Effects on Education of Growth and Mobility of Population

Abstract

PHYSICISTs and chemists have marked advantage over social scientists and educators in that they are able to isolate the forces with which they are dealing and thus observe reactions in a controlled laboratory situation. Social phenomena are usually so complex and their ramifications so far reaching that this control is impossible. Yet occasionally some community or region proves to be a natural laboratory in which certain social forces can be studied on a small scale and some conclusions drawn with regard to the broader implications. The influences of a rapid growth of population and a marked degree of population mobility are becoming increasingly apparent. In various parts of the United States certain communities serve to illustrate the effects on education of the forces growing out of population movement. In the boom towns of the oil fields of Oklahoma