Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

February, 192 3 trained as movie fans"; some insisted upon returning to the "good old drills" of their own childhood; some "didn't think we ought to have such foolishness as motion pictures in school, anyway." All courtesy of attention to these objectors and objections was accorded, up to the point where they would seriously have interfered with the visioned plans of the proponents to demonstrate the essential sanity of their views and purposes in thus using the screen to enrich the teaching processes of the school and to afford the children of the district their rightful provision of picture entertainment free from sex salaciousness, nerveshocking thrills, and unmoral seductions and inducements. The Proof of the Pudding This year the same general program of clean entertainments was scheduled. The timely appearance of approved educational films is •vastly enriching our teaching of many branches of the curriculum; a news weekly every Monday morning for seventh and eighthgrade Current Events classes adds immeasurably to the enthusiastic interest taken in that work; and both students and citizens testify freely to their appreciation of this matchless instrument for vivifying, simplifying and "speeding up" school instruction. The occasion of the American Education Week meeting afforded a rare opportunity to demonstrate EARLY VIEW OF "MOUNT ROYAL"— NOW MONTREAL "Well! I never got that before! Montreal on an island!" was the comment voiced by a boy who was enjoying his first experience of studying history from the screen. Such exclamations and discoveries are typical, everyday occurrences in schools where the film has been drafted into the service of education. REGION EXPLORED BY THE FRENCH BEFORE 1750 The close of the film showed the French in full possession of the interior. Little by little the animated lines had extended their reach. For every pupil the situation had been clearly visualized. "Oh! I see now why the French and Indian War just HAD to come!" exclaimed one girl, in involuntary tribute to "the picture way" of teaching. to the public some of the very practical uses of the machine in teaching. At the close of the program, therefore, the audience was invited to repair to the projection room, there to see for themselves just to what extent this new device can vitalize, objectify and fix in the mind of childhood the academic facts of our school subjects. 49 The history film, "French Explorations in North America," and a Rex Beach travelogue on "The Coffee Industry in Costa Rica," were chosen as illustrative material. The audience was asked to revert in imagination to the days of its childhood and youth, to recall its study of these two topics, and then to judge from the screen lesson whether, had it had this supplementary aid to study, the subjects would not have been better understood and more readily retained. At the conclusion of the show, if there was still an objector in the room he must have joined in with the common applause just to make it unanimous. The evident attitudewas represented by that of a man who, in passing out, stopped to say: "Well, Mr. Principal, I guess that clinches the argument. After this demonstration there isn't anything more to say." Yes, the motion picture is nicely paralleling the automobile, and rapidly extending its offices from the luxury-values of the mere "pleasure car" to the sober, practical services of the "motor truck" in everyday education. With this dollars-and-cents value thus established, few educators and citizens will long delay the concession that it is indispensable in modern education. Such is the place it has won in the Emerson School, for one, that today any move to take the film out of the course of study would provoke a spirited fight. w MIRACLES HY, who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water, Or stand under the trees in the woods, .... Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon, Or animals feed in the fields, Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place. To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle, .... To me the sea is a continual miracle, The fishes that swim — the rocks — the motion of the waves — the ships with men in them, What stranger miracles are there? —WALT WHITMAN.