Their efficiency differs with the vision and effectiveness with
which they are administered by the different states.

Many states have added incalculably to the usefulness of the
schools by relating the curriculum to life through industrial and
vocational training, but much remains to be accomplished in attaining
a proper balance in the adjustment of the cultural and the practical
in the public school courses.

The state of Ohio affords an interesting illustration of the wider
relation of the public schools to the life of the school
population.

"In the winter of 1914, nearly one thousand boys and girls of
Ohio, in five special trains, were sent on a tour which embraced
the cities of Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, as a reward
for their efficiency in agriculture and domestic science. The
people of Ohio have found that it pays to encourage thrift and
industry in their children, for since these "corn tours," as they
are termed, were started, the annual value of the corn crop of Ohio
has become almost twenty million dollars _more_ than it formerly was."
[Footnote: Outlook, Dec. 16, 1914.]

Public School, No. 23, of Mulberry Bend, New York, stands in the
heart of an Italian district of more than 100,000 souls, and draws
also from the great Chinese section. Various other nationalities in
less degree contribute their quota, so that the school ministers to
the children of twenty-nine different nationalities.