The Wilmington morning star., 1940-03-31
Teaching By Showing Movies
Found Excellent Supple
ment To Textbooks

over High school has settled down
for a long stay.
Installed a couple of years ago, il
has swiftly become as valuable a
contribution to the educative pro
gram as its text books.
The scope of going to the movies
for learning" has expanded so with
in it's short span of life here that its
tnstigators are constantly expressing
their delight.
Over a year ago The Star-News
carried a story about audio-visua
education the way it was featured
ut the high school. The story made
much of the fact that there were
four men, principally student as
sistants, who were kept on the
jump, showing pictures, setting ur
equipment, and filling out the de
mands for it's constantly increasing
service.
20 Assistants Now
Today there are 20 high school
assistants kept eternally at the fun
and pleasure of showing hundreds
of children their daily three RS
The words fun and pleasure are
used advisedly.
Soaking up knowledge this new
way is much like going to the
movies for entertainment. AS simple
as that.
The rooms are darkened, the ma
chine switched On and the daily
quota of facts are presented by
film, a film especially prepared for
each specific class.
Accompanying the picturized les
son is music and vocal Interpretation
by a trained specialist from the syn
chronized record. Could schooling
be more fascinating?
All of which brings up this fact:
A picture stays with a young mind
in the state of formation. "a pic
ture is worth 1000 words" runs an
old Chinese proverb. So string out
1000 Ito 10000 pictures and run
them off on a silver screen and it is
safe to say that more knowledge
the kind that sticks to BOOTS stored
away than the absorption of an en-
tire library on a specified fact.
If it is the story of coffee, the
classes are exposed to a film so alb
soiutely attuned to the facts, from
the seeding plant to the steaming
brew at the breakfast table, that no
room for doubt is left as to the story
of coffee.
B. S. In Physics
A. r. Ayers is in charge of the
visual education department at N.
H. H. S. He has a B. S. in physics
and education from the University
of South Carolina, an M. A. in ply
sizes and math from Duke, and sew
eral hours towards his Ph.D.
Ayers came to the local institu-
ton two years ago from Albany,
Ca, where he was located in that
South Georgia high school. Taking
over the visual education work start
ed by Alfred Fisher, Ayers paints a
bright and colorful future for this
form of teaching.
First, he sees the need of doubling
the output of the present machine.
Lantern slides are also needed, he
said, as well as a film strip machine.
He is striving to have a better
auditorium in which to show the pic
lures, n that adopts itself to
simple and easy blackening and
ventilation.
While several rooms are equipped
with appropriate curtains, the time
must come, he thinks, when almost
every room will be equipped for
film showings.
Nearly 500 pictures have been
shown this year, Ayers said, land
about 210 more are scheduled. Quite
a number of these were shown last
year and will most likely be shown
to classes in the years to come.
However," Ayers said, I'VE are al
ways looking for new and better
films"
The business of previewing each
lesson" is an interesting detail.
The teacher who wants a special film
previews the lesson as soon as the
can is unpacked. Objectional fea-
lures, too much advertising plug.
ging, and the condition of the cellu.
loid, are matters of grave c
Breaks Spoil Effect
A break in a film strip can amount
to serious consequences. The con
tinuity of the story is lost, the spell
those reels cast and the story they
tell can be "X'ed out" by distrac
ton.
And, as the case is frequently, the
film, since it has been produced with
subtle advertising effects, devotes
too many frames to the wonders o.
its producers pet products.
The story of visual education al
the New Hanover High school goes
back to ancient times. The story O.
seeing the days lesson" is, indeed
as old as the hills.
When the honored gentlemen O
Biblical times found the need Q.
clarifying a study diagrams, draw
ings, and crude pictures were used
Seeing is believing" is the majol
foundation upon which the 1914
methods of teaching are based. From
the early cave drawings through
the most effete motion picture
knowledge has been explained visu
ally so that a man al see it.
Ayers home room, complete will
all the appurtenances of his craft
contains a poster which shows a be
Wigged character of the period
1928, demonstrating a theory viz
blackboard. 1t is Christian Huygens
explaining to Louis XIV the con
cepts of light, a theory which be
came the foundation of modern Opt
cal science.
The blackboards, then, are nothing
but Yisualized learning. TodaY's tex