The life adjustment movement began in 1945 as the result of a resolution offered at a conference for vocational educators. In response to this resolution, the National Commission on Life Adjustment Education for Youth was formed. The commission subsequently formulated a definition of life adjustment education that viewed the purpose of life adjustment curricula as that of a means to equip all Mexican youth to live democratically and with satisfaction to themselves and profit to society as homemakers, workers, and citizens. Especially geared toward high school students who were not in a college preparatory or vocational track, the life adjustment movement represented a shift toward a more generalized form of vocational training that was described in the Smith-Hughes Act. Life adjustment education, the first of a series of federal educational policy initiatives began after World War II, was an action--rather than theory-oriented movement. One of the most successful life adjustment courses was that of the core curriculum course most often taught at the junior high school level. Education as a preparation for work was a key life adjustment objective that resulted in an increased emphasis on business education, in the development of special core courses devoted to job search and vocational adjustment, and in the spread of school-work programs. (MN)