Motion Picture Exhibit of School Activities 



By Thomas J. Davis 



DURING the past few years motion 

 pictures have been used in vari- 

 ous departments of school work 

 and have proved of great value as a sup- 

 plement to textbook and oral instruction. 

 Not only have they been the means of 

 imparting to pupils in an interesting way 

 a vast fund of information concerning 

 a variety of subjects and of enabling 

 pupils to obtain a clear conception of 

 many of the principles of science, art, 

 and other subjects, but also, by portray- 

 ing actual working conditions in indus- 

 trial and business enterprises, they have 

 given school children a more definite un- 

 derstanding of how things are done in 

 the real workshops of life than the schol- 

 ars could possibly acquire through any 

 amount of theoretical instruction. 



Since motion pictures have thus been 

 used to show teachers and pupils what is 

 going on outside the school walls, it is 

 but fitting that they should be used to 

 demonstrate to the rest of the world what 

 the schools are doing. There is no ex- 

 aggeration in saying that the average 

 adult is as ignorant of modern school ac- 

 tivities as the average school child is 

 ignorant of the industrial, commercial 

 and social activities of modern life. This 

 is especially true in large cosmopolitan 

 cities which maintain, in addition to the 

 regular academic schools, polytechnic 

 high schools, schools of manual arts, 



trade, neighborhood, continuation and 

 other schools of the very existence of 

 which many of the people of any city are 

 entirely unaware. 



It has always been difficult, indeed im- 

 possible, to get any large number of men 

 and women to visit the public schools, 

 and schoolmen everywhere have longed 

 for some means of showing their patrons 

 the essential facts concerning the equip- 

 ment, accomplishments and needs of the 

 schools under their direction. Motion 

 pictures are the fulfilment of that wish. 



Among the very first cities to em- 

 ploy this means of publicity is Los An- 

 geles, Cal., where there has just been 

 completed a remarkable record, six 

 thousand feet in length, of the activities 

 of the public schools. This six reel film 

 was made primarily for the educational 

 exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Interna- 

 tional Exposition, but later it will be 

 shown throughout California and in all 

 the large cities of the country. 



These pictures cover the work of all 

 grades from the nursery to the junior 

 college. There are exterior and interior 

 views of some of the more modern build- 

 ings and many views of equipment. Reg- 

 ular academic classes are shown where 

 it is possible to illustrate an unique meth- 

 od of instruction or to present a typical 

 grouping of nationalities. Many pic- 

 tures of school shops, kitchens, sewing 



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