The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

motion picture film. Films can bring people right into the classroom and you can hear them talk at the same time. Lacking only in two-way communication, they represent the next best thing to actual experience with a variety of people. If films are to do a good job in the field of human relations, stereotypes must be eliminated. This is a job for producers of films to consider. If stereotypes cannot be eliminated, and it is admittedly a difficult job, the need for competent teachers is even more evident. Let us briefly consider how each of these, the producer and the teacher, can cause films to be a more potent force for good. What Producers Can Do Producers are not in business for their health. They must sell their products. The question is, do they have to contain all the age-old cliches and stereotypes tliat the prospective buyer learned as a child in order to make the sale? Does the purchaser say "my, how true to life!" or does he just make the purchase because no other materials are available, or both? I believe that most purchasers of classroom materials would like to get better goods for their money. Without further incentive, this should cause producers to attempt the production of better materials. Let us keep in mind for a moment the children for whom the film has been developed. Children haven't learned all the stereotypes, and those they have learned are not so deeply imbedded that they can't be uprooted. They don't necessarily think of an Italian as havingr a handle-bar mustache, a Rus sian with a full beard, a Jew counting money, a Mexican as lazy, or a Negro as the chauflfeur when riding in a car. But just give us time and we will show them enough films in which highly emotional situations help fix the "queer" ideas about various people in their minds. Strangely enough, many stereotypes get by the producers even when they are consciously trying to avoid them. Remember the film, Henry Brotvne, Farmer ? Why did the Negro family iiave to go to town in a wagon? How many other wagons did you see? Were any of them loaded with white people? I couldn't help thinking that Henry wasn't a very good farmer or he would have owned a car. Did the producer want me to think that? No, but it slipped by just the same because Negroes, mules and wagons are all a part of a stereotyped picture. Producers can avoid stereotypes : ( 1 ) if they want to badly enough and (2) if they would hire reviewers schooled in good human relations. What Teachers Can Do As mentioned above, I don't believe producers will entirely stop shooting stereotypes into films. This is where the teacher comes in. Even when using stereotyped films, teachers don't have to let them get by and poison the minds of children. Of course, I'm assuming that the teacher is not himself a "sucker" for the stereotype. In other words, teachers must have an adequate fund of accurate knowledge, respect for individuals and people, plus a knowledge of how to use films. Suppose the mustached Italian-American with a knife in his belt, selling fruit (usually bananas) "Suppose the mustached Italian-American with a knife in his belt, selling fruit (usually bananas) from a two-wheeled cart, appears in a film sequence. What can the teacher do about it? Ask George Petrasso, who sits in the third seat of the second row, what his father does. The children know who Sinatra is, and they probably have heard of a fellow named DiMaggio and a man named LaGuardia. All of this can be added up to an understanding that Italian-Americans do about the same things other Americans do with just about the same degree of success and failure." March, 1948 125