FATIGUE POINT IN MOVIE LESSONS V By FRANK A. FUCIK, Principal of the Pope School* 7ISUAL Education was first brought to the attention of the world in 1658 by that illustrious Bohemian Educator, John Amos Komensky, who first added the Picture, illustrating the word, in his book, the "Orbis Pictus," establishing the fundamental pedagogical relation of the concrete to the abstract for the first time. Since that time we have added (1) the object and the word, (2) the anatomy of the subject and the words, (3) the living matter (in place of the anatomy) and the word, and (4) the moving picture. These are the successive steps taken to bring us to present-day practices and methods. To day schools are attempting to furnish to the pupils in a visual way that which so many years ago a pupil was compelled to learn by his own experience. Life was not so complex, not so many distractions were at hand, and as a consequence a pupil had more opportunity to learn at first hand lessons from real nature. MUST BRING WORLD TO THEM Not so long ago most of our population lived an outdoor life in the country or small town. Today sixty-five per cent of our population live in large cities, a sort of cliff dwellers' existence, in sardine boxes, as it were. These conditions, coupled with our daily experiences with the steam heated apartment, radio, automobile, and aviation, are bringing about a new type of individual who must be reckoned with. The schools of today are attempting to supply the natural deficiencies by means of mechanical appliances, such as the moving picture machine. That movies have an educational value needs no defense at this time. The movie is an accepted necessity of today. How to utilize and adapt this device in order that the greatest good may be derived, is the problem. In analyzing the problem, it seems that several factors present themselves to view at once, as follows: I. The cost of installation. 2. The upkeep and the proper use of the machine (mechanically considered). 3. The necessary incident revenue to pay for the films, etc. 4. The choice of the proper kind of pictures. 5. Adaptation to the particular school. 6. Adaptation of the "set" or "in-arut" narrow-visioned, reactionary teacher, who hasn't as yet left us. 7. Proper management and organization necessary to have movies function in such a way as to stimulate the interest educationally, morally, and spiritually. WATCH FOR THE LIMIT In order that movies may be successful in a school, several fundamental principles must not be overlooked or disregarded. One of the most important points to keep in mind is the "Physical Fatigue Point of the Group." This point, in my humble judgment, is commonly disregarded, with a consequence that "pictures in the dark" become a nuisance, assemblies are noisy and boresome, thereby engendering a distaste for them. The fatigue points, mental and physical, need scientific investigation; the maxima and minima are needed. When these limits are determined, it seems to me, we can approach with some intelli gence and certainty the kind of pictures suitable for schools. Featuring movies of from five to nine reels are a mistake, judging from close observation and experimentation. Little children, during school hours, cannot sit quietly for periods much over thirty minutes. When the time is more, say an hour and a half, listlessness, noise, and disorder are the results, making for disorganization of the school morale and a *Reprinted from Visual Education. nervousness in the children, who react for hours afterwards, unfitting them for other school work-making, as you see, additional problems for the teachers. BREVITY GETS GOOD REACTION However, when pictures are short, i. e., one or two reel Industrials or Travalogue, with one or two reels of a patriotic or child-like comedy with a moral to the sketch, a pleasing reaction follows and adds zest to the pupils' work. Using a serial a week or two weeks 2part is not good pedagogy, because the span of time is too great for the child to bridge over, the content is lost, and lassitude results. Again, what about the knowledge we have of the eye strain for long periods? What is the reaction and result on the child's vision? In regular movie houses, which appeal to the pleasurable or sensational instincts, under different conditions, the reactions are not so tense. These are viewed with a different mental and physical attitude. In school, there is a mental strain, a mental power exerted to grasp the development in the process of learning; therefore a different nervous tension is present and must have its effect. What do we know about it? These are a few of the points I have noted for nearly a year in connection with 1,500 children at the movies given at the Pope School. The above mentioned objections were carefully guarded against, with a result that, as far as observation and reactions are considered, I can say that the movies at the Pope School have enjoyed quite a degree of success. No bad reactions have as yet developed or been noted. In using our movie machine, the Pope School plan and organization is briefly as follows: I. A licensed picture movie operator. The same man all the time, which satisfies the city ordinances, Movie Operators' Union, and fixes definitely the responsibility for the care of the apparatus on the one hand and keeps it in good condition on the other, thereby keeping our equipment in good order all the time. 2. The operator brings and returns films to the various film exchanges, as the case may be, thereby relieving the school of any danger of a child being hurt, going for them or returning them; also avoiding the absence of children from their classes. (This is a weakness under the present management—a problem of distribution.) 3. At the most, not over five reels are ever shown every two weeks, usually only four. This, with an assembly song, takes not over forty-five minutes, including entrance and departure of the pupils. 4. Our assemblies are an integral part of our work. Every pupil and teacher goes; we all go. The Pope School plan involves teaching the pupils that proper applause, indicating pleasure, satisfaction, or appreciation, is done in a certain way only, and that good form is the only one used and allowed. No whistling, shouting, or stamping has been done in nearly a year's time. Ο MENTAL MEASUREMENT IN THE KINDERGARTEN By EDNA EVERETT, Wentworth School N ACCOUNT of the variety of materials used in the kindergarten and the freedom of choice given the children, the kindergarten teacher has a greater opportunity than the grade teacher to discover native talents and abilities, and a correspondingly great responsibility to aid in their development. While it is true, no doubt, that the early leaders of the kindergarten movement were pioneers in introducing many of our modern methods of teaching, is there not a tendency among us to rest on our oars and let the remainder of the educational world go by, on the theory that other teachers cannot understand our problems and that the grade teachers' discussions of methods can not possibly concern us? Let us beware lest we rest too long and find that the vast body of educators has sailed by and left us stranded alone. We need no longer insist upon the value of very early education, of handwork, of story, and of play. Other educators agree with us, but, with our superior opportunities for the discovery of native talents, we awake to learn that means have been devised of measuring with mathematical exactness the abilities and achievements of children in the grades, while few of us have even kept a record of the most conspicuous abilities and achievements of our pupils. If it is important that a child's ability, or lack of it, be made a matter of concern in the third grade, of how much more importance that we should have discovered it three or four years earlier. This may not always be possible. Many latent powers show no sign of development at the kindergarten age, and we are often content if the timid child can be led to express himself in any manner, without troubling ourselves to predict his future. But do we not owe it to every child in our care to take advantage of the latest and best in educational movements-to investigate and experiment which, large groups of educators have tried and found helpful? The Project Method is not new to us; in fact, we are quite certain that we were the discoverers of this method of education. But what do we know of educational measurement? Why are educators championing it with all of the fervor of the Crusaders or of the kindergarten teachers in the early days? We must study the question and inform ourselves. The In school systems in a number of cities, measurement is required in the kindergarten as well as in the grades, and several sets of tests have been constructed for use in the kindergarten and first grade. fact that in Chicago many of us have very little supervision is no excuse for our failure to use this admirable method of measuring the child's abilities, and thereby measuring our own abilities and achievements as teachers. Again, we should like to think that all unsupervised teachers are using their time wisely, but we have reason to suspect that some use their "free play" periods as a means of escape from their arduous duties, and are thereby bringing disrepute upon our profession. Requiring measurement would bring them to a realization of their responsibilities. From another point of view it can also be seen that we have a new field of endeavor. We ought to aid other educators to construct a measuring instrument by which abilities or attributes may be measured early in the child's school career in order to save time for the child and his future teachers, and expense to parents and the school system. The kindergarten teacher who has scientifically diagnosed a child's mental, physical, social, and emotional states will plan such remedial measures that no normal child who has had a year of kindergarten training can fail to "fit in," to adjust himself to live harmoniously with his neighbors and become a useful citizen of his community. Intelligence tests are used in all of the grades of the Wentworth School, and, not wishing to bring up the rear of the educational procession, we decided, after an examination of all of the available tests for kindergarten children, to use the Detroit Kindergarten Test in one of our kindergartens and the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Mental Test in the other and compare results. This might not be a satisfactory procedure in two kindergartens where there happened to be a difference in ages, but we have only five year old children in our two kindergartens-fiftyseven in each division. We are not yet ready to announce results of these tests, neither are we convinced of their value as general intelligence tests, but we consider that it is not safe to condemn any new method without first giving it a trial. The only criticism we dare venture at this stage, is that the Interpretation of Results in the Pintner-Cunningham Test is in technical terms which few teachers will understand. No doubt it would be advisable for every teacher to take special training in the administration of intelligence tests, but unless it is required, it is safe to say that the majority of them will not do so, and it would not be possible for a supervisor to administer the tests to all kindergarten children, as many of the timid ones make no response to strangers. None of the tests examined, with the exception of the drawing_exercise in the Huey Revision of the BinetSimon Test, provide for the testing of the child's ability to use his hands, nor for any other expression of muscular control. This seems to be a lack, for the little child, on account of timidity or a limited. vocabulary may have no means of expression, and the control of the hand, which can be easily tested in the use of the very simple handwork of the kindergarten, is an important test of mental ability. We have need of a Kindergarten Hand Work Test. Then, too, bodily control could be measured by means of our kindergarten rhythm plays, and initiative and leadership through games. Again, one of the greatest factors in stimulating the performance by which the ability is measured is interest in the subject. A pupil may have an ability which his environment has never caused to function and which the teacher does not suspect, and the teacher may supply the needed materials, tools, or other stimuli to give the pupil a medium of expression and a means of development of this ability. As my greatest interest is in the field of music for little children, I have constructed a Music Ability Test which I have given during the first seven weeks of the school year, and intend to repeat, for those who do not make the desired score, at least once a month until promotion time. I have examined all of the available music tests, but have found nothing suitable for little children. While this test was constructed primarily for the kindergarten, it could be used in the first grade as well. It could have been administered in a shorter time, possibly during the first month, but we happened to have so many other interests that the test was sometimes neglected for two or three days at a time. MUSICAL ABILITY TEST FOR THE KINDERGARTEN Test 1. Sense of rhythm, as expressed in physical control. (Clapping, skipping, keeping time with band instruments.) Test 2. Quality of tone. (Normal, harsh, shrill, too loud, or too weak.) Test 3. Ability to imitate I tone of piano or of voice. Test 4. Ability to sing 2 tones of scale. Test 18. Reaction as expressed in original interpretation of music. Test 19. Ability to compose a short song. (Song may be only a simple phrase, but it should be sung by all of the children, and, if possible, preserved in written form, by the teacher.) Test 20. Exceptional range. DIRECTIONS FOR ADMINISTERING AND FOR The directions are merely suggestions. All formality must be avoided and the tests, like all other instruction in the kindergarten, given in the spirit of play. The score on each test is either one or zero. any child to sing until the interest in singing has become so general that there are only a few remaining who have made no attempt. Test 2. A normal tone scores one. A voice that is harsh, shrill, too loud, or too weak, scores zero. Test 15. Play or sing a single phrase of several songs with which the children are familiar. Test 20. Sing with the piano, beginning with Middle C, and play "climbing the ladder" slowly, stopping often to listen to the tone played on the piano. If any child shows a tendency to strain his voice, ask him to stop and listen to the other children. Select those whose voices are still with the piano two octaves above Middle C and test them individually. It will prove helpful to keep a notebook with one or two pages for each test and the names of the children who have a score of one on that test when first administered. Leave a space for adding names and later dates when others attain that score. The results of the administration of the the Musical Ability Tests to fifty children in the Wentworth School kindergarten are shown below: Score FREQUENCY TABLE 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 1 2 7 5 9 3 1 0 3 0 1 0 3 3 2 4 4 120 (Median, 15.5. Mode, 16) An attempt was made to arrange the tests in the order of gradually increasing Frequencydifficulty, but it was not possible to follow this order without breaking the con-tinuity of the song exercises. It will facilitate scoring to ask volunteers to sing a song alone (Test 14), and to keep in mind that a child who can sing a song without the aid of accompaniment will score one on the preceding eleven tests, and that a child who scores zero on Test 14, but one on Test 13, will score one on the preceding ten tests. Write on the board the name of every child who makes any attempt to sing, adding his score without comment. As the children cannot read, their only interest is in seeing their names on the board. The score can be copied later. Avoid urging I 234567 DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES BY TESTS Test No. Suc- No. ceeding Failing 48 47 8 33 *The score on Test 17 represents the first effort of the children to sing together. After the first few days there were only three who were unable to keep with the accompaniment. |