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THE SCHOOL CINEMA

GREATEST EDUCATOR OF THE AGE WHAT AMERICA IS DOING (By llJ.) The cinema is tho greatest teacher of tho age, but is it teaching the right thing? That, is a question which has been discussed by some local school, committees lately with a, view to giving parents a. lead in this important matter. There are some parent, who debar thoh children going to pictures, as the theme frequently involves .some form of crinib or ultra-exotic love scenes in which very little is left to tho imagination. What tho impression of such .scenes is on tho child .mind who can conocive> There is.a consensus of opinion that it must he the reverse of wholesome, aim if that be the case, should children he encouraged to attend picture shows as tho programmes are at present consf.lruted? Yet the cinema is one of the greatest teachers of the age, inasmuch a;, it. can illustrate anything in molion lifosiae, and, if necessary, double or treble life size.

Mr. W. 11. George, who recently returned from America, is (irmly convinced from what lie saw there I hat tht» cinema is destined to be one of the cliiet factors in industrial education in tho future. What a lecturer would take half-an-hour to explain, and then ex. plain indifferently, the cinema will show in five minutes, making the whole process as clear as crystal. Through tho eye the whole process is visualised aim stamped upon tho brain. In the en. gineering schools and universities the cinema teaches tho student how to build an engine or a bridge by showing close lip pictures of such works in tho courseof construction. In the medical schools the cinema is utilised to illustrate famous surgeons at work, and so vivid are the. pictures of operations that, to tho student, the experience is really as vnluiiblo as though he were present, in person. Even in New Zealand, where wo cannot enjoy all the advantages that aro made possible by the cinema, art students have been able to grasp how kouio of tho clever caricaturists get. theneffects. A journal devoted to music recently told how students in a.- oonsevvatoii'b wore given illustrations of correct lingering on the pianoforte and violin by intimate pictures of the. hands of great artists'at the keyboard or on the strings. Tho best teacher is invariably/tho one wlio can illustrate, aiul there is no illustrator so readily at one's beck and cab as a strip of film, which can be shown. 500 or GOO times before the "rain" sets in too heavily.

So far the virtues of the cinema as a. teacher, whilst recognised in a general way, hiivo not been availed of to any extent in this country. Occasionally there has boon a "travel" or "scenic" picture, which has heon commercialised throughout thei country by the aid of the school children's patronage. But .is that enough? Not even the Official Censor would ag.reo that tho average picture programme is edifying to the ehild inisd, is healthy for tho girl of fifteen or sixteen years of age, and bracing to the lad of seventeen. It is not!

What is needed, and what will probably come before long, will be a movement on tho part of the Education Department to introduce the cinema into the schools to illustrate various subjects, historic, scenic, industrial, and, even possibly, dramatic. Travel pictures broaden tho mind and lire tho imagination. They enable the children to get tho world in a truer perspective. A fine picture of Vancouver or Constantinople, with. their wharves and bridges and streets and parks, is much more convincing than a pinhead dot on u map, and at once geography would cease to be a subject that bores 00 per cent, of school children. Doubtless historic scenes, beautifully acted, and lectured upon intelligently, would mako tho study of history a pleasure rather than a fag. Every school a.t one time or other harks to 'Shakespeare for examples of lino language and exalted thought. How many little heads have been worried at the Bard's glorious obsecurities and symbolic meanings? But present the acted scone—bo it the Forest of Ardeti, with Orlando as the intruder at tho Banished Duke's feast, or Portia holding up tho scales of justice before the wolfish Shylnck—and the whole lesson gets homo and is never forgotten. There aro those who may say that it is all very well to quote what America, is doing in the utilisation of the camera for educational purposes, for there everything is obtainablo at prime cost—the machines, the film and all accossorieswhereas in New Zealand there arc very heavy additional charges in middlemen's profit, freight, duly, etc. That is why the cinema -is a matter for tho Education Department, rather than for individual boards or school committees. A

continual supply of film of tlio right kind would bo necessary, but with tho Department handling it practical y every school child in the Dominion could lio given the opportunity of seeing tho pictures. Sooner or later, tho cinema idea will become an established factor in tho school curriculum, and in tho construction of new schools consideration should he given to the use of folding doors in order that two of the largest classrooms could be thrown into cue lor the purposes of cinema displays.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19190815.2.119

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 10

Word count
Tapeke kupu
883

THE SCHOOL CINEMA Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 10

THE SCHOOL CINEMA Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 10

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