Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

June, 1946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 51 he is unable to sponsor some educational films for your use? Textbook publishers, map makers, and producers of unbiased, unprejudiced classroom teaching films, made to fit the curricula of American schools, have had a rough road to travel. The producers of these materials have had to study carefully the teaching problems of the classroom in order to develop films and other materials that may be accepted by the schools because they meet teaching needs. This is in accordance with the true spirit of the freeenterprise system o n which American business has been built. Most sponsored films in the past were made for adult audiences and potential purchasers of the products concerned. They were not made to show in schools. During the early stages in the development of visual programs in schools, teachers and administrators have been prone to overlook well-established criteria for the selection of materials o f instruction. Much film material has been shown in our schools that is irrelevant to the objectives and purposes of the curriculum. Now we are having a new formula recommended. Advertising agencies are recommending that our great industries cease preparing films which legitimately advertise their products and turn to the production of unbiased, unprejudiced, and authentic truth films based upon the objectives of the curriculum. When a film of this type has been produced, the schools will be invited to utilize the teaching tool at small cost and pay for the bargain by running an ad at the end or beginning of the film. What you must now decide is whether the schools should pay for the instructional materials they need by acting, in part, as an advertising agency. We are asked, “Why object to letting an industrial concern place its name on the end of a classroom film any more than letting McGraw-Hill or Encyclopaedia Britannica Films put its name on a film or on a textbook?” There is a great difference. McGraw-Hill and Encyclopaedia Britannica Films are in the “truth” business. They search for outstanding educational authorities, pay them to produce authentic, unbiased classroom films and textbooks, and have no other interest than that their product be measured by how well it presents the truth. This is different from a film or a book produced by a The Audio-Visual Division of the Education Department, Popular Science Publishing Company, 353 Fourth Avenue, New York 10, N. Y., has announced a series of PSP Teach-O-Filmstrips, designed specifically for use in primary classes in reading, storytelling, social studies, and nature study. Organized as self-contained teaching units, the simply-told stories in color include the basic elements of good teaching methods. The principles of motivation, concept teaching, summarization, and provocative questioning are employed. The filmstrips contain only original drawings in vivid colors. By combining words with attractively colored pictures, these PSP Teach-O-Filmstrips provide direct word-picture association, essential in teaching children of the primary grades. company primarily interested in selling toothpaste. As stated by one of our great educational associations, “We certainly want our industries to be public-spirited and to assist in the concerted national effort to enlighten our people, educate our children, and raise our standard of living. As educators, however, proud of our profession, we think that the way we would want industry to contribute to this great ideal is to put up less resistmice when tax programs for educatimi are advocated, and to leave it to unbiased professional educators to evaluate the needs of youth and to interpret u’hat and how our youths shall be taught for the common good of all.” Each of the PSP Teach-O-Phlmstrips is accompanied by a teacher’s guide that contains specific suggestions for the use of the strip as an integrated classroom aid. The following four subjects comprised the initial offering of the new division : Heidi : This tells about two adventures of Heidi and her friend Peter. In the first, they spend a lovely summer day together ; in the second, they visit Peter’s grandmother during a winter day. This PSP Teach-O-Filmstrip stimulates a desire to read the book Heidi. It develops various social-studies concepts, such as : how people live in a foreign land ; what clothes they wear ; what houses they live in ; what food they eat. 44 Fi'ames. Color. Price: $5.00. Notable Series of Elementary Teach-O-Filmstrips