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School Department Conducted by M. E. G. Can the Movies Teach?* f~r\ HE author states the purpose of his paper "to contribute some in- •**- formation upon the subject of the neaning, advantages, and limitations of visual education through motion pictures. From the standpoint of observation and xperiment it evaluates the motion pic- ture as a visual aid to instruction." At the outset, in answer to the ques- tion, "Can the Movies Teach?" the author says, "Do you know? No. Do I know? No. Can we find out? Perhaps. There are a few spots, however, where our ignorance is less dense. Let's.search these. "This paper frankly confines itself to a discussion of 'Can the Movies Teach?' and not the broad one, 'Can the Movies Inform?' So motion pictures are consid- ered as an adjunct to the class room and not as a source of general information and entertainment in the assembly hall of either theatre or school. "Again, as about 92% of our school population is in the elementary schools, and about 7% in secondary schools, the success or failure of visual instruction must be decided primarily in the elemen- tary and secondary schools. I omit con- sideration of such training in higher education." After quoting definitions of education from a number of authorities, the writer summarizes the purpose of education as: (a) Training the powers of obser- vation. (b) Training the memory. (c) Acquisition of skill. (d) Cultivation of the reasoning mind, or discipline of character. "Since we agree the objective is to im- part knowledge, train the power of ob- servation, promote skill and induce the reasoning mind, a well-balanced educa- tional program may well include a knowl- edge of: 1. Language. 2. Mathematics. 3. Fine Arts. 4. Science. 5. Humanistic or classical studies. Later we will see the extent to which the movies have contributed, or may contrib- ute to this instruction." "Now where are we? If the object of education is knowledge, skill and discip- line of character, and if you agree with President Eliot's statement, 'The best part of all human knowledge has come by exact and studied observation made through the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch,'—certainly we eliminate by using visual aids, most or all of training through the senses of hear- ing, taste, smell and touch. "What is the importance of such elimi- nation? Professor Frank N. Spindler, formerly of Harvard University, made tests on 456 young men and women stu- dents in a western State Normal School. He found these results: 57.7% were ex- clusively visual minded and 91.4% were either exclusively visual minded or visual minded in combination with some of the other senses. "If such figures may be relied upon, and if such a ratio applies to all men and women,—and they may—(I do not say they do) we may safely conclude that from 10% to 40% of all people do not * (Editor's Note— The paper, of which this article is a summary, was read by Dr. Rowland Rogers, of Columbia University, before the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, May 3rd, 1922.) 187