EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 347 



to study questions of education from the point of 

 view of popular conceptions of desirability and of 

 pedagogical practicability. This State Board of Edu- 

 cation appointed three Commissioners of Education 

 to superintend and revise elementary, secondary and 

 vocational instruction ; four State Supervisors to deal 

 with instruction in physical culture, agriculture, 

 home economics and vocational war work. All these 

 agencies were supplementary to the State Superin- 

 tendent of Public Instruction, an elective officer 

 existing from the beginning of the State govern- 

 ment. Every session of the legislature has much to 

 do with the re-fitting and extension of the school law 

 and tries to keep pace with the progressive develop- 

 ment of the school system in the public and the peda- 

 gogical mind. The system has become very exten- 

 sive as the statistics in the Appendix will sufficiently 

 indicate. The work of the State Board and of its 

 expert commissioners resulted in great progress 

 toward an ultimate attainment in courses of study 

 and equipment and ability in the use of them, which 

 shall satisfy the public mind as to what the schools 

 should do to fit youth for practical life. There is at 

 least a wide conviction that the schools are moving 

 forward in the right direction. The new point of 

 view and direction of effort are indicated by the fol- 

 lowing declaration by the Board of Education in its 

 report of 1918 : 



"The most distinctive movement in education not 

 only in California but throughout the United States, 

 wherever the problems of elementary and high school 



