A motion picture consists of a succession of images projected on a screen from a film with such rapidity as to produce the effect of move ment. The chief function crf such pictures is to tell a story. They are not well adapted for the observation of any of the aspects of ma terial things other than motion. The distinctive place of the motion picture is in the field of entertainment though it may have some supple mentary educational value in showing processes when other related facts are kncrwn. There is no possible advantage to be derived from the motion picture for representing objects that are static, such as buildings, worics of art and phys iographic features of the earth. Motion is sometimes so characteristic of a living form or mechanical contrivance as to be in itself an object of interest and when the moving form cannot be examined a pictorial representa tion of the movement is distinctly useful, for example, for most persons the movement of a seal.
For educational uses, aside from the ques tion of expense, the chief wealcnesses of the motion picture are the absence of discussion while observation is going on and a consequent lack of training in observation and in the power of verbal expression. The deeper and more significant features to be observed are over looked, true mental reaction is weak, and study is superficial. The same results may attend -the use of still pictures but are much less likely.
It is important at least, so far as the school course is concerned, to determine for what studies the visual method is best adapted. Ob viously its principal field of usefulness is in those studies that deal with physical phenoraena that cannot be brought into the schoolroom, such as geography, industries, nature study, physiography and art. Few pictures can be used to advantage in teaching mathematics, though success in mathematical studies doubt less depends very largely upon ability to visual ize. The chief elements dealt with are size, form and position. Of these ideas the quantita tive stands foremost, ideas of hovr much, of more or less. Some unit of measure is visual ized in relation to the thing measured. A pupil who visualizes readily has little trouble with geometry, while one who depends chiefly upon verbal metnory struggles with it in vain.
Spelling is in large part a visualization of the form of words, secured particularly by at tention to the construction of syllables. Hence spelling is now learned more by observation than by the repetition of letters in a fixed se quence. The form of ords is visualized.
Reading as an exercise in learning to recog nize and pronounce words is not taueit through pictures, though learning the content of certain words is to a large extent acquired by associa tion of word and picture. Further, after a
pupil has acquired some facility in the more mechanical aspccts of reading, the interpretation of a picture may be made a powerful incentive to read for thought getting.
In the field of literature pictures should be used sparingly and with caution. Language is pre-eminently the medium in which literature is expressed. The material objects mentioned are but incidental and for the most part would be readily visualized if visual instruction has had its proper place in those studies where it is most applicable. Snch value as pictures have in this study is altogether secondary, such as stimulating an interest and creating a motive for reading. A motion picture may give in part someone's interPretation of the story, wttich is but the literary skeleton, but it tends to relieve the pupil of the necd of effort and hinder his acquiring insight into literary expression by substituting a lower objective. The photoplay may doubtless express dramatic situations and acts but is not in itself literary expression. To elementary training in the use of language ob servation of pictures is a great aid, for it leads to a body of definite notions to be expressed. If observation has been orderly, expression will be clearer, more accurate, more vivid and better organized. This is on the assumption that the learner is actually required to prove what he has_gotten from the visual presentation.
History introduces so many factors that lie outside of the observation and experience of the student that a visual presentation is extremely helpful, but in this field of study, pictures should be selected with the clearest understanding of the purposes they are to serve. It is useless to expect to re-act history before the physical eye. The study calls for true visualization, the crea tion or building of mental pictures out of the material which the student collects. .So far as pictures truly and authoritatively represent material features belonging to an earlier time such as places, utensils, dress, momiments, cus toms and modes of living, they are an aid to the student in his attempt to put himself into the historical environment. The possibility of using visual aids successfully becomes small when the student reaches such vital things in history as character, ideals, motives of oction, political, civil and social problems, policies and the like.