Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

November, 1924 PICTURED LIFE FOR HOME, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY 385 Some of The Things Pictures Are Teaching By C. M. Negus Picture shows should be credited with a vast actual and potential power for good or evil, with a supreme influence upon, public sentiment and public morals. Although moving pictures are, only about twenty years old, it is within a much shorter period that they have leaped from a toy to the greatest entertainment industry in the world. Their development is without parallel or comparison. It is estimated that there are between seventeen and eighteen thousand moving picture theatres in the United States, to which ten million people go daily. All men and all matter pay tribute to the new genius. Most of the famous actors and actresses of the legitimate stage have appeared upon the screen. As with players, so with plays — all the famous ones are finding their way on the screen. There seems to be no subject or theme, no book or play which some moving picture producer is not anxious to turn into the silent drama. Uncle Sam is not in the moving picture business but his department of agriculture at Washington maintains one of the most up-to-date scientific motion picture laboratories in . the country. Its main object is to enable the department to produce economically and under its own direction educational films of a high degree of excellence. The pictures are used in conjunction with lectures given at conventions by persons connected with the department. It has a complete moving picture course in poultry farming which is most successful. The good roads division has made very effective use of films at meetings of highway commissioners, showing details of road construction. Oven ten thousand feet of films were taken last summer throughout the West, showing forest fires, rangers' life, the use which can be made of the national forest for recreation purposes and various other forest activities. The committee on foreign affairs of the house of representatives imbibed first-hand information of the Mexican situation from a series of graphic views shown before it. Illinois communities are aroused by the the state's food commission to the dangers of the fly and unsanitary milk and are taught all sorts of points in household hygiene. Kansas City is considering replacing the free band concerts in its parks with free educational picture shows. A Pacific coast railroad has a two-hour series of films with which it teaches its trainmen its rules and the consequences of carelessness. Several auto companies are instructing agents and salesmen as to special capabilities of their cars by means of moving pictures ; manufacturing concerns are thus training their salesmen more quickly and efficiently than ever before; in fact, pictures are being used in an infinite variety of ways along commercial lines. More than one preacher has vised the film as a means of stimulating and impressing his audience. A company that took pictures to illustrate the life of Christ recently went about their task in the spirit of holy service. The journey to Palestine was like a pilgrimage, only those who could reverently enter into the spirit of the scenes being permitted to go. Many philanthropic institutions are using films in teaching the public what they are doing and many individual schools and colleges are using the motion picture in a supplementary way. Science uses them to study tissue and in research. The X R a y of the digestive tract is given more accurately than it could be obtained by pupils in a classroom with the naked eye. Medical schools have found them invaluable aids to students. They are used in dozens of agricultural and extension schools. Moving picture booths have been installed in several public schools of New York and Brooklyn where such subjects of "Signing of the Declaration of Independence," '"'Panama Canal Operations," "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland" and "Logging in the Woods" are exhibited free in the afternoon, with a charge of five cents in the evening. The outposts of the educational world have seized upon this new tool and are making it serve many distinct ends but the schools, themselves, are not yet receiving the full benefit of this new power. Broadly speaking, our educational films have been produced by companies dependent mainly on amusement films for their business and dabbling in educational subjects as an experimental side line, without guidance of those who know school methods and needs. Even Mr. Edison, marvelous man that he is, is not a practical teacher and, in the last analysis, he is making films that his great company can market and sell. Before moving pictures can come into any regular and extended use in the public schools, film manufacturers will have to work otit in association with school men sets of films for public school use. To combine interest in the movies with education in the classroom will be a distinct advantage to the pupil. He will learn without trying and in spite of himself. In geography, pictures will take children to the ends of the earth, where life and living things are seen. All methods of lumbering, mining, agriculture and manufacturing, as well as the appearance of the country, will be shown throughout the eye. Pictures that show the daring and endurance of men who risk their lives that the world may be benefited make vitally interesting studies. Two Minds as One "Does your wife usually agree with you?" "Yes — If I know her opinion before I form mine."