The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 202 The Educational Screen Pre-Induction Training with Audio -Visual Aids PRE-INDUCTION training is sweeping through the schools of the nation like a tidal wave. Driven by the Inirricane force of military demand for youth, and better trained youth, it engulfs many of the traditional courses familiar but a year ago, and leaves in its wake numerous specialized courses in many fields. Some of these courses are merely subdivisions of regu- lar high school subjects tempered and disguised with special practical applications, but others are almost en- tirely new. Mechanics offered for pre-flight students is a subdivision of Physics, while Aeronautics con- tains much which has never before been offered to teen- age students. Frames from the Jam Handy series of film slides on pilot training. If the other plane crosses from your left. the other pilot should change his course and give the right of way to yoa "The plane on the right has the right" ^ INCIWASCD . :re«je the number of horses t ,i;i;»t>ie) we can go somewhat (iastei ag due to the increase in speed sa-r :tra tKirf*n However, movt fxiwer '.■ vh ■■■ f'tie airplane to ciunb. Emphasizing the helpful role visual aids are playing in the revised high school curriculum, necessitated by the wartime need ior specially trained youth. J. L. SENECHAL Director, Department of Audio-Visual Education High School, Willimantic, Conn. Caught in the whirling current, many superintendents were swept from their feet, and proceeded dizzily to fit into their respective curriculums these new courses with little forethought relative to jnirpose and content of the courses, or to the preparation and ability of their teach- ers to make them practical and worthwhile. Others, however, waited, and watched developments before making decisions; and still others, thanks to their con- servative balance, wisely supplemented the regular courses with additions and modifications which would satisfy the new demands imposed upon their schools. Pre-induction training is vital, and should be given wherever it fits smoothly in the curriculum, but if it falls upon tJie shoulders of the classroom teacher, as a more or less foreign assignment, it may catapult him into a state of befuddled uncertainty. Tliis uncertainty is bound to arise if the teacher does not know anything about the subject matter he is supposed to teach, or granting a knowledge of it, if he has never trained to teach it. In either case it is a task, this teaching of pre- induction courses, which the teacher may not accomplish unless he seeks innumerable teaching aids to lessen his work and make his presentation clearer and more in- teresting. To this end he will find many types of teaching aids, or devices, which can be used satisfactorily. Each has its own merit; each must be used differently; but all serve as a means of communication. Printed material The wing-tip lig-lits must he. visiWc for two miles. The tailiight must be visible for three miles. Courtesy of Keystone View Co. Teaching aircraft identification with slides