International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

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THE CINEMA IN TEACHING UTILIZATION OF FILMS IN VARIOUS SCHOOL GRADES By Prof. Costantine Kiritzesco Director of Higher Education at Bucharest. General Ideas on the r-i-i he cinema faciliUse of the Cinema j tates the teacher's during Lessons. task by giying him new methods of demonstration during lessons which he may use in combination with those already employed, thereby increasing the value of the latter, for the pleasanter a lesson is, the easier is it to understand. The film can never be expected to bring about a revolution in teaching methods, but only an improvement. New ideas are often spoilt by exaggeration, and one of the exaggerations that is gaining some ground nowadays is the belief, expressed in some quarters, that the talking film may eventually replace the teacher. This cannot be the case. An excessive use of the talking film in schools would only end by making teaching mechanical to the point of absurdity, and would be in fatal contradiction with the fundamental principle of the live school which is founded on the direct relation between two intelligences, the master's and the pupil's. It is a relation which must undergo changes and adapt itself to extremely variable circumstances and conditions. Reducing its utility to due proportions, we find that its value as an educational means is still very considerable. The motion picture is a step ahead of lantern slides, just as the latter were an advance on wall pictures, which in turn represented an improvement on chalk drawings made by the master on the blackboard, which again were something better than merely verbal explanations. The primary advantage of the motion picture is that it presents a succession of images in continual movement, and consequently shows the pupils the rhythm of natural phenomena. Secondly, it affords them pleasure, which is a great help in all school activities. The success of the new method depends on the way it is applied. We must therefore keep constantly in mind the vast pedagogic possibilities of the cinema. This means that, starting from certain ideas which are generally admitted in scholastic pedagogy, the respective value of the film, whether silent or sound, must be determined in regard to the various scholastic grades and the different subject matters being taught. It is also necessary to examine the practical possibilities of its application in the ordinary routine of school life. It is only by coordinating these possibilities and adapting them to the pedagogic technique of the lessons that the method can really be made profitable. In addition to strictly pedagogic considerations, we must take note of a material circumstance which interferes with the application of the school cinema. This is the fact that the installation costs a great deal, especially for sound films, and it is out of the question, therefore, that every classroom or even the larger rooms in every school should be supplied with this expensive outfit. The same difficulty is encountered when it is a question of setting up a film library corresponding to the requirements of the school