International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

THE CINEMA, HYGIENE AND PREVENTION OF DISEASE 797 « That will be a fine day when the student will be able to see the fields and meadows with their flowers and fruits pass before his eyes and pass so slowly that he will be able to have full enjoyment of them », wrote Lucien Descaves. This and many other things, useful and beautiful, have been brought by science within the reach of students since then. Our Symposium. The replies to the extensive symposium which we organized among the teachers of France and Algiers to learn their views on the value of the educational cinema in the matter of the teaching of hygiene have allowed us to state, it may be remembered, that the corps of teachers in France has been quite won over to the educational cinema. « The universal language of the cinema », wrote the Inspector of the Accademy for the Ardennes, « has imposed itself on the world of education. The motion picture strikes men's mind, and ends by convincing even the most incredulous. « The attention and the intelligence are awakened by the motion picture and the memory is enriched. The film is one of the most powerful means at our disposal for affecting the imagination of young people and adults ». This and similar remarks have been addressed to us from all the departments of France and Algiers. The National Con In the month of Sep gress of the Edu tember ^ wag cational Cinema . in Paris. organized at the Paris Repository a national Congress of the Educational Cinema having for its programme the development of the teaching film and a study of methods of education. A detailed and carefully elaborated questionnaire was issued to all users of the film repository through the agency of the regional repositories and bureaux regarding the employment of the teaching film. The inquiry made under these conditions corrob orated the results which had already been obtained. Optimistic replies followed in rapid succession, assuring us that « the film makes a lesson profitable », « develops visual observation », « fixes the attention », etc., etc. We will not go further into the matter of the study which we have had the pleasure of presenting you, and will confine ourselves, in the matter of the teaching film, to that limited experience we have of it as employed by the General Propaganda Commission of the Bureau of Social Hygiene and the Propaganda Commission of the National Committee of Defence against Tuberculosis. Educational Cinema The agents of the and the School. Genend propaganda Commission of the National Defence Committee against Tuberculosis are the delegates and lecturers who travel through France in a vast crusade of hygiene and health propaganda in which, in our opinion, the greatest efforts should be made to interest children. We should like to see our scholars adepts and experts in matters of hygiene. In 1933, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-two lectures and talks were given in the schools on the subject of hygiene with suitable accompanying films by our lecturers and delegates. The lectures were given not only in the elementary schools but also in normal institutions, lycees and colleges for young boys and girls. Sometimes, we have been asked to make a special effort on particular lines. Thus last year, 13 lectures with motion pictures and tables and statistics on child upbringing and culture were held in the elementary schools for girls in the department of Alpes Maritimes, according to requests specially made by the department in question. For three months in the year, an automobile group with motion picture equipment is placed at the disposal of the Alsace and Lorraine Association by the General Prop 2 Ice Ingl.