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354 MOTION PICTURES 1922-I945
EDUCATIONAL CO-OPERATION
On the subject of public relations, it is worth noting that Jean BenoitLevy, prominent French producer, divides his whole book, The Art of the Motion Picture, into two equal sections: "The Motion Picture in Education" and "The Motion Picture in the Art of Entertainment." The adaptation of films to education has always been a hobby with me.
That first summer we made real progress. We soon discovered that most so-called "educational pictures" were pretty poor. Since they could not compare with good commercial pictures, they did not command serious attention from school people. Seeing a real problem to be solved, I thought it best to go direct to the most influential educational body, the National Education Association.
I accepted that association's invitation to address its annual meeting in Boston on July 6, 1922. In bringing the industry's offer of assistance, I called attention to the fact that the United States Commissioner of Education had recently said: "Within the celluloid film lies the most powerful weapon for the attack against ignorance that the world has ever known." Emphasizing the screen's responsibility to children, I said: "Above everything else, perhaps, is our duty to youth." I pointed out that crusade for better pictures was not a one-man job, nor a onegroup job, but "the multitude's job," in which I asked their co-operation. I recalled recent experiments proving that pupils, with the aid of films, made much more progress than pupils without such aid. I made a prophecy, which took years to fulfill, that "there will be series of motion pictures adopted soon by boards of education, just as now series of textbooks are adopted. They must be, of course, scientifically, psychologically, and pedagogically sound." On behalf of our organization I promised all the facilities of the industry in the necessary process of experimentation, and proposed that we jointly study the growing demand and jointly find ways and means of supplying it. I suggested that "it would be just as silly to use language exclusively for writing novels as it would be to use motion pictures exclusively for theatrical entertainment."
It was readily admitted that picture-makers were not educators and that educators were not technical picture-makers, but, beginning with that day, the two extremes began to meet. We all saw that the educational theory would have to come from one side and the technical resources from the other. At my request, the Association at once appointed a small committee of able educators, headed by Dr. Charles H. Judd of the University of Chicago, and together we went to work.