Sacramento County
Biographies
WILL C. WOOD
WILL C. WOOD.--An idealist and an advanced thinker along lines relating to
the modern educational system, who is interested heart
and soul in the proper education of the children of California, is Will C. Wood, the able superintendent of public
instruction of California. He was born at Elmira, Solano
County, Cal., on December 10, 1880, the son of Emerson and Martha Jane (Turner) Wood. On his father's side
his ancestry runs back to Puritan New England, where his English forebears
settled in 1632. His mother's family were Southern
people who emigrated from Missouri to California in 1864.
Will C. Wood received his early education
in the rural schools of his native county. He attended the Elmira high school, graduating in 1898, and then entered the Vacaville high school, from which he graduated with the class of
1900. After the completion of his secondary studies he entered Stanford
University, but discontinued his studies there in 1902 to enter upon
his work at teaching. His first school was conducted in a one-room rural school
building in Suisun Valley. At the close of one term there he was elected principal
of the Fairfield grammar school, where he taught until February, 1906.
During this time he served as a member of the county board of education of Solano County. In 1906 he accepted the principalship
of the Wilson School in Alameda, and he had this position until January, 1909, when he
became city superintendent of schools for Alameda. Meanwhile he was studying at the University of California
under Prof. F. B. Dresslar, Dr. Alexis F. Lange, and
Prof. George H. Howison; his work at the university
included a thesis on the "Aims and Values of Nature Study," a course
in nature study for the elementary schools, and a thesis on the
"Educational Theories of Plato." As city superintendent, Mr. Wood
devoted himself largely to elementary-school problems; he reduced the size of
classes, introduced organized play and work, and worked out a plan for
articulating the elementary and high schools. While he was city superintendent
of Alameda, he studied at the University
of Michigan for a time. In January, 1914, he assumed his duties as
commissioner of secondary schools. In this position he drafted the county
high-school fund bill, the junior-college bill, and other legislation, making
possible better articulation of the elementary and high schools. In the summer
of 1917, he served as acting professor of secondary education at the Teacher's
College, Columbia University; and he held a similar position at Stanford
University during the summer sessions in the years 1920 and 1921, and during the summer session of 1922 at the University
of Southern California. In November, 1918, he was elected superintendent of
public instruction, receiving a majority of 41,240 votes. Mr. Wood served the
four years' term with credit to himself and general satisfaction to the people
of California; so much so, in fact, that he was re-elected in 1922 for
another four year's term.
Mr. Wood has held a number of important
chairs in the educational world, in particular as regent of the University of
California, secretary of the California Teacher's Association in 1908 and 1909,
director of the National Institute for Moral Instruction, and president of the
National Council of State Departments of Education in 1919 and 1920; and he is
a member of the National Educational Association and the California
Schoolmasters' Club. Fraternally, he is a member of the Phi Delta Kappa
fraternity at Stanford University, and is a Mason. In politics he is a Republican, and
in his religious beliefs he is a member of the Unitarian
Church. He is the editor of the "California Blue
Bulletin" and is a contributor to various educational journals. Jointly
with Mark Keppel, the county superintendent of schools of Los Angeles County,
Superintendent Wood drafted Constitutional Amendment No. 16, which was an
initiative measure duly passed by the vote of the people in November, 1920,
guaranteeing the amount of money which shall annually be contributed by the
State for the support of the elementary and secondary schools of California.
A Speech which Mr. Wood delivered at San Francisco, July 4, 1923,
marks him as one of the foremost and most progressive educators in America. In contrasting the old "Fourth of July
celebration" with the modern significance of the new Independence Day, in
which the people of America are fast coming to learn that neither a person nor
a nation "liveth to himself alone," and
that the function of the schools is to train for world citizenship as well as
for love of native country, Mr. Wood said:
"Wars are due chiefly to
misunderstanding between nations, and misunderstanding between nations is due
usually to lack of understanding of one another. World peace and concord depend
upon the elimination of provincialism and the study of the history and
institutions of our neighbors to a degree enabling us to maintain peaceful
relations with them. The citizen of America must therefore broaden his knowledge of history and of
institutions in order to understand the international problems he must assist
in solving.
“Specific training in citizenship in our
schools should, I believe, begin with a two-year course in community civics in
the seventh and eighth years. In the high school proper, three years of social
science in preparation for citizenship should be required to meet the extended
needs of our time. Equipped with a knowledge such as
one should get through school organization, our young people should go out into
the world with reasonable preparation to meet the problems of American Democracy."
In championing such an expanding outlook
as regards the training of California's
children, Mr. Wood has shown the way in which future educators will not
fail to follow.
Born and reared on a California farm, Superintendent Wood's sympathy is with rural
education, and in fulfilling the duties of his official office he evinces an
earnest desire to improve the condition of the rural schools of the state. He
has had the experience in both elementary and high schools; and the factor that
has contributed most to his success is his ability to approach the problem of
education as a single problem. He heartily believes in public education, to
which he has devoted his life, and the foundation principle upon which the
things he advocates are based is well set forth in the pregnant epigram:
"The schools must make Democracy safe for Democracy."
Will C. Wood married
Miss Agnes Kerr, of Fairfield, Cal., on July 12, 1905.
Mrs. Wood is deeply interested in educational matters and shares with her
husband the aims and ideals of his public life. They reside comfortably at 608 Twenty-first Street, Sacramento.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento
County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Pages 309-310. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.