Visual Education (Jan-Dec 1921)

VISUAL EDUCATION is one of the interesting games we're going to play. Let's begin like this : In the Greek myth stories, what else was Mr. Apollo supposed to do for the world and its people besides turning on the light? How often would Christmas come around if we lived in the moon? Why may we be said to have eclipses of the moon every month? "Moon" and "month" sound a good deal alike when you come to think of it. Don't you wonder why? "Moon" comes from a word meaning "to measure." You'll find the rest of the word-story of the moon in any dictionary that is big enough to tell about the origin of words. By the way — speaking of the timekeepers in the sky — don't forget to look up the lives of the great astronomers mentioned in this chapter. You will find, among other things, how Galileo, when only eighteen years of age, helped to give us our clocks and watches by counting his pulse-beats while watching a hanging lamp swing back and forth in the Cathedral of Pisa; how he found out who "The Man in the Moon" really is and what the "Milky Way" is made of ; how he invented the wonderful glass for playing hide and seek among the worlds, and with it found four moons in one night. Sluggish, indeed, the mind of the child which fails to respond actively to such stimulation! There are, of course, minor flaws to be noticed in "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble." No man speaks with the authoritative voice of angels, particularly of a science which is still in the making. Where, however, the content is so vital, the treatment of material so vivid and fascinating, and the charm of the telling so continuous, it would be indeed carping to mention flaws. "The Strange Adventures of a Pebble" may be considered a significant contribution to educational literature. The Pilgrim Spirit, by George P. Baker. The book of a pageant in celebration of the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims, written and produced for the Pilgrim Tercentenary Commission of Massachusetts. The many pageants and plays of this year celebrating the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims have been a fitting and proper manifestation of our patriotic spirit and national pride. It is also fitting that the. pageant which was probably the most pretentious of all — the one written by George P. Baker and appropriately acted and sung by the people of Plymouth, Kingston, Duxbury and Marshfield — should be in easily accessible book form. Mr. Baker is to be congratulated upon his dramatic achievement. The pageant, that venerable and expressive form of dramatic art, has needed a stimulus in this country which the achievements of this anniversary year of 1921 may well supply. Likewise, ths thoroughness of treatment and the perfection of detail shown in the author's written production may well serve as a literary model for future aspiring writers. The material is handled in a very comprehensive manner. Mr. Baker was net content to portray merely obvious historic episodes such as the landing of the Pilgrims or the Mayflower compact, episodes most vivid in themselves. He went far back in time and presented many events leading up to the bitter days of persecution and to the final flight from English soil. In a way it is a history of the whole Separatist movement. Moreover, he has caught the real spirit of the Puritan and shows it dominant through prisons and trials, through death and deprivation, suffering danger on the open sea and sorrow in an unkind new land, overcoming the menace of insidious outside influence and the peril of faction. You are made to feel the courage of the devoted men and women who triumphed over such frightful odds and not only gained the opportunity to worship as seemed best to them, but also established a body politic, a sound beginning of representative government. Songs and dances add a delightful color and variety to the scenes. The words and music of the former are in almost every case by persons of note, and aside from their appropriateness to the theme are things of poetic beauty in themselves. There is also an enormous pictorial value in this pageant. So great is its visual appeal, indeed, that at the time of presentation one fancies the marked literary quality of its content must have been overshadowed by the splendid processional pomp of its scenes. Those who 36