In the 1940s army recruits was considered knew so little math than they needed for basic bookkeeping and gunnery whereas such basic skills should be learned by all student. Besides, most students did not have adequate intellectual capability for college work and skilled occupation (Klein, 2003). Thus, they needed a school program to prepare them for every day living. Accordingly, by the mid-1940s, a new educational program called the Life Adjustment Movement emerged where math focused purely on practical problems such as consumer buying, insurance, taxation, and home budgeting, instead of advanced math such as algebra, geometry, or trigonometry (Klein, 2003).

Some of the immediate effects of life adjustment education according to Fallace (2011) are that it increased students' personal adjustment, emphasized better family living, improved intergroup relations, and emphasized community study along with pupil-teacher planning.