Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-11-11
DIGEST Tells
ABOUT WORK
OF DR.. WOOD
Educator Reared Here
Recently Talked To
Rotary Club About
Movie Instruction

Members Of the BrownsvilIe Rotary
Tub a few weeks ago heard DR.. Ben
ID. Wood, Brownsville and NISSAN
boy, now doing educational research
TOR Columbia University, lecture on
progress being made in promoting
education through the use Of motion
pictures.
The work that DR.. Wood and his
associate, DIR. Frank n. Freeman OF
the University Of Chicago, have been
DONG has been commented on by
newspapers, according to the Liter
airy Digest, as follows:
children make 80 per cent greater
gains In geography and Is per cent
greater gam in science by learning
these subjects partly through motion
pictures. This superiority resulting
from the use Of films has been
demonstrated by one Of the most ex-
tensive experiments in education
ever undertaken. Fifty-five hundred
children were used in a test of the
value Of the film in education, and an
equal number were taught the same
material without the aid of the
screen. Experiments were conducted
by DR., Ben ID. Wood Of Columbia
University and DR.. Frank n. Freeman
Of the University Of Chicago over a
period of ten weeks, under the sane
ton of the National Education as
ISOLATION, and a detailed report has
just been published. An abstract of
this report appears in the Rochester
Democrat and Chronicle. from which
we cite. first Of all the economic adj
vsntages of a general use of the
film:
"lf properly planned classroom
films can raise pupils marks by an
average of "a per cent. as in this
experiment, the report indicated,
many failures will be turned into
passing marks, as the great majority
Of failures are by less than "a per
cent. Thus the time required for re-
peating courses would be saved to
municipalities. The average expense
Of keeping a child in school for a
year ia 500. which. in Chicago, for
example. where there are 10000 fail
ures a year would mean a saving of
$4,000, 900 a year. il they could be
completely eliminated. Approximate
IN 5000 children in Rochester repeat
their grade each year. OF this num-
Der at least one-third are first grad
ers on half-time, and young children
who lose time from school on ac-
count OF illness"
The result obtained came from
lO7.670 test papers, written By the
1000 children before and after the
ten weeks experiment. and both the
classes taught with films and those
without used the same study guides,
and were given identical tests. Fur
ther-
"The school authorities in the
twelve cities cooperated with the in
vestigators by selecting classes Of
children and teachers for the two
groups Is nearly as possible equal In
ability. and the experiment vas a
regular part of classroom work. The
films used were of the is nm. anna
teur standard size. and were OF
safety material. SO that they could
be projected IN the classrooms with
oct the use Of projection booths.
'"In this experiment the report
said. we have studied the films not
as n panacea 10 be substituted for
present instrumentalities Of the
schools. nor as a means TO reyolu-
tionize the aims Of education. but as
an addition 10 the present peda-
gogical devices of the schools which
may help in the attainment OF cur
rently accepted goals
Besides the final advantage that
the written tests showed for the film
taught children, reports from the
teachers who used the films IN
teaching their classes. and from
school officers. showed that a large
majority believed the use of class
room films TO have been more effec-
tive in arousing and sustaining the
children's interest. in improving the
quantity and quality Of their read
ing and in aiding them TO eorrelate
features Of the lessons with personal
experiences and community condi-
tions." says the report.
"Thc films used in geography teach