To teach new content in new ways, teachers found themselves inadequately prepared. To become a competent teacher of a core curriculum group was especially difficult. The "core" teacher may have been a teacher of any "subject." He still retains his special field of interest and scholarship, but he is the leader of a group of young people because be has become a person of sympathy, insight, and wisdom, devoted to the service of youth in the whole range of their interests and concerns.

He has not been this kind of teacher always. He has been a good teacher of his subject, and he has always been interested in boys and girls; but he thought, until a few years ago, that his responsibility was fulfilled when he did his best as a teacher in his own field of specialization. Then about 1933 be found his school and himself involved in this Eight-Year Study. With his principal and colleagues he engaged in serious reconsideration of the school's service to its boys and girls. That re-examination revealed important needs of young people which were not being met 1)), the school or by any other agency in the community. It was decided that the school should attempt to provide for certain of these neglected concerns of youth. Because this teacher was highly intelligent, close to his students, progressive and creative in his outlook upon education and life, he was chosen to be the leader of one of the student groups.

He did not consider himself ready for his new an(] wider responsibilities, as, indeed, he was not. But no other teacher was any better prepared for the new work. he and other teachers like him set out with great courage to go along with boys and girls on the high road of youth's adventure in living. They would do the best they could, and they would learn month after month and year after year how better to lead their boys and girls into fuller and more satisfying living. They knew the task would be difficult-trail blazing always is-but they were confident that they could become competent in their new work.

Hundreds of them did become competent in their larger and more significant responsibilities. In all the schools many teachers have had a new birth of freedom. Their lives, professionally and personally, have been immeasurably enriched. Teaching has become a thrilling, absorbing experience. This new life has not been won without cost. They have spent long hours in hard study and in almost endless conference with other teachers, with students and parents. But they all testify that their present joy in their work, their deep sense of satisfaction in knowing they are serving youth more vitally are worth all the cost and more.³¹

No small part of the increasing strength of the schools and the growth of teachers is duc to the work of the Curriculum Associates. In response to requests from the schools for help, men who were themselves distinguished teachers were selected to serve as consultants in their fields of special competence. They came to the schools, not as authorities with ready-made solutions, but as experienced students of curriculum problems, willing and ready to work with the local teacher in the solution of his problems. They were without official authority; their influence depended wholly upon the worth and applicability of their ideas. Under these conditions the schools welcomed their coming and profited steadily year after year from their assistance.

What to teach and how to teach-these are the constant concerns of education. The Thirty Schools have tried to teach more important things in better ways. This chapter indicates briefly, of necessity, what they did and how they did it. Volume II of this Report, Exploring the Curriculum, tells the story in ninch greater detail, and Volume V, Thirty Schools Tell Their Story, records each school's report of its work and manner of working. The schools participating in the Eight Year Study have not come to the end of the high road of adventure. Although the Commission's work ends with the publication of this Report, the work of the schools goes on. They know that much pioneering is yet to be done. They know, also, that some of the trails they have blazed are good paths to follow.

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