Feb. 25, 1942: UCLA Provost Earle Hedrick (d. 1943) describes the prevailing disdain for the “three Rs” as “the Pearl Harbor” of American education.
Charging that American education is ruled by an elite clique, Hedrick says: “I propose that we … refuse to bend the knee to the wearers of the old-school-tie of educational hierarchy.”
His main complaint is that American schools do a poor job of teaching mathematics. Mechanics, pilots, navigators and others in the American military are challenged by simple problems, says Hedrick, a former math professor.
Southern California remains on alert after a Japanese submarine shelled the Ellwood oil field near Santa Barbara.
“Roxie Hart” opens tomorrow at Grauman’s Chinese and Loew’s State.
Edwin Schallert writes that Warner Bros. is in negotiations to get Joan Fontaine, who is under contract to David O. Selznick, to star with her sister Olivia de Havilland in “Devotion.” (The role went to Ida Lupino, in case you’re wondering.)
ladailymirror.com 
It sounds like the Provost is painting with a rather broad brush, from his bully pulpit. Literacy rate statistics, if they were even tabulated in that era, would make interesting reading.
Somehow, the Greatest Generation, some taught in 1-room schools, some educated in privledged settings, managed to prevail over the Axis. I’m sure our men and woman improved their math skills real quick when it mattered the most, be it in an aircraft plant, or along a hedgerow in Normandy.
Thanks to the GI Bill, those lucky enough to have survived WW-II probably received a fine education at the university, under a different Provost.
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Reportedly sisters Olivia and Joan had a falling out and didn’t speak to each other for decades. Did it start here?
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