International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

THE CINEMA AND CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 43 they are capable. The necessary time for analysis must be allowed, and therefore we must proceed methodically. It is useless to try to force the mind to cover too vast a field all at once. The child must be first accustomed to consider a certain detail : a flower, the colour of a flower, its form and dimensions. He will learn to differentiate the several elements constituting a conception. He will then note the difference between two flowers of separate species, and thus, after having unconsciously learnt the details, he will come, likewise unconsciously, to generalize them and observe what is around him without efforti simple objects, more complex ones, the aspect of clouds, of the stars, of the firmament then, following this, a storm, the clear sky of summer ; and finally, he will observe much better, because he will have formed, between his senses and his subconsciousness, automatic reflexes that will enter into play from this moment under the influence of external things. Projections and the The film can be especMemory. jally useful m tnjs field by facilitating the assimilation of ideas. A picture or drawing, with a few brief words of explanation, will give a better understanding of a machine or an incident of history than pages of print. And when one learns easily, one is spared the effort of assimilation, for the brain that is not fatigued is much more receptive. The most dangerous rock that is encountered in the course of modern teaching lies in over elaborate programmes, which do not give the memory time to fix the concepts that follow one another too quickly. A tired brain cannot store up ideas ; and as children understand best what they see, this psychological peculiarity should be utilized to teach and educate them with as little fatigue as possible. This system is bound to make the teacher's and educator's task easier, too, for education consists in causing knowledge to pass from the consciousness to the unconsciousness, and nothing fills the mind more easily than pleasant and restful teaching. Remember the principle of association, in virtue of which, when two impressions have been produced simultaneously, it is enough for one of them to be presented to the mind afterwards for the other to be immediately connected with it. It is the function of the memory of facts at work, and the image of facts can be made much stronger by the emotion that a living picture arouses. Projections, and De In the country, where velopment of the the daj]y manifestaCreative Faculties. tions of Hfe are yery restricted, the screen presents possibilities to children of which they could form no exact impression otherwise. Country children have open minds, they are pleased to learn new things, see new things, and when they return home, their great pleasure is to try and reproduce railways, make windmills on little streams, use anything they can get hold of to imitate whatever they have seen : foot-bridges, pioneer works, the cottages of colonists or Alpine huts, etc. They try to reproduce, with the imperfect means at their command, the objects they have only seen in pictured form. This is a magnificent mental exercise, which arouses and sharpens the creative faculties. Children in towns, who are accustomed to move in the midst of crowds, would be lost if they found themselves alone in the country and would be frightened of the first animal they met. The education to be given to them is to arouse and develop the idea of suiting themselves to their environment, to show them what they ought to do if they get lost in a wood, if they fall in the water, if they find themselves near a forest on fire. They must be taught to seek for means of being of use to themselves and others. The cinema can enrich the mind of the child with innumerable new ideas and teach it to make things that may be useful to it. Necessity itself will encourage the develop