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" To affirm categorically that the cinema is a source of crime and immorality is going too far. If this were so, every civilised country would be committing moral suicide by allowing this general corruption of the population. Undoubtedly, however the spectacle of vice being exalted or at any rate palliated and of virtue being trampled on does not help to develop sound morals in the young."
" I do not think that the cinema can have any disastrous effects, for as a rule children do not retain a lasting impression of what they see."
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False conception of life.
Those teachers who deny or anyhow doubt that the screen acts as an incitement to immorality and crime agree with their colleagues that it may very easily give a false picture of life. They recognize that, when children turn their backs upon the simple and modest existence which is the common lot of the working classes, the fault may largely be attributed to the cinema. Although we cannot nowadays hope to return to the patriarchal state of family life, when the woman stayed at home, plying her distaff and rearing her family, while the man provided for their material needs, there is no doubt that the cinema has opened up to the eyes of the young prospects which, though dazzling, are yet false and deceptive.
Boys dream of heroism and adventure and if it went no farther than dreams, no great harm would be done. In many cases, indeed, good might come of it, for the tendencies and aspirations born of such dreams might train and prepare them for the struggle for life into which they are thrown at an earlier age than their fathers were. Unfortunately, in immature minds unaccustomed to discern their real needs and discipline their instincts, the spirit of adventure and heroism assumes morbid forms that make daily life appear intolerable. Hence arises in them an urge to fight and resist when there is no call to do so; hence the large army of the discontented and neurotic.
The harm is greater in girls, big and small. While boys have a natural love for adventure, the screen's false pictures of life instil into girls a different and more dangerous poison. The cinema only too often conjures up to a young girl an easy life of luxury, made up of love and laughter. She thinks that all life is like that; she does not see why it should be different for her and, when she goes home, shuts her eyes to the cares and anxieties of her parents. She dreams of film-stars, imagines that they are free of such troubles and that their lives are a round of pleasure and enjoyment. Thus she cuts herself off from the purer pleasures of the mind, reserved for the strong of soul and for those gifted with critical sense and capable of self-discipline. Instead of this, she is on the way to becoming a declassee or worse, for she is prepared to sacrifice everything, even her honour, to satisfy her morbid cravings.