Educational film magazine; (19-)

Established January, 1919 COVERINO MOTION PICTURES JN THE FOLLOWINO DEPARTMENTS: AffricuUurt Community Oeogrnphy Health and Sanitation Religion Srenic Biography Current Events History Industry Pedagogy Science Oivics and Oovtmment Cultural Home Economics Juvenile Recreational Suciuloijy Drama Pine Arts Literature Natural History Technical Published Monthly. DOLPH EASTMAN, Editor Topical Vol. V. JUNE, 1921 Trai'el W elf art Women No. 6 EDISON, EDUCATION, AND MOVIES THOMAS ALVA EDISON "started something" when, following a "quiz" of college graduates who applied to him for jobs in his electrical establishment at \ West Orange, New Jersey, he declared that college pTien are ignorant and that present methods of schooling are ill wrong. He brought down upon his head a buzzing bee [live of angry educators as well as the honied commenda- lion of independent thinkers and disillusioned employers. Edison's questionnaire and his motives appear to have been misunderstood or misinterpreted by most of those who have commented upon the "quiz", the failure of the ap- plicants to answer correctly more than a third or half of the questions, and the inventor's strictures upon the result, rhey fail to appreciate the fact that Edison was not testing the memory or the general knowledge of all sorts of things possessed by these college graduates but rather was ex- sxamining and experimenting upon them to determine how well developed were their powers of observation; what in- terest they took in men and matters, national and world affairs; whether they read books, newspapers, and mag- azines, or went to the theater or the movies; in short, to learn by indirect rather than by direct inference and de- duction whether these men, products of our boasted school and college system, were thinkers, observers and doers or mere job-holders without serious thoughts or ambitions. This is our analysis of what Edison meant by propound- ing his series of questions many of which were of an ele- mentary character. Of the first seventy-seven as published in the New York Globe the writer answered seventy briefly but correctly, without consulting any reference work, and he is by no means a walking encyclopedia. The point to be made is that if one is interested in men, matters, events, and life in general one must naturally know the basic or elementary things, and must also know where, how, and when to find and digest many other essential things in order to become truly educated or cultured. Recently both Edison and H. G. Wells have repeated the suggestion which both had offered previously on several occasions, that educational motion pictures pointed the way out of the teaching morass into which traditional school and college curricula have led us. The British novelist and sociologist has lately been talking and writing on this subject and the American inventor's views are familiar to millions of his countrymen. This would seem to be the psychological moment, to use a trite phrase, to quote from an interview with Mr. Edison which was published in Educational Film Magazine back in January 1919: I paused to give Mr. Edison time to catch his breath. "What should be taught in the school and oolege films?" was my next poser. "Anything which can be taught to the ear can be taught better to the eye," flashed back Mr. Edison with his well known pen- chant for aphorisms. "1 know of nothing, absolutely nothing, which the film is not capable of imparting to eyes old and young, from eight to eighty. It is said 'the eye is the shortest distance to the brain,' and that is true. The moving object on the screen, the closest possible approximation to reality, is almost the same as bringing that object itself before the child or taking the child to that object." A few ye^s ago 1 had read a statement attributed to Edison that "movies would take the place of textbooks" and 1 asked him if he still believed it. "Yes," he replied, without hesitation. "Film teaching will be done without any books whatsoever. The only textbooks needed will be for the teacher's own use. The films will serve as guide- posts to these teacher instruction books, not the books as guides to the films. The pupils will learn everything there is to learn, in every grade from the lowest to the highest. The long years now spent in cramming indigestible knowledge down unwilling young throats and in examining young minds on subjects which they can never learn under the present system, will be cut down marvel- ously, waste will be eliminated, and the youth of every land will at last become actually educated. . . . "The trouble now is tliat school is too dull; it holds no interest for the average boy or girl. It was so in my school- days and it has changed but little. But make every classroom and every assembly hall a movie show, a show where the child learns every moment while his eyes are glued to the screen, and you'll have one himdred per cent attendance. Why, you won't be able to keep boys and girls away from school then. They'll get there ahead of time and scramble for good seats, and they'll stay late begging to see some of the films over again. I'd like to be a boy again when film teaching becomes universal. "Films, of course, should be elaborate explanations of text- books as they exist today. In many respects they will go far beyond the scope of the printed page; they will be able to make many things alive and real which now are dead and meaningless to the child. Today the teacher explains on the blackboard. In the school of tomorrow all explanations will be made on the motion picture screen. Many college and high schools will make their own films, as a few do now. Pictures are inevitable as practically the sole teaching method, because words do not interest young minds. It is only the few who can (Continued on paf^e 4) 3