The Washington herald., 1921-09-11
0be Daargnn Jfralha af Al Sfrtinn 4lEP M qY sSs
EDUCATIONMERTTS
LARGER PLACE, SAYS DEAN
System Should Recognize Power of Appeal
: Through Sense of Sight, He Declares

edge through the eye than all other
senses together. This is especially
true Of the higher fields OF history,
Literature. science. philosophy and
art.
Then it has been claimed by
some OF the leading minds Of the
race from the earliest times TO the
present that the sense Of sight is
the most accurate and convincing.
Heracieities said about 500 b. c.
that Eyes are more exact wit
neEses than ears Shakespeare
causes oen of his characters to say:
I might not this believe
Without sensible and true ayouch
OF mine own eyes
Further Qsotstiens
"Herrick says. through one OF
his characters: We credit most our
sight One eye doth please, our
trust more than ten ear Witnessed
perience, The eye has been the or
gan above all others with which 1
have grasped the world and John
Theodore Marcy concludes that
Sight is everywhere not only the
beginning but also the consumma-
ton OF convincing thought
AS a modern psychologist has
said: Vision has become q metony-
my for almost every form OF
mental action II We do not un-
derstand an explanation we cannot
see IT; when we differ with one in
his attitude. we say we cannot
look at II from that point Of view
or see IL in that light The use
of this figure of speech sight is
almost invariably the one sense we
use TO include knowledge gained
by other senses or even by abstract
reasoning.
Necessary to Appreciation.
STRESS is being laid today upon
the education OF the esthetic sense.
We need only to imagine the world
OF beauty which appeals to teh eyes
eliminated to realize how irrs-
parable would be our loss. Just
this has caused many TO pity the
blind and some of the most pa
thetic things in literature are de-
scriptions of living in world
darkened by teh loss OF sight. NIL
toms pathetic ode on Blindness is
the classical expression of such
minds. II is significant that no
one of the other senses has been
able TO inspire any peet TO such
superb poetical effort
The schools have not made much
effort in a formal way TO give stu
dents moral training. and what ef-
fort has been made has not been
very successful. Dependence has
been placed largely upon the Pc
sonality of the teacher for sue
training, the conviction being tn
moral principles. especially with q
young are dry. lifeless and insffet.'-
i've apart from the living eNamrl
This must always bc 81. Tor moral.
is a matter Of living Personaliu
and moral principles apart fr,
moral action are largely u=rlf
Hence the home must ever bc
place where moral education
be most effective.
Life on the Film.
But the life Of any one horne
always too narrow. so We have
drama. the novel and the short sto-
The readers, however. OF the bc
fiction are never so nUmerv-G
they should be. but, even II they y %.
fictitious characters can never !
the power OF living ones. The DR. %
has never flourished apart from
living theater. The semi-epic pO
such as the dramas OF Tennyson 20 :
Browning. have never been a 50
cess upon the stage. Even two p''
of the-v very first order could
write successful dramas. What {.
drama has done for fiction the NOV
ing picture does for real life. Human
life as IL is lived IN all parts of IT,.
world is brought TO men even in the
small town.
The educational value ~ seeing
the different peoples as they actu-
ally live cannot be over-estimatel.
1t means the broadening OF the
sympathies Of the individual and
will ultimately make for the peace
| of the world. The more we under
stand men the less We dislike them.
Some have gone so far as to say.
| If we understood all we would for
give ALL This perhaps is eNtrava-
CANT optimism. but there can be no
doubt that seeing men in action
helps us much in reaching correct
| judgments.
$50 with the universities continu-
ing their motion picture work. both
at the institution and in their eN-
tension departments and 55,oOo.eoo
feet Of film crculating among
| 20. 100000 people weekly, visual cdg-
cation is rapidly revealing its power
! in the field of education"
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