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THE FILM IN THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE SCHOOLS
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and the great saving system which has been introduced into the middle schools : nevertheless, numerous schools have acquired these apparata and many others wish to do so.
The Austrian Photo-Cinematographic service, in view of the needs of the middle schools, does everything in its power to complete and increase as far as is possible and with a precise programme as basis, the collection of reduced size films for teaching purposes which it already possesses.
For the present, the schools cannot obtain reduced size films save from renting houses (apart from the photo-cinematographic service mentioned, there are the houses Agfa and Kodak). For the future it will certainly be advisable to acquire such films as can be regularly and frequently employed in teaching. (The new Ozaphan system of the Agfa will certainly be suitable for this purpose by reason of its economic convenience).
In the meantime, the Austrian PhotoCinematographic service contributes to the work by lending projection apparatus for reduced size films, for set periods of time, first to one and then to another of the middle schools. In this way the schools can experiment with this modern means of instruction and be persuaded (by reason of the favourable results obtained by this trial) to buy their own apparatus.
Finally, it is necessary to remark that in Austria, several middle school teachers are themselves producing films with the object of obtaining films especially suited to their instruction. The great value of such work is evident, but on account of the expenses incurred, help is needed which might be given by the public funds or by
those organizations interested in the work, though, at the present moment, such help is only possible in a very limited degree. Ever increasing numbers of middle school teachers are engaged in modifying the already existing films of diverse kinds and origin, so as to render them suitable for middle school teaching.
One must also note that the National Ministry of Education, the highest scholastic authority in Austria, already several years ago decreed that all educational films, also those destined for the middle schools, be submitted to its judgement and only after approbation be used in teaching. This was decided on in the interest of the quality of the films, in order to avoid both that the cinema, after being recognized as a splendid means of teaching, be discredited, in consequence of the projection of defective or unsuitable films or of wrong use, and that precious time be lost.
Subjects, the teaching of which may be completed by the cinema :
Natural History (zoology, botany, hygiene).
Geography (general outline, sea, ice, volcanoes, etc. story of countries, economy, peoples).
Physics and Chemistry (technical side). Among other subjects :
Foreign Languages (foreign culture, customs and life of the peoples).
Mathematics and gymnastics. This list of subjects refers principally to the middle schools. For the use of the cinema in the other educational institutes, apart from the subjects themselves there are also the questions of technical order to be considered.