EDUCATION BY CINEMATOGRAPH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 25 August 1913, Page 7

EDUCATION BY CINEMATOGRAPH.

(A lectin-.-- >iy _M<>;i.-:ir-ur Bellan, {orm.-r of the Municipal Co?iii.i-:il of !'*aris niul President of the Sociot.y ot Education by Modern M^ihocS ; Paris.) On July 3rd •:< interesting lecture upon. <:<J- jfjifioii l»y means of the cinematopTap'. «as dvHvercd in Paris by Monsieur H Ibui, Lhe chair being taken by Mr Liard, Vice-Rector of the Paris Ao:u!vny. The toxt of the lecture was a> follows: The former system of education possessed Tlv error of simply presenting abstract methods to the children. T'cfir imagination was never appealed io, and the child consequently ati«'iuiod school not with a desire to learn, but- because he was

forced to do so. The best.of handbooks are but. a dead letter if their teaching is not accompanied by visual explanation of the matters referred to. How, for instance, could one make a Parisian boy understand what a plough was unless at the same time he was shown the implement at its work? Again, how could a country boy, who had never left the farm understand what a great city was like, unless he were actually shown the streets full of people? It was in the knowledge of this that the idea originated of making use of visual methods for educational purposes. A start was made with illustrations in, books, and with coloured illustrations hung on the walls. By these means the school-master was enabled to give actual illustration of the matters which he was teaching. Illustration of this description, was ; howeyeß? sonjewjiat inefficient,. but at "the sa'me time.it. served to arouse the curiosity, of -the child arid to create a desire for further and fuller knowledge. It. then occurred to us that a powerful instrument for disemination of knowledge was supplied by the cinematograph, whose great popularity is in large measure due to the power it possesses of reproducing both scenes from ev-ery-day life and from nature itself. It would be superfluous to-day to expatiate upon the value of the cinematograph. It annihilates both time and" space; it brings before us the monuments of past ages, scientific discoveries ,the flora and fauna of both hemispheres, topical occurrences —in fact everything relating to history, science and art. To all these it gives the intensity ■• of truth and of life itself. '£v Thus it Came that for some time past the advisability of utilising cinematograph pictures in our schools has become more and more pronounced. Difficulties had of course to be overcome, and the prime necessity was that films for nse in schools should be chosen so as to constitute a graduated system of education. We then learnt from Mr Wolff, whose services to the town of Paris merit grateful recognition, that Messrs Pathe Freres, whose reputation stands so high throughout the world, already had) this question under their consideration. He explained that Messrs I Pathe Freres had conceived the idea of establishing a committee composed I of professors actually engaged in the teaching, whose duty it would be to select pictures for use in the schools. In other words this committee was to scrupulously observe the official programmes issued by the Minister of Education. Further, each film was to be accompanied by explanatory remarks.

We. then placed ourselves in communication with Messrs Pathe Freres and we were shown by them a succession of films, each and every one of which was of marvellous educational interest. It is from these films that we are now called upon to, make a choice, and it is our intention to present in this hall every Thursday afternoon an instructional course of films which will constitute absolutely living lessons, and which will place the finishing touch upon ordinary scholastic methods. This course will be divided into three parts . The first will consist of a. short lecture upon the subjects chosen for illustration, which will include scenes from rural life, from physical geography, from the workshop, from the habits and customs of peoples, from the animal' kingdom, from Nature's greatest works, and so on. That the minds and imaginations of the young will be impressed by such means admits of little doubt. The second part of the course will be devoted to illustration by the cinematograph of the lecture, and the thirdi part will consist of reading extracts from a classic or a' modern, writer, and the rendering of music appropriate to the illustrations.

A triple object will have heen attained. By appealing to the intelligence and imagination of the student we shall have developed his appreciation of everything that is beautiful and of everything that tends to the benefit of humanity.