The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

October, 1943 Page 289 Visual Aids for Mental Hygiene Place of films in teaching morale and behavior, limited material now avail- able, and kind of production needed. JOHN B. GEISEL Principal, Orthogenic School University of Chicago THE increasingly prevalent lack of concentra- tion, emotional instability, and uncertainty about the future among high school students nowadays indicates a need for increased effort to help adolescents keep up their morale. To this end the growing number^ of courses in mental hygiene, psychology, personal problems, and human rela- tions may render large service, for improved morale is their ultimate goal, to be achieved through under- standings and techniques in persona] and social adjustment. These courses help students under- stand the motivation for their own and others' be- havior and suggest ways for improvement. They would doubtless be even more effective than current reports indicate^ if they were accompanied by a number of excellent visual aids. The use of films in connection with mental hygiene^ is especially recommended because of the very nature of the subject matter. Since it deals with human behavior, it will ever defy complete description. The printed page of a textbook cannot convey the whole response one makes, for example, to a rebuff or to approval. Nor can it portray the whole complex of causes that lead to the behavior of two or more persons involved in such a situation. At best only the salient features are mentioned. If the reader has sufficient experience and imagination, he may be able to visualize the behavior situation from the printed page: but this is difficult for ado- lescents. Students need visual concepts of behavior before they can understand its causes. The quality of the textbook, the genius of the teacher, the ex- perience and imagination of the student are but a few of the more important factors involved in the formation of visual concepts in analyzing behavior. ijohn B. Geisel, "Mental Hygiene in the High-School Curri- culum," bulletin of the National Assnciation of Secondary- School Principals. XXVH (May, 1943), 82-88. ^Ibid., pp. 86-88. *The term "mental hygiene" is used throughout the discussion here as an expedient to avoid repeated enumeration of the vari- ous courses now dealing with motivation of behavior. Within this term are comprehended all such courses as human relations, personal and social problems, psychology, group guidance, and also units in other courses that deal with the student's under- standing of himself and others for the purpose of personal and social adjustment. An act of courtesy in the school corridor—from the Forum Films production "Courtesy Comes to Town." To compensate for the limitations inherent in these variable factors visual aids are needed. A well-planned tilm can supply the dynamic pat- terns of behavior-going-on that are not provided by the printed page; it can supplement the creative stimulation of the teacher and the imagination of the student. The filmstrip can serve as an oi)jec- tive record of the subject matter. It remains un- changed through repeated projections. It can be stopped at any moment, and the interplay of sul)- jective and subtle forces, so hard to delineate in other media, can be studied part by part throughout the social situation. High school students, whose experience is limited and whose understanding of self is generally curtailed by an incapacity for self- criticism, get indelible sensory data from the con- crete examples of behavior-going-on in the moving picture. Descriptions in textbooks or conversations are relatively abstract. The effectiveness of teacher and textbook in mental hygiene and similar courses depends, first of all, upon the student's visual imagery of the action under discussion. Seeing the action unfold on the screen is getting sensory im- pressions of patterns and dynamic continuums, data fundamental to understanding of behavior. It is this dynamic and going-on quality that makes the study of behavior distinctly unique among high school subjects, and aI.so. for the same reason, most difficult, however interesting. The very nature of the subject thus points to the greater value to be gained from visual aids. Attention is therefore called in this paper to the few suitable films that are available at this time. An annotated bibliography which follows may be of help in the teaching of courses or units in mental hygiene. The implicit recommendation here that these films should be made use of will be qualified by certain reservations in sub.sequcnt discussion. Also, the limitations of currently available visual aids will lead to certain suggestions about the type of films needed in this field of study. To be specific.