Made as part of the Chicago “Century of Progress” campaign, affiliated with the Chicago World’s Fair, this silent promotional movie for the Chicago school system focuses on truancy and “problem kids” for whom attendance in school is of paramount importance. The film shows how Chicago is working to craft special schools and curriculums to deal with problem kids.
It begins with images of gangs of kids roving the streets, hitching rides on the back of cars, fighting, gambling with dice, and working hard to evade the law.
At 3:30 a dead end kid reads a Detective comic book. The title card mentions that Chicago’s “Special School” seeks the cause of chronic non-attendance at school — economic conditions and family life. The film then shows some of the low rent areas of the city, as a truant officer finds the kid reading the comic book, and speaks to his family. It is determined the the child will be sent to the “Special School” with its rich curriculum and individualized attention, aka the Montefiore School. (N.B. This school still exists today although it is now almost defunct. It is known as Moses Montefiore Academy or Moses Montefiore School and is “a special school of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). It is located in the Near West Side of Chicago. It serves students with severe emotional disorders.”)
The film goes on to show the operation of the Montefiore School with its on-staff doctor, dentist, psychologist and teaching staff. The boy is given a fresh start in a class with other problem boys and given (as a title card states) a “new deal”.
At 9:00 the Dante Public School is shown, subsequently demolished in the 1950s to build the Dan Ryan Expressway. Here the children’s aid society is shown, and boys are shown cleaning up in the showers, receiving nutritious meals, and new clothes. At 11:22 the problem student receives respect by operating a Filmo movie projector for his class. “Another problem boy restored to normalcy,” touts the end credits, “at far lower cost to society than dangerous beginnings allowed…”
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
