DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 265, 30 January 1928, Page 5

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

MOVING PICTURES IN THE SCHOOL ROOM (Copyright , 1928) rpHE camera companies have developed a photographic machine that take" moving pictures at home. The producers recently registered a protest against this, as it was cutting into the business of the moving picture houses. But the question'arises: Are the movies merely a form of entertainment, a device for telling a story entertainingly, or, have they a better purpose? To be sure, such entertainment is worth while, and he who devises a form of worth-while amusement is not to be lightly esteemed. But there are many who think that the business of education and instruction ranks higher and is a more permanent and dependable thing. There are some subjects, such as geography and history, that can better be taught by a pictorial representation upon the screen than any other way. A child witnessing: a reproduction of some historical event remembers it better than merely by reading about it, just as often a story can be made more entertaining upon the screen than on the printed page. And should not the movie be in every schoolhouse? Not only for the purposes of history and geography, but for many nature studies, for surgical experiments and matters of this kind, a movie could be profitably used. With the present equipment it would not be so very expensive to furnish all the schoolhouses with materials for reproducing movies, and it would not be too much for the moving picture business to provide screens requisite for teaching. Just as we have novels and always will have them to entertain us, but at the same time have many more books for the purpose of instructing us, so the movies may continue to be a form of entertainment, but should also develop upon their instructive side.