THE CALIFORNIA GENERAL SCHOOL EXHIBIT.

Less than 50 feet distant from the university pavilion is the handsome booth of polished wood inclosing California's general school exhibit for the State. The inclosed area is in the form of a trapezium, containing 1,700 square feet. The façades on three sides are of classic design. Doric columns and fluted pilasters support a rich cornice, 14 feet above the floor. The whole structure, however, has many features that are distinctively Californian. A continuous arcade facing the broad aisles on the three exposed sides is characteristic of California's mission architecture. Two arched windows of art glass, symbolizing California's fruits and flowers, light the office at the sharp angle of the trapezium. No stain or paint mars the natural beauty of the native redwood, furnished only from California forests. The installation is unique and original, as well as artistic. Beneath nine of the graceful arches along the side façades are cabinets that open outward, while at their backs a corresponding number of cabinets open to inner aisles. Cross sections or blocks of eight cabinets each, with aisles between, fill the interior floor space. Four large arches of the front façade and one on the longer side are invitingly open to visitors.

The inner walls of the façades are beautified by framed photographic views of rare size and excellence. A view of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, 14 feet in length, has attracted the attention of many thousands of visitors. A photograph 12 feet in length is of the Leland Stanford Junior University. One of the State capitol at Sacramento is 8 feet in length; two of 6 feet each are of the State normal school building at San Jose. Santa Clara and Notre Dame colleges in Santa Clara County are shown in photographs, each over 7 feet in length. All of these grand pictures are from 2 to 3 feet each in width inside of frame. Except the view of the State capitol, all are by Andrew P. Hill, of San Jose, and came in the educational exhibit from Santa Clara County.

Art work in water colors and crayon sketches by high school pupils, alternated with exhibits in sloyd, Indian baskets, and other constructive work in wood and metal from manual training schools, all harmoniously arranged, form mosaics of the walls above the arches.

Eighty-four winged cabinets with shelved bases resting on the floor are filled with material from the elementary and secondary schools of the State. It is here in nearly 1,000 bound books and over 10,000 cabinet exhibits that the schools of California have their display. Nearly all of the cities and counties that rank well educationally are represented by exhibit material from their schools.

San Francisco has over 300 bound books, a wall exhibit of manual training. and 10 cabinets filled with pupils' work.

Los Angeles city has 7 cabinets, several bound volumes, a display of sloyd, and a fine exhibit of Indian basketwork from pupils of the elementary grades. Ten cabinets of material are from Los Angeles County, outside the city. This includes Pasadena, Pomona, Whittier, Long Beach, Compton, and other towns, also many rural schools.

The city of Oakland has 7 cabinets filled with drawings, water colors, and sketches, a wall exhibit, showcases filled with the handiwork of pupils, and 80 bound volumes. Berkeley has 3 cabinets and a number of books on shelves and in showcases. The county of Alameda, outside of the cities, presents an attractive display of pupils' work from the town, village, and rural schools, also an exhibit of school administration in the county, a cabinet of the wild flowers of the county, and a cabinet of drawings from the Haywards schools. This exhibit has also a large number of photographs of school build

ings in city, town, and country, together with a relief map of Alameda County. Twenty-five substantially bound books of miscellaneous school work accompany this exhibit.

Fresno County makes its display in 6 cabinets, 4 of which are filled with work from Fresno city schools. The city also displays 2 wall trays of high school manual training and some attractive water colors and sketches by high school students. Twenty-seven bulky volumes contain the written work of the Fresno exhibit.

Sacramento County is represented with 5 cabinets of material and a number of bound books. One of the cabinets is from the county outside the city, and contains exhibits from rural and town schools. A large album contains views of the school-houses throughout the county. The artistic design on the glass front of the Sacramento cabinets attracts much attention aside from the merits of exhibits within.

The Stockton exhibit, which fills 6 cabinets, occupies a prominent place in the front section, where it is seldom without visitors. It shows the work of a year in every class of every grade in the Stockton city schools. Material, which was taken daily from class exercises, is on manila paper as it came from the class room, uncorrected. There are duplicate sets of books, by which arrangement the work is presented both by subjects and by grades. A color scheme in the binding enables the visitor to quickly find the particular subject and book that he may wish to inspect. A typewritten outline of method used by teacher, the requirements of the course of study, and the daily programme showing time allotment for subject, all precede pupils' work, filling several pages at the beginning of each book. There are some 200 neatly bound books in the Stockton display. Some original lines of study are shown in "Books of industries," "Books of excursions," and in albums of fine photographic views of the industrial activities in and around Stockton. There are also “Books of methods," Books of programs," a monograph on "The interior decorations of schools," and a series of books outlining a course in physical training, all by teachers in the Stockton department.

Sonoma County illustrates her course of study in a number of bound books and in 3 cabinets filled with drawings, maps, and photographs, chiefly from the primary and grammar schools of the county. There is also a showcase of native woods and rocks collected by pupils, a statistical table containing data of growth and financial support of schools in the county, and two large photographs of high school buildings.

Kern County has four cabinets, a manual training exhibit in wood and iron from the county high school, and thirty neatly bound volumes of pupils' work. The binding in this exhibit was done by pupils in the manual-training depart ment of the Kern County High School. It is perhaps the best illustration of practical skill in handiwork of any displayed in the California exhibit.

Under the folds of a beautiful flag suspended from the inside cornice are three cabinets containing the Ventura County exhibit. Partly concealed by the Stars and Stripes is a lithographic map of Ventura County, showing the location of school districts.

Monterey County presents a fine collection of sea shells and other marine fossils from the Pacific. The collection was made by the pupils of Bay district, Monterey County, where such material is used for nature study and language work. This display of Pacific coast shells is much admired by people from the Mississippi Valley States, who are not familiar with marine products. Monterey County has also a cabinet of illustrative work from her schools.

Marin County has one cabinet, a number of large books of material from rural and town schools, and some drawings and apparatus made by pupils of

the San Rafael High School. This display is chiefly representative of the primary and grammar schools of the county, the material having been selected from typical schools and classes.

One cabinet and some seventy bound books comprise an exhibit from Santa Cruz County. The display is of both elementary and secondary education. There are many beautiful photographs of the redwood forests and of scenes on the ocean beach, used in connection with both language and geographical work. Two cabinets were secured from Placer County for a display of its schools. The material from the Auburn schools was lost in transit. One cabinet is filled by the county schools, including the Placer County High School.

Two schools only are represented in the exhibit from San Bernardino County. The Lugonia and the Kingsbury schools, of Redlands, have each an exhibit both in manual training and in regular lines of everyday activities in their classes.

El Dorado, Orange, and Santa Barbara counties have each sent some work to illustrate education in their respective counties.

There is a private exhibit of sea mosses and marine algae, scientifically classified and well mounted, filling one wall cabinet, from San Diego County.

The Hitchcock Military School, at San Rafael, has an exhibit in woodwork representing the course of study in that branch of manual training and displaying the skill of young students in handiwork.

The State library, at Sacramento, has three of its traveling libraries, each containing fifty books, on exhibition. It also has a handsome wall cabinet of large photographic views of the leading public libraries of the State, accompanied by a monograph on California's public libraries. Several thousand copies of this monograph are for distribution.

There is an exhibit from the Von Meyerink School of Music, in San Francisco, an exhibit in school architecture showing many fine school buildings of the State, also a model of a school building suitable for California climate, by a firm of architects of San Francisco, and one cabinet of photographs showing manual-training plant of the Wilmerding School, the California School of Mechanical Arts, the Polytechnic High School of San Francisco, and the Anna Blake School for Manual Training, at Santa Barbara. There is an exhibit in wall pictures of the Throop Polytechnic Institute, at Pasadena; also of the State Polytechnic School, at San Luis Obispo.

California's five State normal schools have a collective exhibit in photography, filling one cabinet and making an attractive wall display. The State institution for the deaf and the blind has one cabinet, some bound books, and some constructive work made by students in the institution.

Administration of the school system of California is displayed in a carefully arranged exhibit from the office of the superintendent of public instruction. It consists of copies of school laws, reports of State superintendent, school registers, and a large book of forms containing blanks of every description used in the administration of schools. A full set of the State school text-books accompanies this exhibit.

Four monographs on education were prepared expressly for the California educational exhibit. A thousand copies of each will be distributed during the time of the exposition. Other literature bearing upon education in California is being gratuitously distributed. Some 5,000 copies of an illustrated report from the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, of San Francisco, are for free distribution. Ten thousand copies of "California," a 200-page book setting forth the activities of the people of the Golden State, including educational activity, are being given away in the different exhibition buildings.

Statistical data relating to the public educational system and its means of

support are found in the biennial report of superintendent of public instruction, many copies of which have been distributed during the time of the exposition. It has been the aim of those having the exhibit in charge to present a fair and full display of the work of California's schools. While every phase of education may not appear in it, yet the exhibit is sufficiently comprehensive to include all of the State's leading educational activities. Some things that are distinctively Californian have been emphasized in the material presented for display. The industries of the people, the products of the soil, the fruits and flowers of the State, together with the scenic grandeur of its mountains and forests, have all been used as subject-matter for composition and drawing in the elementary grades. It is worthy of note that some of the exhibits display work showing a close relation between the class room and the industrial activities in the neighborhood. At least one large exhibit presents evidence of a successful effort to correlate the work of the school with the work of life. Classes of pupils have been taken to the factories, the mills and the workshops of their city, also the dairies, the orchards, and the vineyards of the surrounding country to study the industries and the products of their locality. Written descriptions, illustrated with drawings and photographs of the things noted, preserve a record of such visits. A like tendency to bring the work of the schools nearer to the people is observable in some exhibits of secondary education, also in several of the courses outlined for college work at the university. This should be especially gratifying to those who have heretofore claimed that the trend of education is in the opposite direction.

COLORADO.

BY HELEN L. GRENFELL, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, AND JAMES B. RAGAN, DIRECTOR OF EXHIBIT.

ORGANIZATION.

The school system of Colorado was formally established by act of the legislature in 1861. Comprehensive enactments were made, and the management of school affairs was placed in the hands of a Territorial superintendent, county superintendents, and district boards. County and district taxation for the support of the schools was established, and even in these early days interest and pride in educational conditions were manifest.

In 1876 Colorado was made a State. The school system was established by the constitution, and the statutes gave it equal consideration with other matters of weight and importance. A superintendent of public instruction was placed at the head of the educational system, and was to be elected at the same time as the governor and other State officials, for a term of two years and with a salary of $3,000. This official provides the questions for county examinations of teachers, held three times a year, edits the school law, gives decisions upon points of school law, and supervises the work of the county superintendents of the whole State. He also distributes the school income fund twice a year to the various counties of the State. He is president of the State board of education and the State board of examiners, and is a member of the State land board.

The State school fund is derived from the sale of lands bestowed by act of Congress upon the schools of the State. These amounted originally to some 3,500,000 acres, and are mineral, grazing, and agricultural in character. The

income from the rentals of these lands and from the interest of the school fund forms the school income fund, which is semiannually distributed as stated above. The other school revenues are derived through a system of local taxation (a general county tax fixed by each board of county commissioners, the minimum allowed being 2 mills, and a special tax levied by the electors and varying in amount in the districts of the different classes) and from fines and forfeitures fixed by law.

Provision was made in the constitution for the establishment of a State university, and the institution was opened in 1877. It is located in the town of Boulder and has become far-reaching in its influence. Its first president was Dr. Joseph A. Sewall, the position being filled for the past twelve years by Dr, James H. Baker. The university is supported by a two-fifths mill State levy. A school of mines was established at Golden in Territorial days and is a flourishing institution at the present time. Its students receive practical instruc

tion in all lines of importance in mining work, such as engineering, assaying, etc., and its graduates may be found in the South African and South American gold fields, Europe, Australia, and Alaska, as well as in important positions throughout our own States.

The State Agricultural College was established at Fort Collins in 1879, and is doing excellent work in solving the agricultural problems peculiar to an arid region.

The State normal school was established at Greeley in 1890, and yearly sends out a large class of well-equipped teachers, but as yet the supply of teachers obtained from high school and college graduates and the normal school is insufficient to meet the demand of the State, which circumstance has attracted instructors from every part of the Union. In 1877 a law was enacted providing for the establishment and support of teachers' normal institutes, the various counties of the State being grouped for the purpose into thirteen institute districts. The county superintendents serve as members of the executive committees managing the institutes. The instruction in these institutes is given by educational people of high standing and has been productive of much good, better equipping teachers for the work of the smaller schools.

Institutions of importance are the State school for the deaf and blind and the State industrial schools for boys and girls, the work of which is on a thoroughly practical basis and is accomplishing most helpful results for the classes of children concerned.

A law providing for the establishment of free kindergartens in any school district was passed in 1893, and provides for the training of children from 3 to 6 years old, the latter being the age of eligibility to enter the regular public school work.

The common school work provides for eight years' elementary and four years' high school work. The law demands that the elementary schools must be maintained for at least sixteen weeks in each year to be entitled to a share of the State school income fund.

Local school affairs are managed by boards of directors of from three to five members, who are elected by vote of the people, the terms being from three to five years. These boards have full power to employ and discharge teachers, fix the course of study for the schools, and make rules and regulations governing them. In districts having over 1,000 children of school age the boards have the power to examine and certificate teachers, and also to fix the amount of the special district tax before mentioned.

Women in Colorado have always had the right to vote for members of school boards and to be members. Since the granting of full political rights to women, through act of the legislature in 1893, at least one-half of the county superintend