Education by Radio (1937)

Lan A Bulletin to Promote the Use of Radio for Educational, Cultural, and Civic Purposes L R A D I O Volume 7 FEBRUARY 1937 Number 2 Is Radio Living up to its Promise? The fifth inaugural program of the WEVD University of the Air, broadcast from the auditorium of the College of the City of New York on December 18, 1936, suggested a new per¬ spective from which to view the problems of educational broadcast¬ ing. Its point of departure was the question of whether or not radio was living up to its promise. It led to a consideration of fundamental social values in broadcasting, with a minimum of disturbance to those ancient issues which have been the cause of endless controversy. The program consisted of a series of four addresses followed by a panel discussion. The addresses were delivered by Dr. John W. Studebaker, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Hon. George Henry Payne, member of the Federal Communications Commission, and S. Howard Evans, secretary. National Committee on Education by Radio. Hendrik Willem Van Loon, historian and author, acted as chairman and master of ceremonies. The panel was composed of: Dean Ned H. Dearborn, New York University; Mark Eisner, assistant superintendent of schools. New York, N. Y.; Dr. Henry Pratt Fairchild, New York University; Dr. Frank Kingdon, president. University of Newark; Dr. Sandor Lorand; Prof. Robert Morss Lovett, University of Chicago; and Dr. Levering Tyson, director. National Advisory Council on Radio in Education. The discussion started with a narrowing of the subject and a defi¬ nition of terms. It was readily accepted that the speakers were to be concerned only about broadcasting. While there was not so much agreement when it came to determining the promise by which broad¬ casting was to be judged, most of the speakers seemed to feel that there was a promise of social service inherent in the public nature of this great medium of mass communication. However, one panel member expressed the opinion that radio had made no promise to him and that he had no right to make demands upon the program makers. What is the promise of radio broadcasting? There is no definition upon which people commonly agree. That may be one of the reasons why so much misunderstanding is rampant and why, in the past, so much suspicion has existed. It would be very interesting to have their interpretations of the promise of radio written by representatives of the different factions within the governmental regulatory body, by the broadcasting indus¬ try, including both the independent stations and the chain systems, and by different citizens’ groups. Such a procedure might pave the way for a rapprochement and for the establishment of a real basis of cooperation between the different groups. None of the speakers at the WEVD Inaugural attempted to make CARLTON H. LARRABEE, in an address before the National Council of Teachers of English in Boston on November 28, 1936, re¬ minded English teachers that listening to the radio is one of the chief interests of high school children and that many phases of English work can be vitalized by correlating them with the radio. He suggested : “Take letter writing for example. A study of over three thousand New York City school chil¬ dren by I. L. Eisenberg disclosed that 73 percent of them had at some time voluntarily written to a radio station. Ask your pupils to write such a letter, and they will gladly write and rewrite until their letters are perfect. “A renewed interest in composition writing will result from an assignment like this; ‘Listen to¬ night to such and such a program. Pretend you’re a radio critic for a newspaper. After the drama has been given, write a review of it.’ “Original material for pretended radio presenta¬ tion can take the form of plays, forum talks, book reviews, dialogs, and news items, and many scenes from literature can be dramatized and vitalized by adaptation to broadcasting. If your school has a portable loudspeaker system, or if your pupils can borrow or even construct one, you have an excellent means for motivating good speech. If high school pupils stand before a real microphone connected to a loudspeaker, they will take all the pains they would if actually broadcasting. “According to a doctor’s dissertation recently submitted to the University of Michigan by Paul T. Rankin, listening constitutes 45 percent of our life communication but receives only 8 percent of school emphasis. This leads to the conclusion that schools should provide more training in systematic listening, and radio may be one of the chief means. Pupils can be encouraged to build well-rounded vocabularies thru the addition of words heard over the radio. “Even outside reading will take on a new in¬ terest if pupils are encouraged or allowed to read and report on radio books and periodicals.” '^HE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY broadcasts daily, Monday thru Friday, over sta¬ tion WHAS, Louisville, a 50,000 watt dearchannel station which can be heard over a large midwestern territory. The University publishes a free booklet giving a complete list of its programs. For copies of the booklet write to Elmer G. Sulzer, director, publicity bureau. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. [5]