Spotlight on history: Students help the war effort

BLOOMFIELD, NJ —

Let’s look back again to the ‘40s when our country was engaged in World War II and Bloomfield students were expected to do their fair share in winning the struggle. In a very real way, Bloomfield children were an active division in a nationwide children’s crusade. In every school — and there were 17 Bloomfield public, vocational and parochial schools during World War II — students took part in war-related activities. Chief among the school activities was the purchase of U.S. Treasury-issued, 10- and 25-cent stamps which could be exchanged for war bonds. These dime and quarter contributions mounted up and went to purchase fighter airplanes and jeeps for American servicemen. Some editing may have been done to the news items, most of which first appeared in The Independent Press. They can be viewed in their entirety at the Historical Society of Bloomfield.

St. Thomas school children collect silk stockings
The children of St. Thomas the Apostle have become interested in another phase of the Schools at War Program. It is the Silk Stocking Drive which they have entered into most enthusiastically and with great delight. The children have collected hundreds of pairs of stockings which will be of use to the Navy for powder bags and parachutes. St. Thomas also heads the progress report on the sale of war bonds and stamps.

High school gets Minuteman flag
At an assembly last Friday, Superintendent of Schools H.T. Hollingsworth presented the Minuteman flag to George Madden who supervises the sale of war stamps in Bloomfield Junior High School. The flag is awarded to those schools which achieve and maintain at least 90 percent participation in the sale of stamps.

To conclude the program, the Dramatic Club, under the direction of Mrs. Ina Doyle, presented a skit to show a student’s idea of a soldier’s regard for books. The piece was written by Marion Courtney who introduced it. When the curtain went down, Marjorie Walker made a plea for contributions to the Victory Book Campaign and read from a soldier’s letter testimony that books really do help a homesick boy at camp.

Salvaging all useful material
The Salvage Program has made all the pupils in Bloomfield conscious of the value of what to be thrown away. Ben Franklin would like to see them now and even the kindergarteners would give him aces and spades and still beat him at his own game.

Cans are coming in by the thousands, with Carteret School leading all with a total of over 53,000 cans to date. This number has filled over seven trucks and the total for the town is well over 50 tons. Thanks are due to the Brookside Beverage Co. which has cooperated generously in moving the cans from school to train. Children have also enlisted the aid of parents in bringing packages of cans to school that were too heavy for little arms to carry.

Fat collecting at Brookside and Center schools has brought in more than 100 pounds at each school and this money is being saved for men at Camp Kilmer. Sacred Heart School has nearly filled the indoor court with processed cans, while the money from fats is used to purchase war stamps.

Liberty and Demarest schools are saving silk stockings, wire from milk bottle caps and waste paper as well as clothes for all ages for Bundles for America.
Franklin School has turned in more than a truck-load of cans as well as many pounds of wasted fats and milk bottle wires. Old records were sold and the money used to buy new ones for the boys at camp.

Demarest’s open house shows regular, war work
A trip through Demarest School last Thursday night would have proved two things to any visitor. As you went around the rooms, you were aware that in spite of all the effort being put forth for the Schools at War Program, the regular school work was still going on. Each room had, in addition to its war display, a record of the child’s school work. Parents as a whole seemed more interested in the latter. They realize that boys and girls need to be educated for something more than war at the present time if they are to preserve the peace in the years to come.

There were approximately 400 people with more than 200 parents present last Thursday night. This number is particularly high when you take into consideration the blackout Thursday evening and the fact that a large percentage of Demarest School’s population is transported by school bus. These people who come by school bus have no public means of getting to the school in the evening. During the evening, the war stamp and bond booth was open and $28.30 worth was sold.

School Victory Corps active
The Army has the WAACS; the Navy, the WAVES; the Coast Guard, the SPARS; the Air Force, the WAFS; and Bloomfield High School has its Victory Corps.
The corps is a movement sponsored by the War Savings Staff of the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Office of Education, designed to help encourage schools to serve the war effort by developing a program of war activities.

BHS students got behind the plan with enthusiasm. Wednesday is dedicated to the sale of war stamps and bonds. Boys in the shop make model airplanes. Girls learn how to meet the problems of rationing with cooking lessons and courses in making last year’s dress over for this year’s Easter parade.

Mechanical drawing classes are crowded with boys and girls preparing to take their place in the war industries.

Thursday night will be open house at the school when the contributions of the Victory Corps will be exhibited.

Enriched curriculum makes course suitable preparation for nation’s armed forces
The Land Service Division is, as the name implies, a training program centered around the need of the young men and women of the Bloomfield High School who will be called upon to aid their country in the Land Service arm of the military establishment.

The Victory Corps program is an integrated one, offering certain subjects to all students regardless of the service division. In this way, the basic needs of the whole group are met, while the specific requirements of the Land Service are offered to boys and girls to meet their needs and interests.

Land Service students thus take added periods of physical education, including the new commando training for boys. In addition, they may take courses in machine shop practice, blueprint reading, electricity, radio, and auto mechanics.
Despite the addition of new courses, very few students have dropped subjects formerly studied. This enriched program has been accomplished by combining courses, and by making the whole educational program more intensive and direct. It has meant that students are faced with greater amounts of work to master in shorter periods of time. It has meant that more students must give more time to industrial art subjects. It has meant that the student participates in a more strenuous program of physical education. But it also means that the student is preparing himself to aid the nation in winning the war.

Sea Service Division of Victory Corps works on varied navigation problems and radio techniques
What subject class of Bloomfield High School pursues its studies by waving flags around the school grounds and tops off its eccentric behavior by meeting in the evening once a week? The pupils engaged in these unusual activities are none other than the Sea Service Division of the Victory Corps.

This division was organized in January, selections being made from the senior class. From a much greater number of applicants, 24 boys and one girl were picked on the basis of aptitude, scholastic ability, training and general fitness to enter into a program of pre-induction courses intended to give the Navy better seamen and perhaps a WAVE as well.

The focal point of the Sea Division is a course in navigation. This is a subject entirely new to the school and while there is no opportunity to sail boats up and down Broad Street, the US Office of Education and the Naval and Coast Guard authorities have agreed that much can be done on dry land. Included in the navigation course are marine regulations and rules of the sea, elementary nautical astronomy, plotting courses, determining a ship’s position at sea, reading maps, signalling, knot tying and splicing, as well as learning the parts of ships.

So, you younger brothers and sisters, get ready to steer a straight course and when the kitchen floor has to be scrubbed at home, just imagine that you are swabbing the decks.