INFLUENCE OF CINEMA

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19758, 13 December 1935, Page 5

INFLUENCE OF CINEMA

FACTOR IN EDUCATION. PROJECTORS IN SCHOOLS. HEADMASTER’S COMMENTS. Some valuable comments on the place of the cinema in education were made by Mr E. Wilson, principal of the Hamilton High School, at the annual breaking-up ceremony at the school this morning.

’"There appears to be little doubt that moving pictures will play an important role in our schools,” said Mr Wilson. “It is not so easy to foresee the future of broadcasting, though broadcasting has an obvious value for arousing an interest in such subjects as music and literature and in introducing children to personalities they could not otherwise encounter. The case for the moving picture as an educational instrument and a useful ally to the school routine is prejudiced, I fear, by the standard of picture exhibited for public entertainment. Many of these are of dubious character and harmful—more so perhaps to children -than to adults. There is, however, t a tine Held for the maker of good films for schools. Historical pictures, Shakespearean and other plays, studies in natural history, stories of travel and adventure are good fare for schools and might become powerful factors in improving standards of taste.

“Little has been done in our country to explore the possibilities of the cinema. There is no inducement for schools to purchase projectors as educational films are procurable only at prohibitive costs. The time, however, cannot be far distant when the Department will take steps to obtain a regular supply of suitable films and establish a clearing house for distribution of Aims to schools desiring to use them.

“It is interesting to notice developments In other countries,” Mr Wilson added. “The film Is slowly taking Its place in English schools where one school in 500 has moving picture projectors. A new studio for the production of educational Aims was recently opened in London. It is to produce 52 Alms a year. The London County Council recently voted £IOOO for experimenting with Alms in the city schools. We must look to the continent, however, to see the place already taken by the moving picture in the service of education, for, whilst England to-day has only 700 projectors in her schools, Germany has ten thousand and France over eighteen " thousand.