VISUAL EDUCATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 203, 11 August 1927, Page 4

VISUAL EDUCATION

rpHE process of educating schoolchildren through their eyes is commanding continually increasing attention in the United States, ft was made the subject of quite lengtny discussion at last month’s annual convention of the National Educa tional Association at Seattle, and something of what one of the dele gates had to say about it in a newspaper article should be of interest both to parents aud teachers in this country. “The small boy,” says this writer, “may not be able to bring bis fishing rod inside the schoolroom door, but in many communities the schoolroom is being moved out of doors so that boys and girls may learn the lessons of the trees, the flowers, the animals and the brooks.” Beyond these, however, are to be taken into consideration as educational vehicles the resources afforded in exhibitions, pictures, films, historical documents and trade and travel pamphlets, as well as of outdoor museums. For the purpose of organising a definite programme of co-operation in such directions as these the Convention set up what was styled a “visual education committee.” By way of an instance of the results of resort to such educational methods we are told of a community that has already given them a fairlyextended trial. Here a tabulated summary has been made regarding 350 first, second and third-grade children who are taken to a flower shop, natural history museum, library, farm, market, bank, manual art exhibit and historical museum. According to the summary the excursion had a definite place on the daily programme, but did not crowd out the time given for regular subjects. Instead it enriched the material available and gave interesting topics to the children to be used in the spelling, language, reading, music and manual arts and nature study classes. For a few moments each morning the children talked of the trips they had taken or were to take, recalling incidents, describing what they had seen, drawing pictures .of things that had interested them,

bringing out an appreciation for and careful use of various objects and developing leadership, co-operation, social habits and self-expression. For days, it is said, the children saved their pennies to spend tor bulbs on the flower shop visit, and so after they had been told about growing things they discussed which plants offered the best value for thenmoney, After their visit to the manual arts exhibition, the children made musical instruments on which they at first banged, then learned to compose tunes, and finally were 'ed to analyse orchestration and to familiarise themselves with well known symphonies. It is admitted that this visual education is of little value to children without some preceding preparation for the experience and follow-up work afterward, and amusement and entertainment must not be confused with effective learning. Ike experimenters point out that tjiere must be a careful use oi visual aids to education, declaring that to take a child on a trip or show him a motion picture in a school auditorium is not sufficient to stimulate lundamental thinking and produce lasting results. Whatever the “id i?. it should bo employed for a sufficient period for the child to do some contemplative thinking and to arouse his reasoning, and then there must be an opportunity for the child to express himself by using the knowledge which he has gained.