An Early Start: WPA Emergency Nursery Schools in Texas, 1934-1943 (ARTICLE 3) (Works Project Administration ) (Report‪)‬

The Works Project Administration (WPA) was established in 1935 with the primary objective of providing the unemployed work on useful public projects (Federal Works Agency 1941, 1). Many of the funded projects were Engineering and Construction Projects; others were classified as Service projects. One of the little studied service projects is the WPA Emergency Nursery School Program. This program illustrates an early attempt on the part of the Federal government to provide social services that were lacking to citizens because of finances or location. The school projects operated in all 48 states, and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, at some time during the 9 years the program was in existence; however, reports were often not submitted and so the record is incomplete. Additionally, with the exception of a few books that include reference to the Emergency Nursery School Program (Lascarides and Hinitz, 2000), no extensive examination of the daily activities of the program schools has been published. Harry Hopkins, the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator outlined the value of the nursery schools when he stated, "The education and health programs of nursery schools can aid as nothing else in combating the physical and mental handicaps being imposed upon these young children in the homes of needy and unemployed parents" (in Anderson 1934, 11). The Emergency Nursery School program was organized under the leadership of Grace Langdon and conducted training for teachers and parents. States appointed supervisors to ensure that standards, published by the WPA, were adhered to. The need for the schools and the enthusiasm for them was documented by Anderson, "Last year in the space of six or eight months over 2300 emergency nursery schools were set up under the control and supervision of public education officials. More than fifty thousand children were enrolled (1934, 11).