Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 707 THE MOVING PICTURE AS AN EDUCATOR. Its Possibilities at Last to be Realized. By Mme. R. G. Dolese. THAT the motion picture deserves a place in education lias long been the belief of many of our most prominent educators and of some of the humble ones. Who is there in this world who can honestly say they do not care for motion pictures ? That you do not care for certain ones, yes, true enough, but that all motion pictures are outside your liking — well, we doubt it. Probably you have never seen the ones we are thinking about. At any rate, children love them and now, at last, we are going to have an Educational Department that will be able to furnish the films we most desire. Our greatest men and most prominent writers have long claimed that education "through the eye" is more lasting, more thought-producing than any other method. How man} of our great teachers have striven for years to bringbefore the world the truth that "Seeing is Believing." In colleges and school, nature classes have been formed for travel; the more fortunate ones even going into foreign lands. In all our public schools teachers attempt to take their pupils to visit factories, to see the great working of the work-a-day world, to take them out into the woods to see the trees, the mountains and the rivers, and while all educators believe this to be the most instructive lesson given to the children, from a practical standpoint, it has been found very difficult to accomplish. Do you recall, as a child, the doubts that were foremost in your mind when you were told about some great natural phenomenon you had never seen? What does a mountain mean to a child who has never traveled beyond the boundary of the plains? What does the ocean mean to a child who dwells in the interior? A name only. And so we use pictures, photographs, drawings and paintings and they are helpful. But think what it means to see a motion picture; A seacoast, for instance, with its great rocky beach, long stretches of sand and the waves beating themselves against the rocks, mountain high; or, as I saw the other day, grear waves dashing over the bow of a steamer in mid-ocean. What would all this mean to a child, a man or woman. There are plenty who never travel beyond the boundary of their home State, but who, going to a motion picture theater, come away impressed and amazed by a street scene of a great metropolis with its masses of humanity, cars and vehicles rushing here and there. Their minds have been opened to a new and wonderful train of thought that greatly helps over the road they are traveling. For we all know that the more we can put into onr minds, stored up in the pictures of our memory album, the more we have to give to those about us and the greater is our enjoyment. An Educational Film Bureau. The Educational Department of the General Film Company is preparing to place before lecturers, programs for an evening's entertainment, covering the subject on which they are to speak, natural science, physical science, geography, historical studies, travels, literature. Pause a moment to think what it will mean to a student of ancient, mediaeval or modern literature, to have the poem or story depicted before his eyes, produced in a masterful way by splendid actors and actresses. It will be to the person unable to travel, a working out of the old adage about Mohammed and the mountain and we are bringing the mountain. We will bring also foreign countries and their industries, engineering feats of world-wide interest, great canals in process of construction. Is there anyone who is not interested in the Panama Canal or the canal which is being built in the western part of New York State? Would not "the teacher as well a the pupil v/elcome the story of animals and plants and even human lives that tells a story exactly as it is happening when the picture is taken? Or think what it would mean to a small farmer gazingfor the first time upon the vast expanses of Western.iforn fields with the great machinery now used in planting and gathering, .the same; or the Western farmer gazing for the first time upon the ingenuity of the man in the Fast who has to raise his corn on a rocky soil. Truth is what we want in teaching. I do not agree with an educator who says that education is to-day made too easy. Jn this great hustling, bustling period of our existence we must take things quickly and the time does not allow of children remaining as long in their schools a when there were fewer inhabitants on this globe: so, if we can teach what we all must know by motion pictures in the school, will w e not then accomplish a great step toward higher education. \\ it h this thought in view the Educational Department of the General Film Company has planned and put together all the forces they could, and now has arranged a comprehcn-iv.catalogue of educational film subjects which is in the hands of the printer and will be available at no distant date. This, I know, will be welcome news to Moving Picture World readers. Just as soon as the catalogue is ready and the details for the distribution of the films have been arranged full particulars will be given on the Educational page. BOYS AND THE PICTURES. In a recent communication from England the interesting statement is made that a firm of publishers of juvenile literature, finding that a special boys' paper with a circulation of 400,000 monthly copies, had dwindled down to about 100,000 copies; also that a profit of 20,000 pounds 1 100.000 dollars) per annum had been completely wiped out. A -earch for the cause of this singular state of things revealed the fact that the boys were turning their attention and their money to moving pictures; in a conflict between pictures and literature the pictures were preferred. While such an exact example may not have been brought to the front in this country, there is no doubt that the conditions here are practically the same. Xot only is it an old truth that in books the illustrations receive first attentiin, it was little supposed, however, that the illustrations would some day so grow as to largely supersede and partly eliminate the literary. That it is to so great an extent doing so is an important fact, one that cannot be ignored, indeed it must be dealt with. In addition to the knowledge that the pictures were a source of pleasure to boys, there now comes the added knowledge that they are a source of knowledge of the book kind, yet distinct and apart from anything that belongs strictly to the school-book and school-room. By a singular coincidence the writer of this page recently made an appeal for "pictures for boys"; it now appears that the appeal was not only timely, but necessary. The value of the moving picture is again hereby augmented. Every day brings increasing demands and responsibilities which are not being met. Without doubt there is not far distant an upheaval in the manufacturing world. It is a truism that what the people demand they will get, therefore cinematography will perforce be compelled to come out from the theater into the world of usefulness, enlightenment, and culture, and show educationals. It is too big for its present handling and yearns for a power to do it justice. THE PICTURE NEWSPAPER. This week's edition of "The Pathe Weekly" is certainly a most royal number. Beginning with a picture of the Czar of Russia at the unveiling of a monument erected to the memory of those sailors who preferred death rather than surrender to the Japanese. There follows the last appearance in public of the Dowager Queen Pia of Portugal accompanied by the King of Italy. Other pictures are those of the King of Roumania entering one of his principalities, being received by the Mayor, and the King of the Belgians with Crown Prince Leopold attending a royal function. Admiral Togo, of Japan, is shown paying his respects to the Mayor of the City of New York, and the Crown Prince of Germany visiting in a forcountry in state. The assembling of the American War sels off Provincetown for the naval maneuvers, with views on board some of the ve-scls. evokes patriotic senti