Historical Perspectives: The National Defense Education Act, Current STEM Initiative, and the Gifted

Abstract

Oh little Sputnik, flying highWith made-in-Moscow beep, You tell the world it’s a Commie skyAnd Uncle Sam’s asleep.You say on fairway and on roughThe Kremlin knows it allWe hope our golfer knows enoughTo get us on the ball.—Gov. G. Mennen Williams (Michigan)During the past several years, much discus-sion has focused on developing America’s future scientists, technologists, engineers, and math-ematicians (STEM) in order to remain viable and competitive in a growing global economy (Friedman, 2005). In retrospect, America has had a long-standing involvement with STEM issues that dates back to the establishment of West Point in 1802. West Point graduates designed many of the railroads, bridges, and roads so important to this country’s early expansion. The Morrill Act of 1862, originally intended to estab-lish colleges and universities to study agricul-ture and mechanical arts, also supported science and engineering programs. This indirectly led to the establishment of the university research system (Butz et al., 2004). In more recent history, parallels can be drawn between STEM initia-tives involving the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957, its legislative history, and the current “quiet crisis” over America’s ability to compete globally (Friedman, 2005). This article examines the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) and present-day STEM initiatives in relation to gifted education. More than 50 years ago, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union propelled Sputnik, a 185-pound sphere of aluminum, into space; it orbited the Earth for a brief 98 minutes. “As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world’s atten-tion and the American public off-guard,” and also garnered swift action from the U.S. federal government (National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA], 2008, para. 4). The United States’ reaction to the launch of Sputnik, coupled with an already ongoing criticism of the American educational system, set the stage for an unprecedented infusion of funding from the federal government to reform public education at all levels. In 1958, the U.S. Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (P.L. 85–864) in order to counteract the seemingly superior Soviet school system that focused on training young scientists and creating an “elite genera-tion” of our own pipeline of STEM workers (Passow, 1957).