The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-16
vIsUALIZED GEOGRAPHY.
Educators Are Thinking of Using
Movies in the Schools

VisuaIized geography, it is believed,
will beat the maps good deal further
than a live bird beats a stuffed one
Likewise, visual history, it is expect
ed, will beat the narratives in the books
which we sometimes say, when they are
written by a graphic writer. make the
dead past live again. But it is visual
lied history that will indeed resurrect
the past, SO far as moving picture can
make a scene that is past and gone real
again. For these terms, visualized geog-
raphy and visualized history. are said
with reference to the possibilities and
the development of the moving picture.
The president of one of the big NOV
ing picture companies has been talking
very eloquently about the use of the film
in the schools, and surely he brings be-
fore our imagination a thousand school
rooms full not of languid but of eager
pupils. Educators are thinking about
the same thing, and we may be thank
full that they are, for more of fact, in
formation and instruction in the film
service to this age, and less of hvsteria,
emotionafism, cheap farce and thrill is
a desideratum.
The classes in geography will see the
mountains, the plains, the rivers. ami
| mated by such life as is peculiar to
them. They will see the natural prod
ucts of various countries being cultiva-
ted or gathered Before them will ap-
pear companies of the inhabitants of
each. In front of their eyes will troop
the wild animals of which they see only
the fiat prints in the books. They will
see experts moving out and imports
moving in, the work at the wharves. the
carrying to seaboard. the laden ships
blowing the ocean. 1t notwithstanding
them travelling over the earth to learn
what it looks like, and they will get the
vivid impression that is made on the
eve. and their memory will be assisted
as by a personal recollection.
AS for history, millions have been
able to see on the screen the momentous
history that has been in the making dur
ing the last few years-the camps and
environments, the marching columns, the
moving ocean transports, the busy ship
yards, the construction and factory work
of the war, the batteries in action, the
destroyed cities, the flights of refugees,
the commanding figures whether on the
field or in the government cabinet-all
the scenes of war, of war swept coun-
tries, glimpses of wretchedness and the
| ministrations of comfort and mercy.
Hereafter. film record of the more not
able historical events will be kept for
what will be both the entertainment and
the instruction of after generations.
1t is going to be big work to get
the moving picture installed as COM
mon equipment for educational work in
the schools Schools will have to have
the films and the machines and they will
require men, teachers or not, to operate
them. This signifies that great devel-
opment of moving picture facility will
have to be made in all the appliances
and technique connected with the exhi-
/ bition of the pictures. The moving pic
ture viii overflow from the theatre into
the schools, for it would be impossible
for the theatres alone to do the work
/ 1t will also be necessary to improve the
| production of the pictures on the screen