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EDUCATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
talk of several kinds of trade and craft during his school hours; he will have, often enough, used the tools or implements of one or more of such crafts, and the choice is up to him in the last analysis.
The best thing to do is to leave him alone to make his choice, and not to worry him, not to distract his developing interests, his budding enthusiasms, not to dissuade him from likes or dislikes, but to leave him free with the latent and mysterious qualities of his own spirit. This is the careful and delicate line we must follow when a child comes to ask us advice on the question of choosing a trade or craft. We should confine our advice to repeating for the child a film or more than one film in which he has shown a decided interest.
With what type of film ought we to begin the work of vocational guidance? Just as it would be unadvisable to go into detail over the various operations of a specific trade without indicating the general lines of it to a student, so it is not the case to stress the details of any particular craft or trade without having previously shown the young person various and alternative trades or crafts. The first vocational guidance film to be shown should be one on general lines, showing a number of crafts or trades for boys and a similar or smaller number of tasks for girls.
There are plenty of such films, or at least a fair number of them. A request to the General Direction of Technical Training will bring forth what is required along these lines. The synthetic films of A. Lomont and
jean Benoit-Levy may be used to render the first phase of vocational guidance profitable.
When the young person or child has made his or her choice among the various trades or crafts shown him, then it will be advisable to project for him or them films dealing with these special kinds of work. Films of this type can be found in the general catalogues of film-producing firms, though often enough the mere title will not indicate the educational value of the film.
It should also be noted that romance or theatrical films may have considerable value for our purpose. Films of this kind can show work being done — along the lines under examination — by children of the same age as the candidates undergoing vocational guidance. Such films can show how the work is actually carried out in the real surroundings of everyday life in all its various aspects. This without neglecting the moral aspect of all forms of labour.
We are not unaware of the numerous objections which have been raised against the vocational guidance film. The difficulty of accompanying children to workshops and factories has lost much of its value since the coming of the sound film which can reproduce all the factory and machine sounds and noises, and can even give us the very atmosphere of the factory.
In any event, it is certain that the vocational guidance film should be stricdy technical and cine-technical, and should take full account of the nature of children and the complex forms of modern technical labour.
ERRATUM. The study « Cinema and Teaching », which appeared in our September number, was erroneously attributed to M. Henri Duvillard, teacher at Zurich. The article was written by « M. Emmanuel Duvillard », Director of Schools at Geneva.