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THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION
ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES, AND

ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER I

HISTORY

The Bureau of Education1 constitutes a unit of the Department of the Interior. It is headed by a Commissioner of Education, appointed by the President, but immediately responsible to the Secretary of the Interior.

Broadly speaking, the bureau is charged with the collection and dissemination of information on education in the United States and abroad, and the promotion of the cause of better education in the United States."

Pre-legislative Period. Agitation for the collection and dissemination of statistics on education in the United States by a government agency was begun before 1838 by Henry Barnard of Connecticut, a disciple of Horace Mann. Barnard urged that information concerning illiteracy, schools, academies, and colleges be incorporated among the figures of the 1840 census. He succeeded in having this done.

On the basis of the results thus shown Barnard during the next few years carried on an active campaign by means of addresses, memorials, and the like, expounding the need for, and urging the establishment of an official agency (preferably national) to collect and distribute reliable information on the condition and improvement of the means of popular education.

'The official designation is "Office of Education."

2 The administration of native schools, medical relief of natives and the supervision of reindeer herds and other enterprises in Alaska, together with the supervision of the administration of government funds for “land grant" colleges are important and exacting duties of the bureau. Theoretically, however, they are secondary and incidental.

I

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