International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

456 EDUCATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY have in motion pictures a very powerful educational influence both for good and bad. For children commercial motion pictures offer an unbalanced diet '. For five years the National Council of Teachers of English has been studying motion pictures. Its members have visited preview committees and have read the appraisals of films in Selected Motion Pictures. They have considered the feasibility of utilizing the classics of the screen as a basis for the teaching of English. During the past two years they have been engaged in an interesting experimental project to determine whether high school students of English profit more from the screen than from like material otherwise acquired. The project is being conducted under the direction of Dr. William Lewin, Chairman of the Photoplay Appreciation Committee. Last year 1,851 pupils in 19 States, 31 schools and 57 theatres in 28 different cities participated. The procedure followed in this project has been for the Photoplay Committee to choose a few of the best current theatrical motion pictures and prepare study guides to assist teachers of high school English classes to teach their students how to appreciate these pictures. Representative English teachers in various parts of the country are selected to use this prepared material and take their students to see the photoplays. Local theatrical managers usually cooperate by displaying the pictures at the time desired by the teacher and by admitting the students free, or by admitting the individual students free at any time they care to see the picture. The student fills out a questionnaire after he has seen the picture, with a view to participation in a class discussion of the screen drama. He is expected to have some opinions about the picture as to its type, character portrayals, story structure, the logic of its ending, its social value, and so on. The committee's researches have shown that high school boys and girls make great strides in approaching the standards of appreciation as set up by the teacher and that English teachers are ready and willing to use motion picture appreciation material. During the present school year the Photoplay Committee is preparing study guides for a select list of pictures, including " Emperor Jones ", " Alice in Wonderland ", and " Little Women ". This material has been supplied to about 1700 English teachers who will use it in their eleventh grade English classes. Doctor Lewin is also very much interested in high school movie clubs, and has successfully combined his photoplay appreciation work with the activities of his club in Newark N. J.. The most extensive experimental project in teaching motion picture appreciation to high school students is being conducted in five States at the present time by Dr. Edgar Dale of the Payne Fund who is working under the direction of the National Committee on Teaching Motion Picture Appreciation. The United States Commissioner of Education is chairman of this committee which is made up of representatives of the National Council of Y. M. C. A., National Board of Y. W. C. A., National Congress of Parents and Teachers, National Education Association, International Council of Religious Education, Jewish Welfare Board, The Payne Fund, National Catholic Welfare Conference, National Council of Teachers of English, the five State departments of education, and the Federal Office of Education. This project, which was launched as a preliminary experiment in Ohio during the early part of 1933 is one of the endeavors resulting from The Payne Fund studies of the influence of motion pictures on children and youth. Its purpose primarily is to raise the standards of tastes of high school students and adult groups in the selection of the photoplays which they attend. Doctor Dale's book, " How to Appreciate Motion Pictures ", is being used as text in the high school classes and for the voluntary adult groups. Radio broadcasts