Educational film magazine; (19-)

VISUAL EDUCATION AND CHILD PSYCHOLOGY Typical Mental Reactions to Various Types of Motion Picture Stimuli—Care Needed in Selecting and Producing Films for Children from Babyhood to Adolescence By Maximilian P. E. Groszmann, Ph. D. Educational Director of tlie National Association for tlie Study and Education of Exceptional Cliildren THE iiiovenient for the advancement of visual educa- tion is in the nature of a pedagogical revolution, if we take the term "visual" in its widest sense. Visual education includes not merely screen pictures, still or moving, but actual visualization of the objects of study, be they mere single things, or groups of things, or actions and activities, or expressions of emotion and ideals. ,^ _^ We are living in an age of visualization. ^^-^fr" The oral age of old is giving place more and more to a period in which a vast number of things must be visualized to become mental possessions. The complexity of modern life demands the extension of our avenues of learning into the infinite possibilities of visualization. It has been shown that individuals wilh physiologically exceptional powers of visualization have a great ad- vantage over those who have not. Visual education demands the presentation of objects instead,of, or in addition to, the printed, or written, or spoken symbols of these ob- jects. It implies object teaching. Where the object itself is not available, its picture may be substituted. Here we have the great field of visits to museums. Al- ready, our schools have be- gun—alas, on a small scale only—to take the children to the American Museum of Natural History and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where marvelous stores of things and pictures appeal to the eyes and minds of the observers. History, geography, natural science, and many other elements of culture can here be taught in forcible manner. The schools themselves should be equipped with suck objective ma'.erial as can be obtained. ■ The visual study of art is not merely an instruction in the appreciation of the beauty of form and color, of coin- position and technique; but it leads naturally to a study of the expression of human emotion, of ideas and ideals. of human relationships, not merely among individuals, but between races and nati()ii>. It has its historical and geo- graphical as well as its sociological and even political value. It opens up a wide field of visual education. It goes without .saying thai where the original painting or sculpture, or treasure of the kind which the Natural History Muoeum offers, is not available, the screen repro- rjR. MAXIMILIAN 1'. E. (iUOSZMANN was born In Prussia in 1855. "He lectured at the age of IB. studied medicine at the University of («riefs\\aid. and came to the United States'in 1876. New Y'ork University conferred upon him the deRreo of Doctor of Pedagogy and Psychology. Prom 1870 to 1880 he was active as a teacher and lecturer. From 1890 to 1897 he was director of the Ethical Culture Shool. New Vork City. In 1905 Dr. Groszmann founded the National .\ssociation for the Study and Education of Exccntional Children. For more than ten years lie was editor of Erziehungshla;ter (Ciennan-American Journal of Education). Dr. Groszmann is an associate member of the American Academy of Medicine. He is the author of the well-known iKKik "The Exceptional Cliild," published by Oiarles Scrlbner's Sons, New York. duction is of the greatest significance. We can bring the museums right into the child's school room, yes, into his, home, in this manner. Screen reproductions are mostly i far superior to small photographs or prints. But it must* be said that this substitution of a reproduction for the original is allowable only when the original cannot be approached. This caution is needed in an- ■"^ other field. What Industrial Films Do for the Child Visual education, I have said, is in the nature of object teaching. This includes "learning by doing," or the manual method of education. The vast province of Indus trial activities offers tremendous and very im portant appeals to the child's mind. Unless he understands the development of the in dustrial aris he will not understand civiliza tion. Manual training, which iS motor training in addition to visual training, has been in troduced more or less, most- ly less, organically into thf curricula of our schools. The child, in his own small way, reconstructs some ol the typical manual conquests of the race. He cannol thus embrace the whole field. Much of this indiis trial activity can come to hinj only vicariously; through what he sees others do. Here, again, the film has (ome to the rescue; there aix^ films which exhibit the pi cess of manufacture, from the gathering or production ofi the raw material up to the finished product. This is good, as far as it goes. But let us remember that here we have again only the substitution of the picture for the real thing. It is much more helpful to take the pupils right intci the mines and fields, the factories and workshops, so thali they may visualize the actual activities in industry—th« film should be used only when such visits cannot hf organized. Child Reactions to Dramatic Films .1 Again, the dramatic film, using this term in its wides application, is a substitute for the active life experiencec of the child. Unfortunately, many of our children live ii an environment where they experience many dramas, am even tragedies, of everyday life. This is true even of lli'