FILMS IN SCHOOL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1939, Page 12

FILMS IN SCHOOL

AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT A forum on visual teaching aids conducted by educators from . public schools and colleges in the Chicago area and surrounding States dealt not only with sound and silent movies, but also with slides, film slides, and microslides (says the ‘Christian Science Monitor’). Greatest emphasis was placed on a study of sound and silent movies and their technique in classroom work, as carried out in a series of clinics staged by children from schools in the Chicago area. A natural science lesson for a third grade class included showing of a film on plant roots, with the actual method of growth depicted by animated drawings. A high school language class viewed ‘Les Canaux de France,’ a geography film with graded French narrative; and ‘Mexican Tour’ with graded Spanish dialogue—both

selections giving the students the benefit of combined sight and sound in foreign words. Other high school groups demonstrated the solution of physical and chemical problems. Mr. J. E. Hansen, chief of the Bureau of Visual Instruction, told'•how films are made by his department in co-operation Avith the University photographic laboratory. Productions thus far include movies on child care and training, highAvay maintenance, horticulture, dahlia care, university activities, co-operative movements, and conservation of soil and Avater. Students from Lane Technical High School in Chicago illustrated hoAV they are filming Avell-knoAvn stories by planting their oavu-scenery and backgrounds and using puppets as actors. Mr. Paul G. EdAvards, head of the Visual Education Department of the Board of Education of Chicago, reported that last year Chicago schools used 150,000 reels of films, and that in the past eight years have increased the amount of film used 1,500 times. The films shown covered nearly every branch of the curriculum, including social science, art, music, history, natural science, mathematics, and languages.

Efforts to secure the co-operation of HollyAvood producers in releasing their educational shorts in 16-milli-meter size after they have lost their box office value, Aver told by Mr. Fanning Hearon, executive director of the Association of School Film Libraries. His organisation, Avhich is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, has recently secured rights to ‘March of Time’ subjects and to educational and industrial shorts produced in European countries. Many foreign films are in demand by schools, because they combine language training in addition to geography, history and customs.