---
title: 'Schools at War: The Teacher, Democracy''s Secret Weapon'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/schools-at-war-teacher-secret-weapon-1945/
description: Colour photograph cover of a teacher in a red dress and a boy in a blue shirt reading an open book at a desk, with a wall map and globe behind.
section: Collection
---

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3. Schools at War: The Teacher, Democracy's Secret Weapon

[![Schools at War: The Teacher, Democracy's Secret Weapon, 1945 US poster: Colour photograph cover of a teacher in a red dress](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/schools-at-war-teacher-secret-weapon-1945.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/schools-at-war-teacher-secret-weapon-1945.jpg)

# Schools at War: The Teacher, Democracy's Secret Weapon

Colour photograph cover of a teacher in a red dress and a boy in a blue shirt reading an open book at a desk, with a wall map and globe behind, under the title 'Schools at War'. The slogan 'The Teacher, Democracy's Secret Weapon' attaches a wartime role and a large abstract value to classroom work (glittering generalities, transfer).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
SCHOOLS AT WAR
FEBRUARY 1945
QUARTERLY WAR SAVINGS NEWS BULLETIN FOR TEACHERS
THE TEACHER—DEMOCRACY'S SECRET WEAPON
[book spine: Two Sailors]
[other book spines: illegible]
[imprint: Photo by Nicholas Muray]
[handwritten: 44-PA-1685]
```

[← Save your fingers by keeping guard down and using push stick!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/save-your-fingers-push-stick-1945/) [Serve Those Who Served, Nurses Are Needed in Veterans Administration Hospitals →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/serve-those-who-served-nurses-1945/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
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- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
