Education by Radio (1933)

Vocational Guidance By Radio Edwin A. Lee Director, Division of Vocational Education, University of California The University of California Radio Service is carry¬ ing on during the current year a most interesting and significant experiment in vocational guidance. Under the general supervision of the writer there began, on September 28, a series of discussions dealing with the topic “Vocations for which the University of California offers training.” The response to the series is already such that it appears certain that the program may become a permanent part of the radio i service. The series is definitely pointed toward high-school and junior-college students. All over the state at 9:45 oclock each Wednesday morning, in some places in small classes, at others in general assemblies or groups of classes, young men and women are listening to authoritative discussions concerning the vocations for which one may secure training at the univer¬ sity. Authority is guaranteed when such leaders as Professor W. C. Perry, director of the school of architecture, discusses architecture; Dean G. S. Millberry, dentistry; Dean H. F. Grady of the college of commerce, foreign trade; and Pro¬ fessor B. M. Woods, chairman of the department of mechan¬ ical engineering, aeronautical engineering; to mention but a few of those who have already spoken. The problem of selecting the vocations to be discussed was not simple. It is not generally recognized that there are ap¬ proximately one hundred vocations for which one may be trained at the University of California, ranging from archi¬ tecture to zoology. So far as feasible the desires of listeners are controling our decisions. It has also seemed wise, despite the fact that the series deals with vocations on the level of university training, to include a certain number of discussions concerning vocations for which training may be secured in the high schools and junior colleges of the state. In these ad¬ dresses, which will be given from time to time during the year, we will have the cooperation of the commission for vocational education of the state department of education. The reader may be interested in knowing the basis on which vocations are chosen for the weekly discussions. There are eight different questions which are applied to each voca¬ tion. Not all of the hundred for which the university trains rate highly in the list. Those for which the answer is uniformly yes are the vocations which are included in the group from which is selected the specific vocations to be broadcast each Wednesday. These are the questions: [1] Is there a wideness of appeal? Aeronautical engineering rates an unqualified yes to this question. [2] Is there possibility of future development? Dentistry, for example, satisfies this question. [3] Is the vocation largely unknown but rich in oppor¬ tunity? Criminology represents a group that this question uncovers. [4] Are the conditions of employment favorable? The overcrowded vocations generally, though not always, draw a negative answer to the question. [5] Is there a need for welltrained workers in the field? Law, for example, despite its overcrowding, is a vocation in which there is great need for welltrained practitioners. [6] Is the training offered at the university adequate? There are some of the hundred for which training is not adequate. Such will not be discussed in the series. [7] What is the social importance of the vocation? Practically all vocations for which the university offers training are socially important to a degree. Those which rate highest, other things being equal, are chosen for broadcasting. [8] Is there accurate information available concerning the vocation in terms of the above questions? This question is really of secondary importance, but in border-line cases may be the deciding factor. The division of vocational education is eager to help any high school or junior college which wishes to supplement the radio broadcasts with a curricula program. There is no prob¬ lem which calls for clearer vision on the part of principals and presidents than the problem of adequate vocational guidance. It is the hope that the University of California radio programs will stimulate a live and continuous interest thruout the state in this most fundamental aspect of secondary education. Building Radio Advertising Programs Many have been the complaints of listeners about the atrociousness of commercial radio programs. The blame has been laid at the door of the individual stations, the networks, the Federal Radio Commission, and Congress. Perhaps, after all, the fault lies in part with the practise of certain of the advertising agencies. Lloyd Jacquet, writing in the December 26, 1932, issue of Broadcast Reporter, page 24, describes this practise when he says in part: These people — I mean the advertising agencies — put on really good shows. There are dinners, cigars, even an occasional drink, while captains of industries, with a few corporals from the press thrown in, listen to an audition which has cost the agency nothing to assemble, write, and produce. . . . They engage nice private dining rooms, have the telephone company pipe the program from the studio into the smoking lounge, send invitations with railroad tickets enclosed, shower attention, bouton¬ nieres, and Burgundy where they will do the most good. . . . Is this method the best way to secure programs that will raise the educational and cultural standards of the people of the United States? Does this not illustrate the fundamental weakness of the “American Plan of Broadcasting?” here were more than 340 radio programs [sponsored series] during 1932. Most of them were hardly fit for human consumption. — Forum, January 1933, p64. [ 3 J