1937-06-29 — Page 8

Hong Kong Has Yet To Introduce Cinema's Aids To Education In Its Schools. A Case Is Made Out

THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 29, 1987.

Here For Experiment On The Ground That

SEEING

stood. Thus man turned

only alternative medium →→ the eye, and primitive drawings worked with primitive instruments result ed.

or pictures to convey and stimulate

thought are

development

of the, primitive, realisation, that a drawing was a better means of passing on instruction than ing words alone.

~

us-

of

If primitive men had ne

methods, then how

& much more are they needed to-day! Pro- gress in every art: and science has created an alarming bulk of facts, which must, in one person ore; an- other, be passed on to subsequent generations. The tendency to spe- Slowly then were evolved symbols cialisation to-day is. but one youth. The assertion is common from generation to generation. As for speech. Words, too, should sult of the incredible multiplication place, and hardly bears repetition.

A

Tno other time in life is fancy telligence, some traditions, some Bulk Of Facts

so free, or imagination so elementary knowledge, some stories

unrestrained, as in childhood and in of ancestors, were handed down

IS

UNDERSTANDING

те-

It is not so obvious, however, to assert that all adult experience is directly related to the emotional and mental accidents of childhood.

so, more detailed and more neces- The notion that development takes

sary did oral instruction become.

How then may all this know- place only when the restrictive days But later on legend and story alone

It is well. to remember that ledge be most easily absorbed, and of schooling are over dies hard. Not were not enough to ensure that even the formidable jargon of the knowledge was acquired and under modern methods of using diagrams so presented that it may be develop-

the group or tribe grew stronger, achieve some measure of imperish- of scientific knowledge. recent

ability; and thus were alphabets years. - constructed.

psychologists can convince all

of

us that the child is indeed father to the man.

But however illogical the way- ward fancies of children many ap- pear to the less perceptive mind of the adult, the child's imagination is `in fact` governed by a stubborn sense of logic, whose premises are invariably stimulated by the eye.

THE

7

WORLD GOES BY By "ULYSSES"

think we are becoming less, arro-

gant.

Ellen Terry tells in her Memoirs of her efforts to persuade her small son to learn by heart a poem by Black the last line of which ended "And all the hills are covered by Here is a description of the pow sheep." All went well until the er of Queen Victoria and the might

of her Empire.

•

Here is the actual description :-

『 "

ed in the future? - Here is the educationist's most urgent problem. His object is to stimulate the mind directly by such means as hand- craft, rhythm, in sound and move- ment, by training the eye to observe and ultimately to co-ordinate ob- servation by reason. For the ear there

lectures, radiotalks, gramophone records all of which

the eye, until recently, has only help the teacher in his task But

partly fulfilled- its purpose.... Pic- tures, diagrama -- and photography have not kept pace adequately other educational developments

most instruc-

We admit that we may be wrong. BROIDERY FRAME COMPANION: THE WORK-TABLE AND EM

I have been reading a little book

“An amusing and instructive ap- published in 1890. Many of its self- confident paragraphs form a strik-paratus beautifully designed and in ing contrast with our rather hesi all respects fitted to enlist thou tant outlook to-day.

sands of fain votaries to the refined accomplishments of the age.

"Note to Gentlemen: This delight- ful product affords the opportunity Appeal Direct last line was reached. And there"Queen Victoria is now sover- of presenting to a beloved female the small boy most firmly stuck eign over a continent, 100 penin-friend the means of causing the -- It is surprising that “All covered with” grass, trees, sulas, 500 promontories, 1,000 lakes, hours to pass swiftly, usefully and accessible of all forms

delightfully in lieu of suffering tion is also the most neglected. The snow, stones-yes, everything but 2,000 rivers and 10,000 islands. the poet's sheep. Nothing could She waves her hand and 900,000 from the accumulated miseries of

ennui and idleness.”

cinema, whose whole development induce him to add that tiresome

If that doesn't keep the wench has taken place within the lifetime word, even when tearfully prompt-

happy, nothing will,

of most of to-day's teachers, is an ed by his mother and sister. Hills,

instrument of education which is he knew well enough, were nearly

the logical successor toetheydraw- always covered with grass, often with trees, and sometimes with

ings of primitive, man. Its lan- She walks upon the earth and snow-but as for sheep covering

guage. is universal, its appeal dir- 30,000,000 human beings feel the A Cincinnati doctor has found hills, it was patently absurd.

abor least pressure of her foot.

the cause of bulging eyes. It's the ect easily assimilated and The Assyrian Empire was not so pituitary gland, Wayward Fancies

not, strip-tease all, stimulating. populous.

dancers.

warriors march to battle to con- quer or die.

* She bends her head and at the signal 1,000 ships. of war and 100,- 000 sailors perform her bidding on the ocean.

The Persian Empire was not so powerful. AR

Barbs

The commercial film has appealed To no one more than child is

The wife of a noted golfer sued largely to the mediocre intelligence seeing believing. It is in the de-

|bécause of its facile stimulation of The Carthaginian Empire was for a divorce, ....even though he ductions, from their visually-stimu-not so much dreaded.

the tired mind through the eye. wasn't a bad fellow as she remem“ lated beliefs that children achieve

It is this facility-of-stimulation which forms the educationist's chief argument for the wider use of the instructional film

The Spanish Empire was not so bered him.

their most delightfully wayward widely diffused.

Fancies.

It is this knowledge which is the principle modern methods of education. Educationists where have become aware that brain must be stimulated

every-

The Roman Empire was weak in comparison and Greece was as small village.”

a

Most of the Empire still remains

The intact, but I think you would find it hard nowadays to come across such operation with eye and ear. Old inflated and exalted ideas of Bri-

tish glory. systems which crammed the brain with an indigestible and undigest- ed mass of facts are rightly dis- credited. The methods whose first

Is your girl friend bored when

The golfer who figured in an auto collision perhaps should improve his driving.

A doctor finds that sense of hear ing is temporarily dulled by eating This is noticeable particularly when says, "Who gets the

the waiter chit?"

out.

“Scottish shipyard, workers walk demand is that children should live you are away? Does she sit pining the American strike, method, which They cannot have heard of only to learn have been discarded and moping by the window watch- for the more sensible order that ing for the dust of your super- saves shoe leather. they must learn so that they may charged, twin camshaft, indepen- live-In the widest sense of word:

the dently sprung petrol car as you re- 1 Explaining the £10 to the office turn from your work in the great blonde proved useless, as she got city?

Lit all backward. At least she

"OIC”.

There is, of course, little novelty în educational methods which,lay. stress on this co-operation between mind and ear, between mind and

Even to savage,racès Landa mankind living in the dawn

Very well, gentlemen; I have just the thing for you to give her, that will drive dull care away.

I saw it advertised in a journal that was on sale in July, 1861.

The thing, therefore, is modern into the moment.

F

Its possibilities are immense, and its scope without limit. The film can re-create, history, give, reality to columns of statistics, Illuminate a meaningless formula, explain the mysteries of nature, and can people the man with.........nations. Properly fused, the film is the most powerful weapon that has ever been put into diagram has been given life, and the the hands of the instructor. The

picture endowed, with the rea movement. Seeing is believin this phrase, the film has given ›

meaning. It provides the

to the

that the

to be convine

were

icult pupils acts arning is to be based

conception

futur

Engineers produce machine that remie everythi If used for moa household purposes and sent to the a cog slip could result in dozen milk.