Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

editorial Good! Paul C. Reed I e rpi In the pocketful of scribbled notes that came back with me^ DAVI's Cincinnati convention was one that read, "Read 'The Afl ent Society.' " I can't remember who suggested it, or why, but I i read it, and it has caused me to do more thinking this past moi or so than I normally like to do. It's a book that jars you from comfortable acceptable thougl Economist-author Galbraith early in the book points out the r »^ fluence and sometimes fallacy of these traditional thoughts a I 3.^GS labels them as the "conventional wisdom." It's the conventional V dom, for instance, that becomes an integral part of everyor thinking shortly after birth that "taxes are bad." It's good to bu; vacuum cleaner and trade it in every third year for the latest mo to keep your house clean. But it's bad for the city to waste A -fr^ money buying new-fangled expensive street sweepers. Why si -^^-A C contradictory standards for cleanliness? Why do we want cl( houses and dirty streets? Is that wisdom? We thought about double standards again the other day whei PTA President's letter to the local editor asked why the sch couldn't afford a second television set. (That's how Galbrail book infiltrates your thinking. Don't read it if you're smug w your comfortable thoughts.) We wondered about our differ standards for home and school. For watching entertainment tt vision programs at home, the people of this county had bought c set for every three people. But for watching educational televis programs in school, for the instruction of their children, these sa j people could only "afford" one television set for every six hundi forty -two pupils! What's wise about that kind of conventional thinking? It n save a few pennies in taxes, but at what a risk to the education boys and girls! Why shouldn't people in their wisdom norma expect that the equipment standards for their schools would at le equal what they insist upon for their homes and private lives thought of all the cast-off wind-up phonographs and upright piai that had in the past been generously transplanted from living roo to classrooms. While exposed to a television commercial for the latest tanger colored lipstick, I wondered why people in their conventional v dom think it is good for the economy of this country to spend moi for cosmetics and bad to spend money for filmstrips and other structional materials for their schools. My father used to tell me he got more for his tax dollar than i other dollar he spent. A lot of other people might think the sa way if their wisdom wasn't so conventional. Maybe we need a Ma son Avenue campaign and a national education program in t country that would completely reverse popular notions about ta> It seems to us there's a good chance that taxes are more likely to good than bad. Maybe with such a shift in popular thinking ab taxes we could accomplish what we should in providing our schc and teachers and children with the kind and quantity of mod' teaching equipment and efficient learning materials needed space age education. I don't know how you feel about him, but I'm grateful to f friend who suggested I read "The Affluent Society." I hope he'll my failing memory and tell me who he is and why he wanted to read it. Galbraith, John Kenneth. "The Affluent Societt/." Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958. 270 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — June, 1!