For the first half of the 20th century the cinema dominated all other forms of popular entertainment in the world. During the heyday of the 'movie theatre' or the 'picture house'-as the Americans and British variously called their cinema halls-millions of people throughout the world developed the habit (almost the addiction) of going to see a film at least once a week. This was the golden age of Hollywood, film capital of both the United States and the world.
The first silent films (in black and white, of course) were shown during the 1890s as part of music-hall entertainment, taking turns along with various live acts such as singers, dancers and magicians. Such films were simply to give the audience a thrill; the vision of a huge locomotive racing towards you out of the screen usually produced the effect that both the promoter and the audience desired. Indeed, this thrill element continues to be very significant in movies, as is witnessed by the demand for more and more spectacular 'special effects' in various science-fiction extravaganzas.
A Frenchman, Georges Melies, created the first actual story-related movies around 1900 and the first American story film was The Great Train Robbery in 1903. From then until 1914, American and European film-makers were more or less equal, but after the outbreak of the First World War Europeans had other more pressing concerns, and far away in California, near the city of Los Angeles, the film-makers of the New World went ahead on their own, producing first the 'talkies' and then 'technicolor'. Many European countries (including France, Britain, Russia and Germany) have continued to make films, but they have never really managed to catch up with the lead that Hollywood established during and after the Great War.
The only nation that can nowadays be said to rival the United States in the volume of films produced, money made and numbers entertained is India, which has an extremely successful home and export business in films; it makes movies available both to Indian communities established in other parts of the world and to countries whose people are culturally closer to Bombay than to Hollywood.
The cinema, since its inception, has been in direct competition with a variety of other forms of entertainment. These include: participating in and watching sports and games, acting in or going to the live theatre, performing for or listening to radio, watching television, and-most recently- playing video games. The live theatre has not done particularly well in the face of competition from the cinema, while in turn the cinema has not done too well when faced with the domestic miracle of millions of private screens in people's own homes. Looking back at the way in which television has displaced the movies since the early 1950s, we might even say that the cinema was the dinosaur ancestor of TV, rather than that TV is a miniature cinema.
The only clear advantage that the public movie has over the private tube is the size of the picture offered. Even that advantage may not last much longer, however, as more people in affluent parts of the world become interested in large TV wall screens for their living rooms.
Not, of course, that Hollywood is going to stop making films; the TV companies will need them for a long time to come, as will the videotape industry. The framing of celluloid dreams goes on, with whole galaxies of 'stars', 'starlets' and 'superstars' whom we can watch, love, hate, envy or disdain (according to our inclinations). It is a state of affairs that could never have been imagined in, say, 1839, the year when Sir John Herschel first offered the world the term 'photography'.
Home Schooling
Nowadays, a large number of children are being taken out of school and educated by their parents at home. Nationally, up to a 100 children a month are leaving the classroom because of their parents' disillusionment with the educational system. Around 15000 families are now teaching their youngsters at home, a rise of 50 percent from last year, according to latest figures.
The popularity of home tuition (home schooling) has traditionally been blamed on the rigidity of the examination system, parents being unable to get their children into the school of their choice, and dissatisfaction with teaching methods. Some parents also prefer to keep their children at home because of bullying and lack of discipline in schools. Academics now claim, however, that a significant proportion of families educating at home do so because they feel that the concept of institutionalized education is a thing of the past. Professor Meighan said many academics now thought schools, as we know them, could become obsolete within 20 years. Instead, children will be taught at home using the internet, computers, and video. He said, "The schools of the future will be small pockets of children, sharing equipment in each other's homes, with teachers taking on a new role as advisers, sorting through the available information.
Under the law, parents must ensure their children are educated, whether at school or at home. It is the responsibility of local authorities to safeguard their schooling. Professor Roland Meighan, a senior lecturer in education at Nottingham University, said parents were fed up with the constrictions of the existing education system. He said, "Schools have become an outdated concept from the days of the town crier, when information was scarce and a central figure was needed to impart knowledge. Parents are now coming to the conclusion that education is moving on, and they do not want their children to be stifled by conventional methods.
The future institutionalized schooling was recently called into question by Sir Christopher Ball, the director of learning at the Royal Society of Arts. He predicted the education system of the future would include a global curriculum and a worldwide qualifications system. He said, "Some existing marginal models of schooling will move into the mainstream-community schools and home schooling, for example. No doubt, other models yet unseen will emerge."
How Opting Out Brings O-Level Success at 13
Leslie Barson is already running a prototype of the type of school educationalists predict will educate children in the future. Based partly at a community center in Brent and partly in family homes, the Otherwise Club is comprised of some 35 families around north London. Professional teachers are brought in where necessary to help with more specialized subjects, but for the most part parents and children work together on projects, such as study of the Greeks and the American Civil War, reading up on events, making costumes, and learning how people used to live.
Parents opting out of school claim the flexibility of home learning means some children sit one of two GCE's by the age of 13. Ms. Barson's own children, Luis, age12, and 7-year-old Lilly, have never attended school. She pays around 2000$ a year for private tutors to help in specialized areas. She set up the Otherwise Club six years ago with just a handful of youngsters. She said, "The whole idea of educating children should be to develop their self-confidence.Our children do not see adults as disciplinarians." Her son agrees. Luis, who is currently teaching himself math, said, "I like the freedom to learn things that interest me, particularly music. I don't feel I am missing out on anything by not being at school because I am a member of various clubs and have friends who attend normal school.
The "Danger" of Isolating Children
Home schooling could affect children's relationships with their peers and adults because of prolonged periods spent with their parents, educationalists have claimed. Most academics concede that education in the future will be increasingly centered around the home, and they fear children could become isolated and withdrawn, Professor Michael Barber at London University's Institute of Education, said pupils could spend half their time at school and half at home as a compromise. He said home tuition would play an increasingly significant role in educating children in the coming years. "I believe very strongly that children need to have the experience of school," he added. "There is the quality control issue of ensuring pupils are taught the basics and assessed. Children also need to spend time with their peers to learn the rules of work in a democratic society and learn to deal with relationships with adults other than their parents." Margret Rudland, head teacher of Godolphin and Latymer School, Hammersmith, said children needed to experience the "rough and tumble" of peer associations.
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