The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

324 National Lantern Slide Exchange The Educational Screen suitable non-commercial center, and frequent changing of the material would afford sufficient variety. The distribution of Government and industrial loan material through the sub-stations would be practical. To those of you to whom the lantern slide is obsolete and the future of . visual education remains entirely in the film, I may offer by way of apology for confining my propositions strictly to the slide, that in our experience in Buffalo we have limited our loans entirely to glass material. Having honestly and seriously attempted the circulation of film, we discontinued it, primarily for the reason that legal restrictions in the matter of fireproof vaults and insurance rates rendered satisfactory service impossible. We state further as beyond argument and self-evident: First, that slides are very much cheaper than reels of film and more flexible in their use. Second, the projection of sHdes is very simple and not subject to legal or underwriters' restrictions. Slidea may be shown in any classroom without any possibility of interterence. While the portable projector with slow burning film may have the same privilege, the greater bulk of our subjects are on a standard film with its universal restrictions. Third, we believe that the successful establishment of a slide library would afford invaluable information as to the method to be followed out later in film circulation. Experiments have been made with film libraries with more or less success, but never to our knowledge on a large scale with slides. Results of a Motion-Picture Survey Bertha B. Hughes Evansznlle College, Evansville, Ind. '"TP' HE Motion Picture is a recognized I power in our present-day life. Much difference of opinion prevails as to its educational value, but no one doubts its power of suggestion. The place this subject has taken in our modern periodicals, the activities of local and national organizations towards its improvement, the restraining legislation concerning it, all emphasize the fact that people are considering seriously their responsibility in relation to this great amusement. Some such feeling as this prompted the survey taken in the Evansville schools last year. Some twenty questions were answered by five thousand children, ranging in age from eight to eighteen years. Sixteen hundred of these were boys and girls of the two high schools; while twice that number were of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades of the fourteen grade schools throughout the city. I. The first question asked was, "How old were you when you saw your first movie?" The answers represented a wide range. Some as babes, three weeks old, had seen their first picture ; eight had never seen a motion picture in their lives. Three of these last were boys, and one other boy had only seen one show in his life. The majority, however, attended first when five or six years of age. n. The second question asked, "what is the first film you can remember?" Naturally, many could not remember the first one they had seen. Many recalled that it was a comedy — usually with Charlie Chaplin, or a wild west show. The Birth of a Nation was the film High school pupils recalled more than any other, while Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Iron Claw ran close seconds. Then followed The Million Dollar Mystery, Snow White, Trey of Hearts, Re .^ becca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Life of V