The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 190 The Educational Screen Rubber Production of the World and the U. S. A. (Yearly average before the crisis) r % PHIUPPINEN INDIEN UNDIN5ULINDE prime interest. If the story of rubber production and distribu- tion is to lie told, the map merely indicates localities and. therefore, a blocked-in contour maj) suffices. In Figure 3 a detailed world map would deflect attention from the main point to be stressed, namely that the lack of planning in the rubber industry will result in another crisis after 1935. Figure 3. GfUflhrlinfls-uiiil-Wirtffchafliimufti.'ain in U'l> Each solid tire—100,000 tons of wild or cultivated rubber exported. Each outlined tire—100,000 tons of wild or cultivated rubber imported. Each tree—plantations under control of U. S. .\. which will produce 100,000 tons of rubber a year after 1935. stimulate interest, he chooses symbols that 'talk'. These are not just squares or circles which might mean anything: Indians living on government res- ervations or sugar imported from Cuba. The sym- bols must be carefully chosen so that they are universally recognized and, if possible, can be easily reproduced. This is important for schools since pupils, particularly in the lower grades, can produce their own statistical records. Such fact pictures are so simply constructed that a young child can easily transform comparative data into graphic statistics by using symbols in rows of rectangles. The little Viennese girl who tells, by a "fact picture," the story of how her classmates spent their Sunday is becoming equipped to understand and interpret more complicated data and statistical facts later. Incidentally Dr. Neu- rath has found that young children make simpler and better symbols than most older children and adults. The typical bar chart which is familiar to us all —and is generally not over enticing—becomes in- teresting when turned out by Dr. Neurath's work- shop in Vienna. There is real life in the buoyantly shifting German population from rural to urban cominunities. (Fig. 2) Such a chart invites closer inspection and stimulates thinking. In fact, tests in the Viennese schools have shown that informa- tion conveyed by a fact picture is two and a half times more retentive than by reading alone. It is evident that the average person, both child There is ingenuity in these charts, I you will grant, and the field for their application would seem limitless. In a colorful German edition of 100 charts* the versatility of these pic- torial statistics is remarkablv shown. These charts range from historical mai)s to data pertaining to the eco- nomic breakdown of our era. Few subjects of himian knowledge are to- tally neglected. A similar series trans- lated to the present needs of American education would seem highly desirable. There is a great quantity of essential information which has not gotten across to the present generation, we are told. Might not attractive pictorial statis- tics assist in presenting an overview in many fields t)f learning? Mibliugraphv W. KaemplTert—Staccato Speech for Silent Sta- tistics, New York Times, January 22, 1933. O. Xeurath—Bildstatistik nach AX'iener Methode in der Schule, Vienna 1933. O. Neurath—Bildstatistik (Guide book to the Musuem of Gesellschaft und W'irtschaft in Vienna—Social Economic Aluseum). *Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft—published by the Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig. and adult, needs helj) to remember and in Xeurath chart onl}- these elements are ,- which are essential. Primarv facts shall each hown be of Contributors to this Issue Sybil L. Daniels. Paul Revere Junior High School. Revere, Mass. Geokge a. Mark, Minister, First Congregational So- ciety, Unitarian, Leominster, Mass. Gordon P. Miller, University of Hawaii, Honolulu. Hawaii. Albert E. Osborne, Research Worker in Visual Edu- cation, Brooklyn, N. Y. Marguerite E. Schwarzman, Director. The Children's Laboratories, Quaker Ridge, New Rochelle, N. Y. Elk.\nor Skimin, President, National Commercial Teachers' Federation, Northern High School. De- troit, Mich. Ethel Wood, State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash.