The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1921-07-19
EDUCATION BY The MOVIES.


In the very moment in which Presi-
dent Harding finds the world and its
dog at his feet, what does he do but
commit authorship, publishing a book
OF essays entitled our Common Coun-
try"-and the lid is off again. Though
patron of the spoken drama as ex-
emplified by Jerome K. Jerome, Will
liam Shakespeare and others, he finds
that the great future Of the theatre
lies with the movies, because they are
educational" The author of 'tThe
Passing of the Third Floor Back and
other playwrights have a grievance;
and so also, as we think, have Amer.
ican parents.
That moving pictures HAY supple
ment education Is unquestioned In
the vivid representation of current
events, in the illustration of certain
phases of science and processes of
manufacture, in providing a facile sub
stitute for foreign travel, their adj
vantages are obvious. But these sub
jects have not yet proved sufficiently
important, nor indeed sufficiently in
teresting, to warrant the establish
ment of distinctly educational The
atre of the Movies. Children tolerate
them, but to command cheerful atten-
dance requires the usual lure of GUS
tard-pie comedy and gun-play adven-
ture. At best the current history, sci
ence and travel that can be flashed on
the screen is a smattering Really
to understand such things requires
reading, study, laboratory demonstra-
ton. Princes have found that there
is no royal road to knowledge, and
Americans may as well learn that 1t
cannot come by via the armchair.
AS compared with the novel and the
spoken drama, the moving picture
story has certain obvious disadvan-
tages. 1t is more swiftly graphic,
more immediate and vivid in its APP
peal But by the same token its range
in subject-matter and in characterize
ton is narrower. 1t tends inevitably
toward the familiar, the conventional,
the stereotyped. The studio directors
themselves have acknowledged this
by entering the field of dramatic pro
duction at great expense in the hope OF
discovering new plots, new cilieus,
new ranges of character. When stat
ed In terms of education this differ
ence is portentous. The child who
gratifies his love of stories by reading
his vocabulary, stimulates his
powers Of imagination, multiplies his
points or contact with human charac-
ter and sensibility. That and not the
facile delights of the silver screen pro-
sides genuine education
Observant parents who have had
families ip recent decades are
aware of the difference. The
older children advanced from Mother
Goose TO fairy tales, to the Knights
of the Round Table, to Scott, Thack-
cray, Victor Hugo and Shakespeare.
AS men and women they will still have
the love OF reading, the perception OF
beauty in language and excellence In
creations Of the imagination. Chill
dren brought up on the movies too
often lack that patience to read the
sense of verbal beauty, of lifelikeness
in character--and are rather inclined
to patronize those other who spend
long evenings to encompass the story
which the moving picture tells in
few minutes.
The principal Allied Powers and the
Senate are at our Presidents feet; but
II he were TO exercise Shakespeare
from the theatre and the library from
the home. the title OF his book of es-
says would have an unattended signi
flcanee