The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

38 The Educational Screen the junior high schools, are fairly sure to include electrical or other shop teachers who will give the standard booth machines the care and repair that they require, and who are also able to qualify as local licensed operators if the requirements are reasonable. As a matter of fact, the Senior High School and the Junior High School, with their very highly specialized courses, will ultimately be the educational centre of motion picture usage, both in classroom and auditorium models. For industrial and mechanical courses nothing can equal the motion picture for supplementary instruction in all the steps of the detailed processes of manufacturing. Motion pictures are the best form of visual instruction where action is to be portrayed. Their value for reproducing dramatic situations of all sorts will make them just as helpful in the study of history and literature, provided that the great masterpieces can be preserved and reprinted for school use, upon safety stock at a price within reach of the ordinary school budget. In biology the processes of the growth of plant and animal life will be available in every classroom, while chemical and physical changes will no doubt be recorded with equal fidelity. Pictures of games and sports, projected in slow-motion, will supplement the work of physical and health education, teaching posture, form, and the technique of athletics. Many of these topics have already been treated and taught by the scenario method, but their application to the 16 mm. or classroom machine is needed to make them of more practical and general service to schools. Even in Teachers Colleges films have been employed in the classroom for instruction in methods, and for classroom illustrative material, notably by Dr. Herbert Spencer, of the Frick Training School for Teachers in Pittsburgh. The 16 mm. machine was the medium of projection employed. Its availibility for medical and dental clinics in demonstration work has likewise been tested with success. Our own use of the 16 mm. projector has been restricted to elementary schools for the greater part of the term, only two higher schools making any extended use of these machines. The other eighteen gave their greatest service to the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. There it was found that the unit lessons in Geography and Nature Study were the best in quality and the greatest in quantity. The results have been remarkably good, and may best be appreciated by the perusal of excerpts from the reports of the principals of the schools using them. These will be noted by jiumber rather than by name, in the following paragraphs. 1. "Our motion picture machine (B. & H.) is an invaluable addition to our equipment. It is easily operated. Every teacher has learned how to run it. The new portable screen is very satisfactory. The geography films are most interesting and instructive, but the hygiene films are too advanced for pupils of elementary schools in some cases. Teachers report that they find fifteen (15) minutes of good motion pictures bring better results than several regular lessons. In the followup there is no difficulty in getting children to discuss the subject matter, and to read of it in their books. The question arises whether we should not have a new time allotment sheet to allow for these visualization lessons. I hope that the time will come when we will have good pictures taken from literature and history." 2. "I think the new motion picture machine is an excellent addition to our equipment. The children love it, and so do I. After each visit to the visual room we have had a regular lesson on the same subject as the film. It is amazing how much the children remember. They also ask if they will ever see the same picture over again. They seem to want to see the pictures again, especially after we have discussed them. The machine ran beautifully on the occasions when I used it, and I am sure the more I learn about it the better I'll like it. In fact, to be honest, I cannot at this moment give any criticisms. I am satisfied with films, screen, and machine." 3. "Our experience with the Kodascope, the silver screen, and the reels supplied by your division has been so extraordinarily profitable and pleasant that there seems to be nothing in the way of constructive criticism to be offered in addition to the comments already made on Form S 265. We find the motion picture outfit an invaluable teaching aid because it imparts to impressions a vividness and reality not obtainable in any way other than by immediate physical contact. So far as we can determine, the machine and all the material used have been without technical fault. The school faculty — all feminine gender — find it very convenient to handle and easy to operate. They are elated by their success in its use." 4. "I am pleased to report very favorably upon the motion picture equipment recently placed in my school. We receive our films on Tuesdays and a teacher-representative from each grade-section makes inquiry on Wednesday morning concerning the presence in the school of films and slides adaptable to the coming week's work. In this way the material is used up to a maximum of its usefulness. The machine itself, a Bell and Howell-Filmo, is a simple, and at the same {Continued en page 45)