The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

14 The Educational Screen ness or positive misunderstanding. But perhaps the greatest value of models lies in the fact that the pupils frequently make them with their own hands and thus gain an insight that can not be attained by observation alone. Exhibits, such as the Eskimo habitat group, provide a vicarious experience which ranks in effectiveness probably next to actual reality. They serve very well as a basis for observation, discussion, and pupil expression. Their only drawback seems to be their rarity; but, whenever accessible or obtainable, they should certainly be utilized. Devices, just like models, should be employed to secure economy in the learning process. A device such as the tellurian will clear up the notion of day and night and the seasonal changes in a tiny fraction of the time ordinarily needed by verbal explanations and with decidedly better results. 3. Photographs, Sketches, Etc. By photographs here are meant not only the separate picture prints but also most text-book illustrations. Botl forms are quite generally neglected. Teachers just take for granted that pupils know how to get the most out of them. Yet, if supervised study is justified in getting thought out of the printed page, it is distinctly necessary in the case of the pictorial illustration, which is fpequently too obvious to challenge profit- able reflection. The art of sketching should receive a real boom. Learning to draw a form, image, or interrelationship has a vividly clarifying effect upon the learner. It makes for clearer thinking. Pupils should be given the opportunity to sketch, take pictures, and mount illustrations in connection with their school projects—compositions, recitations, reports, and the like. Both teachers and pupils should make col- lections concerning situations from all parts of the world and illustrating all phases of life and industry. The pictures should be properly subtitled, sys- tematized, correlated, indexed and cross-indexed for use along the textbooks of the fundamentals in all the school subjects. Whenever a picture can dis- place a verbal description or explanation, or at least shorten it considerably, its omission is inexcusable professional negligence. If there is a better way of doing a thing, let us do it the better way. 4. Maps, Charts, Graphs, Diagrams. A peculiar product of the visual sense is the wealth of plane relationship concepts which it effects. Maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams take advantage of this peculiarity. In miniature, outline, trend, or figure, they depict on a flat surface the essential properties of the real situation. The function of diagrammatic aids differs from that of photographic reproductions in that they are not vicarious experiences in themselves but rather helpful elucidations of invisible or generalized relationships. Their