International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

186 THE CINEMA IN EDUCATION As the result of experiments made in England, it has been agreed that the sound film is more advantageous for children of tardy intelligence, and in the case of ordinary pupils it saves time and holds the attention. It is considered very useful for the teaching of languages. The enlarged mouth shown on the screen allows the student to follow the making and conformation of the words and the movements of the muscles which emit the voice. The Phonetic Institute of Paris uses films of this kind, and finds them very effective with its pupils. The best adaptation of the acoustic part depends on the film being shown and on the result desired, and may be accomplished in three ways : simple registration of movements and sounds without explanatory text; registration besides movements and sound of certain words in places where it seems desirable ; making a silent picture and then synchronizing a lecture with it. To encourage the use of the sound films, new apparatus with portable sound cabins has been manufactured and, in Italy, the model built by Alessandro Michetti is especially suitable for small cinemas and scholastic projections. The sound and talking film is already employed as an aid in teaching in the United States, England and Russia with good results. Travelling cinemas ought to be given every encouragement. They render a service to the rural population at home and in the colonies that is quite evident. The results obtained by Mile. Susanna Karpeles in her travels to Laos and Cambodia are a proof of this. We must be on our guard, though, to avoid showing pictures illustrating the attractions of the life of big cities, which might become for rural spectators, as M. Legros well observes in an article in the International Review of Educational Cinematography " the first group of agents provocateurs " for the rural exodus. Moral Education. If in the teaching film, the teacher and the school have the preponderating share of the work, we should not forget that in the case of the educational cinema — moral education, that is — the family, and especially the mother has the most important task. Family education is the first and most important education that the child receives, and it is a mistake to think that the school can take the parents' place. Realizing the importance of the cinema in present day life, and admitting that everybody absorbs for himself those things which are suited and necessary for his innate disposition, it is easy to understand that, thanks to the motion picture, the child can store up treasures of knowledge such as to surprise an educationist, or on the other hand, receive from the film harmful impressions. It is the mother's task to assume the role of censor when this is necessary and to forbid her children witnessing spectacles capable of having a pernicious influence on young minds. Young girls ought not to be taken to see love pictures, while they should be allowed to see good films exalting the sentiments of motherhood and sacrifice. Boys ought to be taken to see pictures where noble sentiments are exalted, whether in a romantic form or with comic relief. What a happy means for the formation of character the cinema can become ! A lesson in good understanding and organization can be found in the pleasant picture " Emil and the Detectives ". It is only women who can realize certain effects on nervous children of terror aroused by some pictures which are not forbidden by any censorship. A continuous diet of such films for nervous children will work evil effects on their mentality and brain. Inquiries and symposia that have been held allow us to judge exactly the proper present day task of the cinema in young people s lives. The International Institute of Educational Cinematography in Rome organized some time ago a symposium among the children of various countries on the subject of When and How do Young People frequent the Cinema ?