940
DECEMBER 19,1946
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE FIVE
Visual Education Helps Bright Kids Keep Up With Eager Book Worms
"Columbus sailed the ocean blue," said the school teacher to her class. "What did he sail in?" questioned her second grade eager beaver.
"In a ship that looked exactly like this model furnished by the bureau of visual education of the University of Kansas," she answered, picking up a model of the Santa Maria and showing it to the class.
This scene could have occurred in any of the 41 stetts which receive slides, models, cherts, graphs, specimens or recordings from the bureau. "We furnish schools, churches and civile organizations all over the country with pictures from mountains to molecules and from Hannibal to Hitler," Fred Montgomery, director of the bureau, said.
"Did you ever stop to think that a child, by the time he is six, has learned half the things that he will ever learn, and that none of the things which he knows have come from books?" asked Mr. Montgomery.
"We believe that such 'sensory' learning can be continued after children start to school." he added.
"When pictures or models are used in teaching, poorer students more nearly approach the levels of better ones. They can see at a glance what the model of a full-rigged clipper ship looks like without having to wade through volumes of description." Mr. Montgomery said.
"It has been proven that things learned by seeing or hearing will be remembered longer than material which is read," he added.
The bureau has models of ships prairie schooners, reapers, looms colonial houses, 55 dolls dressed in their native costumes, and many others. The biggest difficulty is to teach teachers to use the aids properly. Mr. Montgomery said.
On the subject of educational movies, Mr. Montgomery is enthusiastic. Here are some of his reasons:
Fast motions such as piston movement in an engine, can be slowed down.
Slow motions, such as plant growth, can be speeded up.
Covers the size of molecules can be enlarged and things as large as earthquakes or even the universe may be reproduced on a four-foot screen.
History can be re-enacted.
Camera can record things in such inaccessible places as a diving bell or wild animal haunts. They can expose such intimate lives as that of a boll weevil.
"Movies are of such influence nowadays that people go to them, then go home and read the book. They used to read the book, then go to the movie," said Mr. Montgomery.
Thayer 'Nativity' Is Rare Figurine
The figurine representation of the Natalty on display in Thaver museum is the largest and perhaps the most of its kind in the country.
It consists of approximately 100 carved figurines of terra-cotta and wood in lifelike poses and handmade 18th century Italian costumes.
The central figures are, of course, the Christ-child, Mary, and Joseph, but the real interest is supplied by the various positions and expressions of the pennants going to and from his birth scene.
The faces of the figures are reproductions of portraits, surprisingly life-like and complete even to the smallest wrinkle and wart.
The shepherds are there, conspicuous in firece coats with sheep and goats around them. The three wisemen have gone. Someone objected to them as being out of character with the rest of the figures so they were taken out seven years ago.
One of the most interesting of the figures is a peasant leaning out of a window trying to see around a corner where the Child is.
The stable where the Nativity occurred is in back of the marketplace, which is set up in a ruined old Roman building. The crumbling Corinthian columns of the ruins, affording a nesting place for doves and pigeons, are picturesque indeed
The market-place is an engrossing spectacle in itself. Tiny skinny hares, baskets of fruits and vegetables, and caged birds hang from the doors of the place, and other wares are displayed inside. Each is carved with strict attention to detail and is easily recognizable.
Angels, cherubs, and seraphs hover over the Child who is lying in Mary's lap. The angels are suspended by slender wires as are the halos of the three humans.
The representation and the "crib" that holds it were brought here from the castle of St. Angelo in Rome, where it had been displayed for many years. It originally belonged to the Italian prince Massimo great-grandson of Madame DuBarry
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This is Henry Werner, dean of student offairs, who will meet with a student-faculty committee in an attempt to settle the student directory dispute. (Daily Kansan Staff Photo)
Congo copal is now about the only natural varnish resin available; is a fossil resin derived from trees which grew in the far past, and which still flourish in certain practically uninhabited areas of Belgian longo.
Costa Rican Students Get A Three-Month Vacation At Christmas—It's Their Summer
By DOROTHY HARTER
(Daily Kansan Staff Writer)
"There are no white Christmases in Costa Rica," says dark-eyed Judy Quiros, business freshman, "but I think snow makes Christmas sadder," she added in emphasizing that she just can't get that holiday spirit in this country.
country. Coming from Puntarenas, Costa Rica, a town on the Pacific coast, Judy stands up strongly for her Central American Christmas.
As to the length of vacation for Costa Rican college students she noted "in my country we have a three months vacation."
But before you withdraw from this Mt. Oread castle of education remember that when it's winter in Kansas, it's summer in Costa Rica. These Costa Ricans are merely taking their summer vacation.
In many respects, however, their holiday festivities are much like ours, only with more of a celebrative emphasis. Most houses have a decorated Christmas tree—some have an elaborate duplication of the Nativity scene in the corner of the living room for the household decoration
Candles take the place of their evergreen decorations, for those greens don't grow in a warm climate.
The Santa Claus legend which has become such a prominent part of the American Christmas celebration is used only in part in Costumes. The Santa Claus ad-
Children write request letters ad-
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dressed to St. Nick, Judy explained, but he is used only as an intermediary. For he, in turn, it is believed, tells those wants to the "God of children" who leaves presents for them.
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Christmas dinner, which is eaten at midnight Christmas Eve, is served around an oak table and other nuts and champagne are other holiday eating favorites.
Judy says it's wonderful
The Ford company post office in Decarbon is large enough to qualify s a first class post office in the government system.
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