Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

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114 Visual Education they had seen were the best exercises in English I have ever come across. 5. Lastly, the movies enhanced the love for good books. To illustrate how this worked out, let me relate just one experience. Book vs. Movie Once a month the pupils were given a special treat of a feature film. As far as possible we selected picturizations of literary masterpieces— films such as "The Blue Bird," "Huckleberry Finn," and the like. A month after we had shown "Huckleberry Finn" I entered a seventh-grade classroom one day to find copies of Mark Twain's great classic of boyhood on the desks. The teacher ex plained that the pupils had just finished reading the book. I remarked, absolutely in good faith, that the reading of the book had certainly been an interesting experience but that undoubtedly they had enjoyed the picture far more. My remark was greeted by an emphatic shaking of heads and excited waving of hands. Greatly surprised, I asked for an explanation. I was answered by a chorus of voices declaring that "The book was much better!" And they were able to give splendid arguments in support of their assertion. Some of the finest humor, they said, could not be transferred to the screen; some of the scenes and situations were inadequately represented in the pic ture, etc., etc. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that if we could use the moving picture in the schoolroom to bring the child from indiscriminate indulgence in movie shows back to the book behind the play, that result alone would more than repay us the cost of our school exhibitions. Was not this one of the best lessons in book appreciation imaginable? I wish we could find a way to achieve this more generally, more systematically, more consciously. To sum up, then, our experience has proved that moving pictures in the school are a most valuable device if rightly used, and that the right use is neither difficult nor costlv. When the Mothers Earned a School Projector AVERY sincere conviction that modern education calls for the judicious use of instructional films, and that every day of delay means just another opportunity lost to visualize and practicalize teaching, led the Parent-Teacher Association of Chicago Heights, Illinois, to adopt a unique plan for financing the purchase of a projector for the local high school. "The need of this modern classroom equipment was evident and imperative, yet we could not call upon the pupils' fathers — many of whom were out of employment — for money for a projection machine," explained Mrs. James H. Burdett, president of the Association. "Neither. did we feel that it would he wise to delay the purchase of this equipment until the financial sit nation became better, for the children's need is now. A year later many of these boys and girls will be finding their places in shops, offices and factories. Right now is the time to make their school days as fruitful as possible. When one stops to think that the average child attends school only 120 days a year and that only eight per cent finish high school, the reason is plain why we were unwilling to let the matter of up-to-date school equipment drift any longer." The women's opportunity came, somewhat unexpectedly, through a local electrical show for which they undertook to make and serve luncheons. At the end of their week's catering work, they had taken in $220. This solved the biggest part of the financial problem, and the remainder of the money was easily raised by using the machine for giving public picture shows to which a small initial fee was charged. Voicing her intense appreciation of the value of the screen in education, Mrs. Burdett declared : "There is no better or more economical way to prepare pupils for their part in the world's work than by the use of educational films that supplement the textbooks. They put fresh life and meaning into every lesson. The screen not only makes it possible to teach more in a given time, but to teach it in a more interesting way and in a way that will make the boys and girls remember it 'for keeps.' Another point : Mothers and teachers realize that there is no better way to keep the young people away from undesirable movies than by supplying them through the schools with clean entertainment. Both of these services our high school is now equipped to render." THE use of the motion picture, so far from being an extravagance, should be so managed as actually to effect economy. It should never replace the textbook, but if a subject is presented properly, with preliminary explanation and subsequent discussion, it is clear that the actual handling of the textbook can be cut down by half and its life doubled. — Dr. Ernest L. Crandall, Director of Lectures and Visual Instruction, New York City.