Educational film magazine; (19-)

MOVIES A VITAL FORCE IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION (Continued from page 7) with the conservation and survey division which has charge of motion pictures in the state. Motion picture studios—virtually working laboratories—will shortly follow the introduction of movies in the classroom. Some institutions must depend at present on auditoriums for the show- ing of pictures or local theaters. Courses in visual instruction no doubt will demand, or should do so, laboratories for trying out the student's photographic attempts, his scenarios, ideas for grouping, lighting, etc. A thousand-and-one demands will pre- sent themselves for a motion picture studio as a laboratory on every campus in the near future. Several men of university stand- ing have predicted that the motion picture and the studio, its adjunct, is the next step in university education. Films Help Teach Speech, Gesture, Action Growth of the modern educational motion picture conscience may be observed at the University of Iowa, possibly typical of midwestern tendencies in respect to this new movement in higher education. Professor Glenn H. Merry, head of the department of speech at the University of Iowa, newly elected president of the Teachers of Speech Association of the United States, is an en- thusiastic believer in the importance of the motion picture as a visual aid in his department. Professor Merry has used the clinic film from Goldwyn, The Human Voice, as well as others for his classes. "The one great thing which the motion picture does," says Pro- fessor Merry, "is to show things functioning, whereas the slide shows only location and static conditions." Plans are being made by this department to make still further use of the film in the teaching of action in oratory, reading, and dramatics, and in est£iblishing standards for the student. For the past three years the department of botany at the same institution has been carrying on a conscious and consistent cam- paign for visual education especially in the constant use of photo- graphs in the classroom and elsewhere. A part of the plan has been the posting of photographs on the bulletin board at the entrance. During these three years no picture has been repeated twice in a given year. Placed where the student's attention is caught as he enters, he acquires thus a wide visual horizon of plant life, trees, farm homes, grouping and kinds of trees, street scenes, lumbering camps, forests, tropical scenes, etc. Professor R. B. Wylie, head of this department, and secretary of section G (botany) of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, thoroughly believes in the beneficial effects of such education as is offered by the photograph, the slide, and the film, all three of which are utilized as seems suitable to that whjch it is required the' picture should show and the student should see. Slides are considered fine by Professor Wylie for first presentation of habitat relations and for review, but enlarge- ments are more eEBcient. "Motion pictures," he says, "are appli- cable to microscopical small objects and show in a few moments in proper proportion movements in plants resulting from days or weeks of growth. They show in proper relation the movement of parts." Reviewing the offerings of courses, in university and college, scarcely one could be pointed out which could not be supple- mented to some extent and with some benefit by the motion pic- ture. But it must be handled with judgment. We must concede that the university has been at least touched by this modern revolutionary movement in teaching—^visualization. HOW TO USE FILMS IN THE SCHOOL (Continued from page 6) the pupils will more than cover the necessary expenses. At Pasa- dena we expended for our two standard motion picture projec- tion machines, booth, motor generator, stereopticon, screen, wiring, and other equipment about $2,000. It would have been much more but for the fact that manual arts students did much of the work under the supervision of their teachers. The audi- torium in the high school seats more than 1,600. The local school board paid not more than $200 or $300 toward the cost of the equipment; the remainder was paid for by the five and ten cent admissions of the students. At Pasadena High School the work was taken seriously, Therefore, we believed in getting the best pictures possible for the purpose and paying the regular rentals for them. We would nol run old, scratched, or "rainy" prints; we took only what the exchange man calls "new stuff." Our rentals varied from $8 to $60 per program, the cost depending upon the composition oi the program. \ The classical programs were alternated with those of a mixec kind, in the latter there would be a one or two reel drama wit! a well defined idea or purpose; an artistic or picturesque scenic or travel film; a scientific or an unusually good industrial reel a news, topical, or screen magazine film; and a clean, wholesomi comedy, the comedy always coming last on the program -th practice of any good showman. . Real Need For Cultural Films General cultural film programs fill a very important plaif i our present day all too specialized school programs. There i a real need for a source of general information, for some soi of ethical training, for instilling high ideals and a love for th beautiful. These programs are invaluable for broadening th mental powers, quickening the mental energies, and developin the character in general. Practically all educators who have ha experience"with this phase of visual education endgrse the pla and advocate its general adoption. For the elementary grades somewhat different selection of subjects, perhaps, should 1; (Continued on page 28) »■ SK" WHAT IS IT TO BE EDUCATED? By Fbancis Gbeknwood Peabody WTHY does one devote so much time and money to get for himself^ '' his children an education? What is left of one's education wl one has passed from school or college to the absorbing vocations of li Much that one has learned—dates, facts, languages—has slipped a' from one's mind like water off a roof. What then remains? There mains, if education has been wise, a mental habit, a discipline of mi a capacity to attack new problems with confidence, a larger view things, a more comprehensive aim. .\n edurated person takes comma of new situations and novel undertakings, as an officer takes comma of his troops. And how is it that this capacity to coimnnnd has be developed? It is reached through the training to obey. The cducai mind has been taught by greater minns, and has felt the authority greater thoughts. The laws of nature, the masters of literature, 1 great achievements of science or art, have taught one reverence and u alty, and that acceptance of intellectual leadership makes one in i own time a leader. He has been a man under authority; and, therefti when his own education comes to be tested he becomes a man haw authority, to whom less educated minds turn as to one who is fitte lead. The educated man stands on the shoulders of the past am looks farther Into the future. He is saved from repeating old misU by knowing what the past has learned and has had to unlearn. He not have to begin things; he is able to start with the momentum ol past 10