The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

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400 Visual Instruction Association of America The Educatioual Screen schools and make it a means of education rather than empty amusement. Second, let us co-operate with the producers so that they will comprehend our point of view and not justly accuse us of blind prejudice or "school teacherish" ignorance of business. Third, let us give them the right material. Educators write the best text books for the publishers. Why not the best scenarios and themes for the film producers? Fourth, let us guide children as to the films they should see as we already do their plays and literature. Instead of wasting effort in trying to keep children away from moving pictures, let us train their taste in what to see. Fifth, let us apply our old friend, that principle we educators call correlative, and make use of the words and themes and "business" cf the motion picture in the teaching of classroom subjects of study. To illustrate : , A recent school test in composition given to pupils in the eighth year compelled the children to combine their study of literature with information gained by attendance upon moving pictures, I forget the exact questions, but they were to this effect: (a) Write the scenario you would use to produce as a moving picture the scene between Brutus and Cassius. (b) What captions would you use, selecting them from the material provided by the speeches of each character? (c) What staging and scenery effects would be required to produce the picture? The fourth division cf my subject I shall not attempt to discuss here because it is too technical and not of immediate interest to us as teachers. It is the question of the possibility of producing pictures which children should be permitted to see and which will permit commercial profit for their producers. But it is a question which must not be* forgotten, else the whole structure will tumble. OWING to a number of requests for the publication of Mr. Crandall's address at the Oakland Convention, that paper is reproduced in this issue in place of the serial "Thumb-Nail Sketches," which series will be resumed in the next issue. Visual Aids and How to Handle Them By Ernest L. Crandall Director of Lectures and Visual Instruction, New York City VISUAL aids may be divided into four general classes or types : 1 — Real objects. 2 — Loose pictures. 3 — Stereopticon views. 4 — Motion pictures. Each type has its peculiar characteristics and should be handled accordingly. I believe the paramount question is when each particular type is most appropriately applied— that is, at what psychological age of the child and also at what stage of the lesson or recitation. Too little attention has been paid to this vital consideration. Personally, 1 should apply them in the order named, objects, pictures, slides and films. I am convinced, for example, that the motion picture should come later than the slide, later in the child's development and later in the lesson. Let me state it in another way. Those visual aids should come earliest which involve some *Paper read before the National Council of Education at Oakland meeting. July 5, 1923. physical activity, because the motor impulses are dominant in the earlier years. Those should come latest which exact most mental activity to fit the child's maturing mentality. I would let a small child handle objects. I would show an older child motion pictures. Likewise I would start a lesson with specimens and I would conclude it with a film, because, other things being equal, I believe the development of a lesson should follow the same lines as the child's psychological evolution. Of course, under proper conditions all visual aids may be used interchangably at all ages and stages. I am merely stating a general principle. Let us see whether closer examinations of each type will bring us nearer to its appropriate use. Real Objects With real objects the child comes in contact in three ways: (a) excursions, (b) specimens, (c) experiments, (fl) Excursions. The excursion is an invaluable teaching device.