1944 - Education

Education

The G.I. Bill of Rights (Servicemen's Readjustment Act) signed into law June 22 will finance college educations for millions of U.S. war veterans. Some leading educators, including Harvard president James Bryant Conant, now 51, and University of Chicago president Robert Maynard Hutchins, now 45, have opposed the measure on grounds that it would ruin higher education in America, but they will be proved wrong. The law guarantees government payment for up to 365 days of education or vocational training, and many trade schools will spring up to take advantage of the law.

Parliament adopts an Education Act creating two basic classes of school, grammar and secondary modern, based on the ideas of University College, London, psychologist Cyril Burt, now 61, who has determined that some pupils have high levels of academic intelligence while others can benefit more from practically-based education (see 1923; 1966).