NEW AND UNUSUAL FILM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21558, 22 January 1940, Page 5

NEW AND UNUSUAL FILM

Epitomising the Lives of

Schoolmasters

At long last the motion picture industry has decided to make a film about schoolteachers, in the manner in which they might like to see one made, writes Lorraine Noble, administrator of the educational film project of the American Council of Education. It has been somewhat of an international venture. James Hilton created a beloved character in his book, "Goodbye, Mr Chips,” epitomising the lives of British public schoolmasters, which after all, are not far different from those of American teachers. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in California bought the book and painstakingly developed the screen play, then sent one of their ace directors, Sam Wood, to England to direct the picture. All of the scenes were taken in the heart of England, in the atmosphere of its famous public schools. And yet Mr Chips himself transcends national boundaries. He is a composite of teachers everywhere. Progressive educators everywhere may proudly claim Mr Chips as one of their own, for he not only proclaimed but practised his theory: “Give a boy a sense of humour and a sense of proportion and he’ll stand up to anything.” Isn’t this another way of talking about the "whole child?” Mr Chips was a Latin master to the end of his days, although often with his tongue in his cheek over the value of a classical education in these hurried times. Once he found his way through the maze of discipline problems and humanised relations with his pupils, his simple and sound psychology was applied kindly, humorously and unerringly. “To influence those who are to grow up and amount to something in the world.” He never sought other worlds to conquer, and his declining years were rewarded with security, peace and grace, in sight of the work he loved. All of which is a most happy commentary on the merit of those unsung thousands who share this same work.