International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1932)

534 The advantages of this system for all branches of education are indiscutible, but they are especially advantageous in the teaching of the natural sciences, in regard to which Basedow writes : " The study of the natural sciences must be made with the aid of models, examples, figures and experiments that will render a real knowledge of the object possible ". The further I proceed in my study of this question, the more material I have to deal with and the more I find myself compelled to multiply quotations. This shows that, as civilisation progresses, instructors become more and more convinced of the great efficacy of visual teaching. This being admitted, it is extraordinary that the latest expression of visual education, the cinema, is not yet in common use in schools, where it would give life to the teacher's words and sustain the children's interest, and make the vitality of art and science more evident to both master and pupil. Emmanuel Kant (1723-1804). The austere philosopher of the categorical imperative estimated the efficacy of education at its real value, and said of it : " Man becomes man only through education, and is that which education makes him. In order properly to estimate the efficacy of education, whose aim is to develop the individual to his highest possible degree of perfection, it is necessary that a being of superior nature be charged with man's education ". Although an admirer of Rousseau, whose Emile made a strong impression on him, and although a believer in the doctrine of the original goodness of human nature, Kant may be numbered among the partisans of effort, who, instead of making education attractive, believe rather in putting the laborious possibilities of childhood to the proof. Horace's " Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit " does not unduly move the follow ers of the effort theory, some of whom, while admitting that childhood must have its hours of play and recreation, hold with Kant that it is going against the child's own interest to accustom it to look upon everything as a game, because man must be so occupied that he becomes a part of the thing to be accomplished and therefore no longer himself, and he understands the best repose to be that which follows labour. Kant deplores the fact that children are educated on the plane of the present corrupt world, thus obstructing the improvement of the world that would undoubtedly result if the aspirations of new generations tended to higher and nobler ideals (1). In education, Kant distinguishes discipline, which is the negative part, since it is limited to curbing man's brutal instincts, from the positive part, instruction, which, however, under the influence of Rousseau has almost insensibly become negative and indirect. And Kant is again in complete agreement with the author of Emiie, when in his turn he asserts the tyranny of habit, against which childhood should be protected. The German philosopher also had a word to say for visual education : admitted that the intellect follows the impression made on the senses and that memory retains it, he is of the opinion that what it is usual to call an " orbis pictus ", when suitably put together, may be of the greatest service in the teaching of botany, mineralogy and physics. He also considers illustrated accounts of travels of great utility, since they lead to (1) The promotors of the new German pedagogy of the " As if " have perhaps taken their impetus from this assertion of Kant.