The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-01-29
CINEMA COMING
AS EDUCATOR,
SAYS MINTYRE
Day Of Visual instruction
AT Hand in Schools
Around New York.
By o. o. M,INTyRE.

i NEW YORK. Jan. 2S.-Those who
look to the movies only for train
wrecking thrills and custard-pie
comedy will have a chance shortly
to see the cinema as fertile aid in
helping the young idea to sprout.
The day of visual instruction is at
hand. 1t is now being tried out in
several schools IN and around New
york and, has been prelounced a
| success.
Instead of getting their education
by digging into the dull phraseology
OF drab textbooks, the New York
child is to see pulsating moving
pictures of the text. Algebra,
arithmetic And geography are to be-
come animated and each classroom
Is to pulsate with new form OF
scholastic enthusiasm
Peculiarly 1.-THE man who has
crashed into this new field is one
who was himself denied the advan.
tages OF schooling In his youth. He
Is William Fox, the East Side boy,
VINO has become the richest and,
perhaps, the most progressive OF
the moving-picture elegantes-grad-
uating from the penny arcade to q
chain of family moving picture
theaters across the continent.
Mr.. Fox also operates two mod
| ern hlm cfties-onc In New York
and one in Los Angeles At these
studios he has organized a STAFF OF
educators, many of them college
professors. who are preparing the
| visual lessons for school children.
Children on the East Side who here
| m H.f<
In their lessons are leaping gaily to
the new idea.
They are finding romance where
heretofore they found routine In
stead Of learning about PARKWAY
countries by encyclopedias texts
they are seeing the people. learning
their customs and their Importance
in the scheme of things by actual
moving pictures.
An educational library of films Is
being built up that will, prove a
boon and blessing 70 millions Of
learners and teachers throughont
the world. Educators in New York
who at first were lukewarm abou,
the idea are now writing articles in
| the newspapers voicing their ap-
| prevail of this advanced plan of har-
Messing the power of the movies for
tht NuuN<tAOIldi BOOu OF tne student
Mr.. Fox in an interview said:
The moving picture has outgrown
its early crudities. In its infancy
II appealed only to those who could
! anord cheap amusement and at the
same time be furnished with the
| thrills OF the 25-cent melodrama. 1t
has now progressed to the point
where millions are spent on a single
picture. and is installed in the haest
theaters in the land. The educa-
tional feature of the ilm is one OF
the most important. It will do
much to revivify the routine Of
study. I predict that In fiv- moro
years every progressive school and
college IN America will have visual
instruction as a part of the curric-
ulum."
Another phase Of the movies en-
trance into the more practical side
OF life Is in the Industrial world
where moving pictures are being
used to galvanize mtg life plants
and factories suffering FROM depres-
sion. The workmen are being treat
ed to inspirationa1 films that tend
to speed up production. infuse new
enthusiasm and promote a general
spirit of loyalty.
Workmen are also shown by the
cinema the lasting benefits Of thrift
without the effect OF listening to a
sermon. The pictures are enter
tanning in each instance, but at the
same time they point q strong ana
helpful moral =