The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-03-10
SCHOOL MOVIES TRUE ECONOMY

"Econcmize through movies" is the slogan which
the schools of the country over are adopting,
cording to Clyde A. Mann, educational statstcian
who declares that classroom use of films and other
visual aids will reduce the problem Of REPEATER"
by fully so per cent Boys and girls who have
the advantage Of visual supplements to the text
book learn their lessons better and retain them
longer.
'Thirty-6ve million dollars year could be
saved to the taxpayers Of this country through the
nationwide use of visual education in our public
Schools" asserts Mr. Mann, producing definite
figures in support of this statement
According to the 1922 census report, over
100000 children attend school. 1t is con-
servatively estimated that at least 10 per cent
fail to achieve promotion each year. These 2,000,-
600 repeaters mean an added expense of $780,
100000 annually. In schools where it has been
possible to measure the efficacy of visual education
in concrete results and in definite figures it has
been proved that the annual failures have been
cut from 0 per cent to 5 per cent. Eliminate
per cent of the failures by improved methods of
teaching and you effect saving Of at least S.
000 1000"
In making these statements Mr. Mann refers
to the carefully planned films produced by edu-
Gators with first hand knowledge of everyday
classroom problems Motion pictures, like the
geography. astronomy, physics and nature study
films distributed by the Society of Visual Educa-
,nl e,,-l,r oIr Il The
only type of film which should find place in class
room during school hours according to this author
iy. Further evidence on this subject comes from
Dr.. ]. Paul Goode, professor of geography at
the University of Chicago. who emphasizes the es-
sential economy of motion pictures in the school
room:
1t will pay school boards to invest in the
proved methods of visual instruction This has
been demonstrated in repeated instances, but one
case will serve by way of illustration The public
schools of Racine, Wis, had good record in eff
cheney. They compared well with the schools of
other cities of similar size the country over Their
record of pupils failing at the end of the season
was low-only one in ten of the pupils below the
HIRii SSilOOl ~ tCH pei Scilt ldiluIC was u DC
expected But when these schools adopted a
we'll defined system of visual instruction, the fail
ures began to decrease Rooms began to make
record of no failures at all during the year. Later
the Russell Sage Foundation made wide st dy of
failures and promotion. and the Racine schools
were recorded as showing an average OF only 5
per cent of failure his survey also bicugh t out
the fact that in the schools where the new system
of visual education was not used the record still
stood at 0 per cent.
Cutting the failures from 10 to per cent
gave promotions to $50 pupils who, without the
improved instruction would be ranked as failures
and required to repeat the course To have had
ESQ pupils repeating the course would have called
for six or eight extra teachers and extra rooms
On the basis of the average cost of years ;chcol-
ing. this promotion of ESQ pupils was a saving
to the taxpayers of Racine of between ST 0,0G0
and S 900 in the year.
Think of what the saving to the whole coun-
try will be when visual education in all its phases
has been more fully worked out in all the schools
1t is worthy the best brains and the most serious
effort CT all of u.s.