Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

Morch, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 51 in view of classroom conditions, a twenty-minute film is superior to a forty-minute film and that a longer film, like David Copperfield, should be given in serial instalments. Administrators fail to realize that lavish expenditures on motion-picture equipment and films are ridiculous if provision is not at the same time made for training teachers in effective use of tho material and if a competent director is not immediately placed in charge of the work. Schools of education are likewise decidedly at fault when they fail, as many do, to give instruction in the field of audio-visual aids. 4. As a fourth fault, we have allowed commercial interests to manufacture their products without any real insistence on our part that the remarkable techniques developed in motionpicture production and some of the impressive plays created by these processes must be made available as a public service in the schools as well as in theatres. Failure to be stubborn in our insistence is a symptom of social backwardness or of a timidity that too often characterizes educational leadership. It is clearly evident that, in general, we have not seen to it that the weight of our authority is felt in the motion-picture industry, if necessary uncomfortably felt. For we are not a noisy minority group applying pressure techniques for our selfish advantage; we have no special or divisive interests. The fact is, we are the people. 5. Finally, we have not been sufficiently insistent on producing among our students critical, even if for most part appreciative, attitudes toward this engrossing occupation of much of their leisure time. Our educational task in this field is a two fold one — to use audio-visual aids to a vastly increased extent and to establish criteria for the OLit-of -school appreciation of movies, radio, and television, the big three that are today slowly moving toward their own UNO. Our opportunity to establish such standards is at the same time cur power to control conditioiis in this vast realm. I assume, as I have already indicated, that we shall weigh these arts by no unveracious scale, for if we do so, our alert and up-and-coming young folks will have none of us and will even react negatively and dangerously. But if we remember that these are arts of enjoyment, that they are vigorous and lusty products of our dynamic age. that in their free-spoken irreverence, frequent unruliness, and caustic humor they are characteristically American, if we candidly share the pleasure that our boys and girls take in motion pictures and radio, we shall win them over to honest judgments of productions obviously varying in merit. Then we shall go far, and we shall tremendously increase the potency of our educational efforts. Some people say, positively a n d pessimistically : “Motion pictures are theatre. Classroom procedures are pedagogy. And never the twain shall meet.” I am convinced, however, that the two not only met long ago but that they are destined to an enduring friendship. New Subscription Rates FILM & RADIO GUIDE Effective July 1, 1946 ONE YEAR .... . $3.00 TWO YEARS .... . 5.00 THREE YEARS . . . . . 6.50 Enter or Renew Your Subscription NOW at Current Low Rates: ONE YEAR .... . $2.00 TWO YEARS . . . . . 3.50 THREE YEARS . . . . . 5.00 "What Shall We Read About the Movies” or "Course of Study in Radio Appreciation” Free With 2-Year Subscriptions. Both Free With 3-Year Subscriptions. In Canada, Add 50c; In Foreign Countries, Add $1.