MODERN SCHOOL METHODS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 20

MODERN SCHOOL METHODS

USE OF CINEMA AND GRAMO-

PHONE.

School pupils of a bygone generation, whose feelings were usually appealed to through the medium of a cane, might well envy the scholars of to-day, for whose edification such modern adjuncts as the cinema and the gramophone have been introduced into schools. The Victorian Education Department (says "The Argus'") has kept in step with other educational authorities in recognising the value of imparting instruction by means of moving pictures. These, it is considered, ' effect the dual purpose of making learning interesting and of providing an antidote to any objectionable picture that may have been seen elsewhere. During the war, said the actingdirector of Education (Mr. A. Fussell) in discussing the subject, a considerable number of "home • cinema" machines were bought on the instalment plan by teachers. The initial payments were mado out of school funds, and later- payments were aided by tho proceeds of entertainments given to parents. Since the war the type of projecting machine used in schools has been greatly improved, one feature being that it can be stopped at any stage to enable the teacher to explain, where necessary, the particular feature then appearing on the screen. The purchase of cinema machines is being recommended to teachers and school committees by inspectors. Inspectors are also commending to school teachers and committees the virtues of gramophones. By the gramophone music has been made far more popular in schools. Mention of singing lessons will recall to "the old-timor" memories of a pitch-pipe, a wheezy harmonium, or an antiquated piano with green baize tacked across the back. The singing was led by a teacher, who may, or may not, have been possessed of vocal qualifications. .All that is changed now. Class singing in -schools is fortunate enough to possess a gramophone, is led and accompanied by an instrument which as regards tone, cannot lie. Tho Department tells proudly of an episode at a Collingwood school, where Mr. A. B. Lane, tho Departmental supervisor of singing, was operating a gramophone. After putting on Schubert's "Cradle Song," Mr. Lane asked the class if they would like to hear a ragtime record for a change. By a large majority the children of C'ollingwood voted for a rerMUiun a f the Sghubert cla-seio IHStsad!