When they, began their journey, the Thirty Schools had many common goals. This fact is clearly revealed in their first statements of purposes. For example, they all sought adaptation of work to individual needs, greater mastery of skills, more opportunity for release of creative energy, more continuity in learning, greater unity of school experiences. It is equally clear, however, that in the early years few schools had any dominant purpose to which all other purposes were related. One searches their original statements in vain for indication of central purpose. But out of great tribulation they found it. Statements of objectives were revised again and again. "Out of all the possible experiences which the high school should provide for youth," they asked, ,,which ones should we select? flow shall we decide?" From those early attempts to discover the direction in which they should travel, there emerged one great central purpose.

It must be emphasized that this sense of the need for basic, guiding principles came gradually in the schools of the Study. Although many important and worthy objectives are to be found in the first proposals, it was not until about 1937 that sure sense of direction was expressed in the philosophy of the member schools. Even as late as 1935 there was still reluctance on the part of many representatives of the schools to devote any considerable portion of the annual meeting of school Heads and the Commission to consideration of fundamental principles of American education. At the conclusion of a session devoted to search for the meaning of democracy, several school principals said, "This has been very interesting, but let's give no more time to philosophy. What we need is discussion of the practical job of curriculum revision." But two years later everyone recognized the need of a sound philosophy for reconstruction of American secondary education.

They found what they sought in the democratic ideal, in the American way of life. "The high school in the United States," they said, "should be a demonstration, in all phases of its activity, of the kind of life in which we as a people believe." If the reader will turn to the final school reports in Volume V, he will discover that the chief concern of every school now is to maintain and promote the American way of life. Two extracts from these reports make this clear. One is taken from the report of a university school; the other, front a large public school.

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