Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

Many users and all potential users of instructional slides need the practical suggestions based upon Mr. Emery's long period of experience SEVERAL OUNCES of PREVENTION James N. Emery Supervising Principal, Potter District, Pawtucket, Rhode Island NEVER yet has there teen a device or method in itself perfect. . Perhaps the device itself has but few flaws, but there is a very real defect in the human element that applies it. Like all methods, vistfsl education is no panacea for all pedagogical ills, no luxurious highway to reach the heights of learning in one swift rush. Some over-zealous and ill-advised enthusiasts have done the cause of visual education actual harm by extravagant claims and sweeping statements regarding the wonders it would accomplish in the hands of anyone, even the novice. There are real pitfalls ahead for the visualist. be his medium slides, films, stereographs, or just ordinary photographs. It requires good judgment, training, common sense, and a good sense of instructional values to teach successfully by means of the lantern. The careful teacher makes the lantern serve a most useful purpose. The novice blunders ahead energetically, accomplishes a little good, and wastes a great deal of time and energy. Some of the more obvious pitfalls may be avoided by looking ahead a little ; others must be learned in the classroom of experience. I started in to chronicle a few "don'ts" in the course of a discussion on another subject, and of themselves they grew into a fairly extensive list. Some of these, based mainly on my own experience, are set down here, with the hope that others may avoid some of the mistakes I suffered at the outset. Instruct Rather Than "Show" First, and most important of all, don't attempt a lesson with the lantern slide without previous definite preparation. This is true of any form of teaching, but it applies with redoubled force to this method. You can't experiment with a class depending on you. If you go into a classroom trusting to inspiration to pull you through, both you and the class have a disappointing hour ahead. You may carry it through once or twice, but not often. A busy principal or teacher often finds the time for thorough preparation lacking in the face of other pressing duties, and hopes that general knowledge will save the day. It will not, let me impress upon you firmly. A slipshod, unsatisfactory, pointless lesson is sure to be the result. Before a lesson, sit down and preview every slide you are going to use. The slide can be held up against the light or a window, but I find the most satisfactory way is to hold the slide at an angle against a sheet of white paper on my desk. The reflected light from the white paper gives an excellent illumination of the slide without the strain on the eyes when the plate is held up against the light. Do this with every lesson, no matter how familiar you think you are with the picture. You will almost invariably discover something new each time. Sometimes after having used a slide a dozen times, and thinking myself thoroughly .familiar with it, a new viewpoint or some very striking feature will present itself that I had never noticed. I find myself demanding with some irritation, "Why on earth didn't I see that before?" If previewing is a requisite before use, it is an essential in buying new slides. For example, we have a splendid travel set on Africa that we bought without seeing the views. Each picture is mast excellent for what we want Yellowstone Park Jenny's Lake and Grand Teton 16 in the life of that country, but unfortunately there are nearly a dozen slides in the set that we are unable to use in classroom work owing to the frankness with which the nudity of the dusky savages is depicted. One or two we managed to salvage by additional masking, but several that would otherwise be the most valuable of our set are perforce "deleted by censor." Annotating the Texts It is a good idea to outline your work some time in advance, making a detailed synopsis of each country and the slides that illustrate the salient features. I keep a copy of nearly every text in use in geography, history, and civics, annotated with the numbers of the slides that deal with each particular paragraph. A number of detailed outlines are also available for my own and the teachers' use. I have generally found that the printed synopses which accompany each slide are rarely suited to my purposes. At any rate, sit down before a lesson and carefully preview the slides. Consider just how they illustrate the principal points of your lesson. Plan definitely just what topics you will take up, what questions you will ask, what illustrations you will use. Do not leave it to chance or inspiration. There is no more place in visual instruction than in any other method for the teacher who conducts her class by guesswork. Don't use too many slides at a time, or make your lessons too long. It is a little bother to get out the stereopticon, pick out the slides, arrange seats, and darken the room. But even at that, do it oftener and in small doses. Better that the pupils should go from the class eager for a repetition the next day than yawn wearily and dread the coming of another lesson of this kind. Half an hour is excellent ; 45 minutes is a period of ample length, and it is an exceptionally interesting subject or a tremendously wideawake and enthusiastic teacher who can hold the satisfactory attention of the class for an hour. Don't overlook the physical conditions. Often it is necessary to crowd more pupils in than the seating capacity of the room warrants. They are uncomfortable, and wriggle with evident uneasiness. Often, too, the air quickly becomes foul with the extra demands made on it, and the temperature goes up to an unwarranted degree. Inattention and discomfort become the rule at those times. In that case do not hesitate to take a few minutes' intermission ; open the windows, clear out the air, and perhaps devote two or three minutes to physical exercises, at any rate to one or two good long stretches. It will be time saved in the end. Of course if your class is in the auditorium, if you have one, these conditions may not arise to any appreciable extent. Bad air and overheating, however, must be guarded against in any school building at all times. Every Slide Must Be Relevant Don't, from the temptation to show a lot of slides, over-illustrate your subject, and show a lot of pictures only faintly connected with the thread of the topic. This is a very real temptation to the enthusiastic teacher. Better to study a moderate number of slides intensively and in some detail than to flash on a rapid succession of