Education by Radio (1932)

C.UUUM I IWIN D I VOLUME 2. NUMBER 26, NOVEMBER lO. 1932 The Future of Radio in American Education Joy Elmer Morgan Chairman of the National Committee on Education by Radio and Editor of The Journal of the National Education Association The world is now passing thru one of the greatest transi¬ tions in the entire history of civilization. Under circum¬ stances like these it is not necessary to point out the importance of adapting schools to new conditions. Everywhere education is recognized as the hope of civilization. If the schools do not adapt themselves to the new conditions, if they do not take hold of the new methods and tools which are now avail¬ able, some other institution must eventually take their place. It is not an easy thing to undertake new enterprises. One finds many difficulties in the way. Among others might be enumerated mass inertia and preoccupation; the failure of the first enthusiasts who underestimate the difficulties to be en¬ countered; the absence of technics and procedures; the absence of facilities for the training of specialists who are to do the work; the uncertainty of results; the high cost of early equip¬ ment; and finally the difficulty schools find in engaging in new undertakings on account of the present economic emergency. I have enumerated these obstacles in the way of new under¬ takings because they are all present in education by radio. School radio — Let us now turn to the possibility of radio in the formal schools. Is it possible to teach by radio? There is enough experience now to answer this question in the emphatic affirmative. The experience of leading countries of the world in using radio in the schools substantiates this assertion. The Ohio State Department of Education maintains under legislative appropriation the Ohio School of the Air. Oregon, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin are doing notable work. The Cleveland public schools have been experimenting with the teaching of arithmetic in the third grade correlating the work of a master teacher on the radio with lesson outlines and the work of the classroom teacher. The children who have had this radio instruction have done better work than the children who have not had it, while at the same time the tests of school physi¬ cians show an improvement in their hearing. This last fact sug¬ gests that radio may have a similar effect on the development of our auditory senses as printing has had on our visual faculties. Let us now turn from arithmetic to a simpler subject like reading for appreciation. Think what it would mean to the children of New Hampshire if you could go into one of your fine schools and select a child who has read one of the thirdgrade memory selections better than any other child in that room, who has a fine voice and enunciation, and a keen appre¬ ciation of the quality of that selection. Put that child at the microphone and let every child in New Hampshire listen to his voice read that beautiful poem. This procedure, repeated day after day, year after year, will build into the very lives and souls of the children appreciation of our literary and cul¬ tural heritage. What would a statewide system of education by radio in New Hampshire be like? To begin with, we may assume that within ten years every home and classroom in the state of New Hamp Abstract of an address delivered before the New Hampshire State Teachers Asso¬ ciation, Manchester, N. H., October 22, 1932. shire will be equipped with a radio receivingset. We may as¬ sume that New Hampshire is going to demand her rights and insist on having from the federal government — just as Ger¬ many, Belgium, or Switzerland would insist on having in the European conference — her own chance to reach everyone of those receivingsets in the homes and schools. There is no reason why the federal government should not assign to each state a channel or channels which would reach every home and school in that state. There would still be an abundance of channels to serve every legitimate national purpose. Let us next assume that the New Hampshire government and the members of the legislature have awakened to the tre¬ mendous importance and the wonderful economy of using this most powerful medium of reaching the human mind, and that the state will gladly appropriate the relatively small funds which are necessary to maintain this service. One of the greatest obstacles to the use of radio boadcasting in the schools has been the lack of coordination between the planning of radio programs and the planning of school pro¬ grams and curriculums. Radio programs have been largely in the hands of sponsors who operate in cities and states distant from the points where schools are actually administered. A few nationwide or even worldwide programs may be desirable, but the major development will not come until the broadcasts are undertaken by the people who are legally and constitutionally responsible for the operation of the schools, namely the state and municipal education authorities. This will give the maxi¬ mum opportunity for variety and experiment. Let us recognize at the start the fundamental difference be¬ tween education on the radio and sales talks on the radio. Sales talks seek to reach the large popular audience which gives a decided tendency to pull down and to cultivate the lower tastes. Education seeks to reach not one large audience but a succession of smaller audiences composed of people who are interested in special lines of study and improvement. How shall the program be set up? The state superintendent, being the head of the school system, calls together other state departments such as health and agriculture, the heads of uni¬ versities and colleges, representative superintendents of the city, town, and county schools. It is agreed that all the educa¬ tional resources of the state will be mobilized and put at the disposal of all the schools and homes of the state and that there will be microphones at all important educational centers. The actual management of educational broadcasting will require special staffs carefully trained for that work. Radio broadcasting cannot be effectively done as a side-line. It is a fultime, highly technical occupation. Educational broadcasting is vastly more difficult than commercial broadcasting. The peo¬ ple who do this work should be broadly trained in education, sociology, economics, psychology, and the history of civiliza¬ tion. The next problem will be How can we discover, in each field in which radio service is possible, the master teacher — the one r 101 1