Close Up (Jul-Nov 1927)

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CLOSE UP than a few of the great Englishmen of the past hah century have emerged from conventional channels. UsuaUy thev have had an independant childhood. But progress is being made for the majority, though very, very slowh'. And because progress is being mxade, opposition to it has increased in violence. The old system is afraid because the new method attacks it economically. It would be imipossible for a schoolmaster trained in the schools of j^esterday to teach in the progressive schools of to-day. For the meaning of the words and symbols used would be as incomprehensible as an Eskimo dialect. Schools of the end of last century based their tradition of teaching upon the fact that the intellect was a gift bestowed on a few and that it was ^'morbid and unhealthy" for the average boy or girl to be interested in their studies. To speak to such a schoolmaster today of the Dalton plan or of independant study is to be accused — quite illogically — of communism and corruption. For it is the schoolmaster under the new method that must be in focus, not the child. He must reaUy knoii: his subject, not teach it from a text book. He must realh^ be enthusiastic and able to answer, even at times to ask questions. Above all he must accept intellect as something able to be developed in ninety per cent of children with the proper environment and not a romantic and hazardous gift flung without reason to the one or two. But the obstruction to educational progress at the moment is lack of teachers. And it is just here that the cinema could help. 50