E.—s.

In the junior high schools and high schools of Vancouver the library is in full-time charge of a teacher, usually a University graduate, who has been trained in library work. She is responsible for the issue and return of books and magazines ; she directs the reading of the pupils ; and she trains groups of pupils in library-management. Ī would recommend that consideration be given to the restoration of the grant for school libraries. We should, if possible, increase the amount to enable our teachers to secure adequate reading-matter for use in their schools. If money is available, assistance might be given to public libraries to help them in extending the services that some of them have been rendering to the schools. THE FILM IN SCHOOL. In 1931 the Education Department of the Corporation of Glasgow set up a special sub-committee " to consider and report on the advisability of introducing visual education in schools, with power to experiment within and without schools." The conclusions drawn by the sub-committee from the statistics obtained are stated thus :— (1) In certain lessons and in the hands of certain teachers the cinema has been used with advantage. (2) From the consistency of the positive results obtained in one school there seems to be a particular technique of cinema presentation, the investigation of which is necessary to establish a basis for the development of this form of instruction. (3) Some types of lesson lend themselves more than others to cinema illustration and instruction. (4) Pupils taught with the cinema tend to retain what they have learned better than those taught without it. The sub-committee goes on to say ; "It would appear, therefore, that, given certain conditions, the use of films in the class-room is beneficial." These conditions are — (1) That a film-teaching technique is developed and scrupulously maintained by the teacher. (2) That the films are really teaching-films prepared for the purpose, and not mere extracts from longer films of adventure or general interest. (3) That films intended to be an accompaniment to a lesson, and not to be a lesson by themselves, are standardized as regards length. As a corollary there might be added this further conclusion, based on the school reports and on general experience throughout the experiment, that — " Films on suitable subjects and satisfying the above conditions can be introduced as classroom aids without any interruption of ordinary school routine and without causing any strain, physical or mental, to the pupils." Reporting on the cinema in schools in 1934, the Scottish Education Department said : — " There is an increasing realization of the possibilities of the cinema, if judiciously used, as an aid to instruction and a means of stimulating the imagination. Hitherto, one of the main obstacles to progress in its use in education has been the inadequacy of the supply of suitable films ; and in our report for 1932 we suggested that a solution of the problem could be found only through systematic contact between the trade and the teaching profession, and that the establishment of such contact would be one of the aims of a national film instituteParticulars of what has been accomplished in this direction since the formation of the British Film Institute will be found in the first annual report of that body. Arrangements have been made, and others are in contemplation, for producing, with the co-operation of the Institute, a series of films designed specially for class-room teaching. Some of these films have already been completed, and they are to be shown in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Institute has also published a report containing recommendations as to the best type of projector and size of film for use in schools. "We referred last year to the proposals which were then under consideration for forming a national Scottish film organization embracing the various bodies already engaged on work of one kind or another in connection with the cinema. This organization has now been set up as an integral part of the British Film Institute and is known as the Scottish Film Council. The Council has appointed an education panel, on which the Department is represented. There has been an increasing demand from the schools for the loan of films from the Post Office Film Library, and arrangements have been made by the Post Ofiice for the exhibition in Edinburgh of films of general interest and educational value, which will be shown to the pupils of post-primary schools. " Interesting experimental work in connection with the educational use of the cinema is being done in various parts of Scotland. Edinburgh education authorities are conducting an experiment involving the use of films in the ordinary course of school work under conditions which will enable the teachers to form a judgment on the value of the cinematograph as an educational aid, the most suitable types of film for school use, and the best method of using them. In Glasgow an advisory committee of teachers is engaged on the preparation of a scheme of work in geography which will provide for the use of appropriate films ; the education authority's film service has been extended to include the courses of instruction for unemployed juveniles ; and an experiment in the use of the film as an aid to the education of mentally defective children has yielded encouraging results. In Lanarkshire, also, much valuable work has been done : a series of demonstrations of educational films, arranged by the county branch of the Scottish Educational Cinema Society, was attended by a large number of teachers ; other demonstrations were given under conditions approximating closely to those of the classroom ; and an experiment on the use of the film in class work, mainly for the teaching of geography, was conducted in a group of schools," 4—E. 5,

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