was occupied at the beginning of the present school year is a thing of beauty and a delight to visit. It is equipped with all modern school ap pliances, but the particularly attractive feature is the fine pictures, paintings and works of art that adorn the walls and nooks of the schoolrooms and hallways. Most of them are copies of the famous works of the Old Masters and are the gifts and loans of a wealthy lover of art who resides in Santa Barbara and who knows the value of such things to schoolrooms and to children. I regret that I am unable now to mention his name.

St. Vincent's Orphanage was also visited while in Santa Barbara and found in excellent condition.

VENTURA

December 3d, in company with County Superintendent George L Sackett, I visited all the schools of the city of Ventura. Principal E. W. Kauffman assembled the pupils of the high school and I made a few remarks to them, as did also Superintendent Sackett. Principal Kauffman, without ostentation or much noise, is directing some splendid high school work and his efforts are being ably seconded by his five competent assistants. The people of Ventura appreciate their high school and well they may. The primary and grammar schools of that city are among the best in several respects that I have ever observed. The school buildings and school rooms have been planned and arranged with reference to utility and not wholly to ornamentation or looks. The arrangement of seats, doors, windows and window-shades so as to secure comfort, convenience, and proper light is at once noted on entering any of the rooms. Hygienic conditions have been thoughtfully looked after by the school authorities of the city.

In the afternoon a hasty visit was made to the flourishing new town of Oxnard, where a good public school building has recently been completed and is now occupied by about two hundred students and four teachers, under the principalship of Mr. R. B. Haydock. The growth of Oxnard is phenomenal; in two years a substantial town of fifteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants has sprung up, owing almost exclusively to the establishment of the extensive sugar factory and refinery at that place. Thousands of acres of beets are cultivated in the vicinity, and it is an industry that will doubtless long continue, for the soil is well adapted to beet growing. By courtesy of the factory superintendent I was taken thru the vast establishment and shown the intricate process of converting the raw material from the beet into the finest quality of granulated sugar.

SAN DIEGO

December 6th I visited the State Normal School at San Diego. This school, under the efficient management of President Black, is rapidly forging to the front, and even now is worthy to rank with the older Normal Schools

of the State. I found two hundred and fifty students enrolled and, if the growth continues as it has continued during the past three years, the completion of the west wing of the building will soon be an absolute necessity. A splendid school spirit both in faculty and in students is readily discerned by the visitor, and the high character of the class room instruction gives ample evidence that Mr. Black has been very fortunate in the choice of the teachers which he has called to his assistance in the work there.

ANAHEIM

On December 7th St. Catherine's Orphanage at Anaheim, in charge of the Dominican Sisters, was visited. It is the duty of the State Superintendent to visit orphan schools that receive State aid. I found at this Orphanage one hundred and seventy-five boys, thirty of them under five and one hundred and forty-five between five and fourteen years of age. It was Saturday, but the Sisters called the boys together and showed me several things that they can do, and it was shown that they can do a number of things well. Many of these boys were abandoned by their parents and the Sisters have received them as waifs from the streets, and they are teaching them morals, manners and other things that will tell for good citizenship. In my judgment the money which the State pays toward the maintenance of these orphanages, one hundred dollars a year for a full orphan and seventyfive dollars for a half orphan, is well invested. All the orphanages thruout the State are in charge of women and they are doing noble service for unfortunate humanity. They are saving to society and to the State an element which, if uncared for, would prove the very worst that ignorance, poverty and vice could produce. The boys at St. Catherine's are provided with a good home, they are well fed and warmly clothed and they become attached to the Sisters as children to their mothers, and deservedly so, for the Sisters are loving and kind to them.

LOS ANGELES

On Monday, December 9th, accompanied by City Superintendent James A. Foshay, I visited the State Normal at Los Angeles. This State institution is too well and favorably known to need much report upon. The State has made large investment here in building and equipment for the training and preparation of teachers for service in the public schools. In the ranks of the instructors are a number of veteran, proven educators. The enrollment in the Normal department is about six hundred, five-sixths of the number being young women. The gymnasium which is being added will be completed and ready for occupancy in a few months. It will give needed rooms for physical training and domestie science and also for some of the model-school work. The State has every reason for pride in the Los Angeles Normal School.

The Los Angeles high school was also visited and the twelve hundred pupils which I was informed are in attendance are in a degree a manifesta

tion of the wonderful growth and educational interest of that city. The commercial department, in which are taught bookkeeping, commercial law, stenography,typewriting, and other business branches has a separate building, especially and uniquely constructed, just across the street from the main high school building. It is of the Spanish or old California style of architecture, in the form of a quadrangle, the interior court having a fountain, an herbarium, etc. Principal W. H. Housh, a pioneer, but up-to-date teacher, seems to have little difficulty in drawing designs upon the trestle boards to be followed by the thirty odd teachers and the twelve hundred pupils. The work of the school in the main department, however, is more or less hampered by poorly arranged and inadequate school rooms. Los Angeles must soon meet the new and further demands of the high school by another high school building.

ST. HELENA

At St. Helena, Napa County, on the 14th of December, I assisted in the dedication of one of the handsomest and most commodious eight-room public school buildings that I believe has ever been erected in the state. The building is up-to-date in every particular. The exterior is of a fine quality of sandstone from a quarry near by. The plan of the building observes the latest discoveries and inventions in heating, seating, lighting, and ventilating.

The architect, Mr. W. H. Corlett, being a Napa County man, seems to have taken particular pains in drawing the designs, and, I am informed, was constantly on hand to oversee the work and to note that every detail was properly carried out. Telephone, electric call bells for every room, program clock, slate blackboards, single adjustable new seats, latest style of teachers' desks and chairs, wide hallways, gradually sloping rubber covered steps, sanitary plumbing and arrangement of wash basins and closets are among the conveniences and facilities that are provided.

The school board, composed of Owen Wade, Bismark Bruck, and Ernest Mason, under whose direction the bonds of the district were voted and the plan of building conceived and carried to completion, deserve great credit; they gave their time and attention to the building while it was under way, and it was with great pride that they saw it finished and took part in the exercises which dedicated it to the work of the public school. I am informed that F. J. Merrian, who was for a time a member of the board of trustees, also deserves much credit for the voting of bonds and planning for the building. It is also evident that the splendid school spirit which has made the erection of such an edifice at that place possible is due in no small measure to the efficient services of Principal E. L. Cave and his assistant teachers. County Superintendent John A. Imrie and Mrs. Imrie accompanied Mrs. Kirk and myself to St. Helena on the occasion of the dedication.

INYO COUNTY

Debember 17 to 20, I attended the teachers' institute at Bishop, Inyo County. Bishop is a town of about five hundred inhabitants, lying at the

eastern base of some of the highest peaks of the Sierras. Mt. Tom rises above the little village to the height of about nine thousand feet. It was my first visit to the place, and I was surprised to find a community so remote that possesses so much educational interest and is so progressive and wide awake in many things. There are but twenty-three teachers in the county, and every one of them was in attendance at the institute and never missed a roll call. Every teacher, too, had been assigned some duty by the superintendent, and there was not a single excuse offered. Some highly credible papers were read, and the institute was a success mainly because the teachers of the county participated in the proceedings. Inyo County has good schools because it has Mr. Clay Hampton, a competent superintendent and an earnest body of teachers. Not entertainment, but helpfulness in their school work is what they seek in the institute. Mr. A. B. Coffey was the principal outside instructor at the institute and his efforts seemed to be highly appreciated.

While at Bishop I also visited an Indian School which is supported by the govenment. Miss Barrows, who is in charge, has wrought a wonderful change upon about fifty Indian boys and girls who come in from the huts and wigwams of the plains to receive her instruction. I regret that so many of the white people there are of the opinion that the Indians of that locality have not been improved as citizens by the government's efforts to educate them.

In pursuance of a resolution adopted by the Council of Education at Pacific Grove, State Superintendent Thomas J. Kirk, Chairman of the Council, was directed to appoint three more members to the committee on Course of Study for Elementary Schools, and he announces that he has appointed the following:

Dr. F. B. DRESSLAR, Berkeley;

SUPT. C. C. HUGHES, Alameda;

MR. WM. H. BAKER, San Jose State Normal School.

The committee will then consist of these three persons and the members already serving, towit:

SUPT. J. W. LINSCOTT of Santa Cruz, Chairman;

P. M. FISHER, Oakland;

SUPT. J. A. WAGENER, of Modesto.

Much is expected of this committee. It is presumed that the members. will meet and confer a number of times during the present year and be able to make a full and comprehensive report on the all important matter which has been referred to them, at the next meeting of the Council, to be held during the State Teachers' Association in Los Angeles.

THOMAS J. KIRK,

Superintendent Public Instruction.

WESTWARD THE STAR OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY"

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False Pretense. The hypocrite in religion has always been advised to take a back seat. The hypocrite in business has always been denied credit. The hypocrite in the professions has always been avoided. The hypocrite in educational affairs must now be dealt with. It is a crime to get money or merchandise by false pretense. It is more than a crime, it is vulgar to get or hold an educational position by hyprocrisy. Just now educational ethics have divided leaders into two classes. The one class say: "We stand for merit." The other class say: "We stand for our friends." Up to a certain point, strange as it may seem, there is a distinction but no difference between the two classes. No man who has in him divine and human traits will turn his back on a friend. The man who does is not only a bad citizen-he is outlaw to all the finer forces of social and political life. He is not, however, as bad as a man who will put a friend in a public position where he cannot render good public service. The great bad is in working under a system of pure civil service, for publicity, and in the secret caucus working under a system of personal and political pull. It is to the glory of the State of California that we have in it so many men that stand for the highest ideals in educational service. Avoid the man, the Board of Education, and the system that is not true all thru. Let all who pretend to that which they are not be tarred with the same stick as the fool, the hypocrite in religion, in business, and in the professions of law and medicine.

**

For Close Organization. Supt. W. C. Doub introduced a resolution which was passed at the California Teachers' Association to organize the teachers of the State into an effective working body. This is a good plan. It is urgently necessary. The California Teachers' Association lacks permanency of organization, definiteness of aim, and mobility in the direction of reforms, legislation, social, professional, etc. A permanent organization of the teachers a union of the several thousand workers of the State would be a powerful factor for self-advancement and public welfare. Do you suppose for a moment that artisans would be receiving eight dollars to fifteen dollars per day were it not for the fact that they have an organization that stands for definite aims? President Faulkner has appointed an excellent committee and results are sure to follow.