Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 45 November, 1945 16MM EXCHANGE PRACTICES BY B. A. AUGHINBAUGH Direcl-or, Slide & Film Exchange, Stare Department of Education, Columbus, Ohio No. 17: Suggestions to Teachers on How to Select Educational Motion Pictures Copyright, 1945, B. A. Aughinbaugh This series of articles deals primarily with the operational practices of slide and film exchanges. The series is therefore of special interest to persons, employed by schools or school systems, whose duties pertain to the operation of such exchanges. The number of such persons is rapidly increasing, but there exists no organized presentation of information of the nature of these articles for the guidance of exchange employes. The information given in these articles has been collected during a period of thirty-five years of constant contact with slide-andfilm-exchange activities. The writer served eighteen years on the teachers’ side of that fence which divides the teaching field from the exchange field. He has served nineteen years on the exchange side. But while his experience extends into both fields, he has tried to stay on the exchange side of the fence in these articles. At the suggestion of the editor of the GUIDE he now crosses the fence temporarily and advises teachers. What we offer in this article must therefore be regarded merely as the viewpoint of an erstwhile exchange patron. We have wasted no time in degree wool-gathering in socalled, but misnamed, “audiovisual education’’ because it is not within the realms of possibility to be both the hen that laid the egg and the egg itself. Judging from what we know of these special-degree courses the neophyte swims around for so many “fish-eats” (apologies to that estimable treatise. The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, published by McGraw-Hill) and comes out crowned with a “degree” of something or other granted by someone who knows less about the motion picture, its evolution, and significance, and its place in communication than the layman knew about the atomic bomb the day before it exploded. One may receive a course in almost anything today if he spends his money and fritters away a sufficient amount of his productive life in listening to pure bunk. The teacher’s salvation is through acquiring real and usable knowledge. The situation reminds one of a condition known to travelers in the Holy Land where the dragomen (guides) class all sites and sights as either “traditional” or “authenic.” There wouldn’t be much to see if one restricted his a c t i V i ti e s to the “authenic” places. We encountered one guide who was a master of his art and also of diplomacy, when put on the spot about one of his “authentic” sights. He was showing a sword which he declared to be the one with which Balaam slew the ass. We took exception to his statement, pointing out that Balaam didn’t have a sword because the Bible states, “and Balaam said unto the ass, ‘Because thou hast mocked me : I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now I would kill thee.’ ” Confronted with this evidence, the dragoman quickly offered in rebuttal “Oh, that’s all right — this is the sword he should have had.” and immediately turned to another “interesting object.” With these introductory remarks we step out of “character” and cross the “fence.” One might expect to find selecting of educational pictures much the same as selecting textbooks. It is, and it isn’t. It is, partly because patrons’ tastes for given types of educational pictures usually parallel their tastes for textbooks. It isn’t, because textbooks perforce must cover a more specific area than can be forced upon any motion picture, and also because at present there are fewer educational motion pictures to choose from than there are textbooks. To clarify our first pronouncement, consider a motion picture on Rome. Such a picture relates to the geography, history, art, architecture, industry, civilian activities and a multitude of other matters concerning Rome, whereas a book on Rome deals ordinarily with only one, or at most two, of the aforementioned items. As to our assertion that educational pictures are not plentiful, the reader will discover for himself that there exists, for example, one educational motion picture on the discovery of America ; only two portraying the founding of American colonies. These are not special but typical instances. To quote from Patrick Henry’s famous speech, “There is no