Evening star., 1923-06-03
STRESSES EDUCATIONAL
VALUE OF THE MOVIES
DIR. Tigert Believes This Use of Great In.
dustry Is Only Beginning--Suit Would
Show Great Influence Possible.

ing that the best way is to take them
around the country and point to our
| institutions and to our landmarks OF
history and explain what they mean
! to the prospective citizen.
Obviously it is impossible to take
all of those to be Americanized on n
sightseeing trip about the country
10 See America First. but the mo-
| ton picture Ran be made a common
medium of communication. The pic
ture is a universal medium Of com
municating ideas, no matter what
/ language these people may speak
Wide Use Inevitable.
DR. Tigert maintains that a wide
use of the motion picture in education
| Is inevitable. 1t can be developed
more rapidly as an educative agency
| by producing the best kind of pic
| lures. He believes that posterity will
| demand not an artists drawing or an
but the actual picture OF the scene
| as the event took place
Thomas Edison expressed the opin-
ION that the motion picture business
| mas not yet started. DIR. Tigert caIcu-
lates that II has reached relatively
high degree of development for the
atrical amusement and commercial
purposes, but that in the field nf
education il is only beginning iTlti-
| mately, he predicts even from a com
merclal standpoint the greatest on
portunity of the motion picture in
dustry is going to be in the produc-
tion of educational films.
There are only $4,000 moving pic
ture houses in this country. while
there are 216, 900 schools If the mo-
tlon pictures of an educational Datur.
are made available they will be de-
manded not only by all these schools
Dut by churches and other organiza-
tons interested in the public welfare
| fhe average crowd in school Is
not as large as the average crowd in
a theater. and so there will be a
| larger busine ss~fFom the commercial
viewpoint an having to produce moro
MINIS to supply the demand of ali
j VINO want to see them
Results of n Questionnaire.
! Commissioner Tigert recently re-
ceived more than 1900 replies To a
QUESTIONABLE he sent TO school people
all over the country asking them to
state whether they had need for edu.
| catiVe films and of what kind-his-
! torical. geographical. etc-so that hs
| would be able 10 give the best helm
| IN the power of the federal bureau
to get them the right sort of films
Out of the 200 less than half dozen
of those replying felt that they did
not have use for educative films and
only one thought the use of motion
picture in the schools would decrease
J The use of radio in educat tion work
! is more speculative and problematicaI
although the possibilities are un-
! bounded. Dr. Tigert believes that il
has big future. His bureau without
any special appropriation last year
did some broadCaSting which while IL
i cannot be taken as representative OF
what the bureau could do with proper
support showed a wide and strong
general interest.
Possibilities In Radio.
If the bureau of education or soma
other central agency had available
lectures of an educational nature pre-
pared by authorities there would un-
doubtedly be a great demand for
them. Take. for example. the need
for properly trained teachers. where
now it is admitted that comparatively
few are properly trained. If mem
berS of faculties in teachers colleges
of national and information standing
could ~be employed TO prepare for
| broadcasting the lectures they ara
daily giving in college classrooms.
teachers all over the country could
take these courses and there would
| be a very beneficial teacher-training &
! service established.