We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
— 379 —
" The spectacle of pictures projected upon a screen has really the value of a book plus movement, and therefore what has been said of books as agents in character-formation applies also to the cinema. The only difference is that a film produces a more violent impression than any book, however pungent the style or exciting the story. Certain scenes have remarkable effects, particularly upon children who are too young to follow the development of the action. Certain scenes of brutality and violence are liable to remain fixed in the back of a boy's mind and subsequently give a twist to his character; the same is true of the effect of certain sentimental or emotional scenes upon girls. I should suppose that the danger to older children and adolescents is less, but parents and teachers cannot be too careful in their choice of films. I have often seen parents taking their children to films which contained various elements of danger."
" The good influence of the cinema depends largely upon the children's capacity for thought, the frequency of their attendance at the cinema and the way in which the film is shown."
" The cinema undoubtedly influences the formation of character. I will quote as an example a sentence taken from a boy's essay on ' Impressions of a cinema performance ': ' This film (" Uncle Tom's Cabin ") does a lot of good; now that I have seen it, I shall have more sympathy for beggars '. The choice of subjects, however, should be strictly controlled; certain adventure films, for instance, contain characters whose moral standards are sometimes very low. The youthful mind has a natural leaning towards the fantastic and the exaggerated and, under the influence of ^suggestion, may easily be led astray."
" Aesthetically, morally and educationally, the cinema has a strong influence over the character-formation of children and adolescents of either sex and persons of inferior culture. It can awake certain sentiments and inclinations, through individual sensations, and can form collective judgments and mass-opinions."
" The cinema with its well-known power of suggestion, has great influence over children, who are all eager for knowledge. Films for children should be chosen with the same care as books, since they strike the imagination and stir the feelings far more than the printed page, to which the child pays hardly more than a passing attention. Examples of moral strength, love of work, determination, civic, patriotic and religious courage — such are suitable subjects for films."
" Attracted by the glamour of luxury and wealth, two poor Milanese girls ran away from home. Hunger and want were their fate and they returned to their father's roof, moral shipwrecks. A courageous voice was raised in the Corriere della Sera calling upon those responsible to do their duty, but so far it appears to have awakened no echo."
All or nearly all the teachers who have answered the Institute's questionnaire emphasize the need of a special censorship of films for children. Not all films are suitable for them and the choice should be made from the least dangerous. Apart from those we have quoted, four replies particularly stress this point. One of them considers the effects of adventure films upon children of either sex; the other three declare not only that films must be most carefully selected, but that a distinction should be made between films that are suitable for boys and films that are suitable for girls.