Apparently, there was a national movement toward ‘Progressive Education’ in the 1940′s, geared towards educating students beyond the standard disciplines of reading, arithmetic, geography and writing. The ideal was to train young minds to be responsible, self-reliant, and to become equipped with the ability to live in the ‘World of the Future’. As the announcer says, the ‘stern’ education of the past was a test of memory, not understanding. And then we see little Johnny getting his a$$ beat with a stick, at frame 1:47.
Ah, yessss….the good old days 
