International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

46 THE CINEMA IN TEACHING long time, injuring the children's well-being and interfering with their assimiliation of the lesson and, if continued, causing disturbances of adaptation that may influence the whole of their lives. Sub-Titles and Tea Let us take the case of cher s Lessons. an acJult as an example. Go to a cinema, as A. Gemelli did, with the determination of resisting the suggestiveness of the environment and keeping yourself under firm and active control. If you find the conditions customary to these places, namely, a quiet, dark hall, not much music, and what there is suited to the picture, and an attractive film, your power of resistance will be gradually undermined, and the moment will come when you will be completely absorbed in what is occurring on the screen. If you are to reach this point, your attention must not be distracted, either by long and unsuitable explanations, or reactions that have nothing to do with the film, or music that is too loud, or imperfect darkness in the hall. The child likes to get away from the world of reality and enjoy the world of fiction ; its enthusiasm for marionettes is a proof of this. It should never be asked to look at things that are above its comprehension. This is a difficulty which must be solved by the teacher and educator. The comments made must always be suitable, of course. The pupil must be accustomed to remember technical expression, and scientific name of a flower or object, and it is also very useful to tell him at the same time, the popular name, which will interest him much more. Anything pedantic must be avoided, for it disturbs the dreamlike sensation produced by the film, which is so favourable to the impression of ideas. We psychological physicians have a daily experience of this sort with the nervous, morbid, excitable little patients whom we have to tranquillize. And we know that a favourable environment must not be disturbed by extraneous impressions. In a word, sub-titles and the lesson given by the teacher must be suited to the film, age, social condition and sex of the little spectator, and also to his psychic development. The Educational Cin This is a very difficult ema and Abnormal subject, necessitating Children. distinctions that should be treated in a separate work. Let us first separate children of simply tardy development fron abnormal children ; the former can be classed with normal children of few years. Those abnormal children, who may be considered as such only on account of their psychic deficiencies, do not differ from normal children except in regard to the psychic faculties, and are of but slight interest for the purposes of the present examination. We can show sound films before blind children with the greatest success, because their hearing is much sharper than that of ordinary children and they are extremely receptive, so much so in fact that they are apt to be very impressionable. Children who are mentally abnormal are, on the contrary, very difficult to educate, and it must be admitted that the really magnificent efforts that have made to educate them in every country in the world have not met with the results that might have been expected. There is no reason to be discouraged, however, for the few successes that have been obtained here and there are sufficient to justify the continuation of these efforts and the making of fresh ones. The cinema is likely to have a great influence on the abnormal as on the normal child. It is a means that must not be given up, even though there may be a doubt as to whether its effects will be good or bad. There is a class of abnormal children which cannot be passed over in silence, namely the morally diseased. These are the most difficult beings with whom the educator has to cope ; and it must be admitted that in spite of the money and effort expended in the attempt to improve these deficients, in spite of the numerous institutions established for the housing and training of such children,