting in bread lines, Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, people hunting for any source of income, and many others. Obviously, the Depression meant different things to different people, and it is difficult to generalize about their experiences. However, there are some experiences that almost everyone who lived through the depression shared. Perhaps the most widely-experienced feeling among ordinary people during the Great Depression was uncertainty, including questions about economics, the definition of success, morality, and politics.