Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

42 Volume XII, No. 5 NCTE Committee Recommends Magazine Study On April 28, 1943, the Executive Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English asked the Committee on Newspapers and Magazines, Helen Rand Miller, chairman, “to investigate the usefulness and soundness of The Reader’s Difiest as a teaching aid in the war situation.” On February 20, 1944, the Executive Committee received a preliminary draft of the Magazine Committee’s report and, in accordance with Mrs. Miller’s request, offered suggestions for its improvement. The report of the Magazine Committee, submitted on July 21, 1944, was acted upon by the Executive Committee at its next regular meeting on November 23, 1944, when it was “impelled to recommend that the February and July, 1944, reports from the NCTE Magazine Committee not be published.” In response to this recommendation the Board of Directors on November 24, 1944, passed a motion “that we ask the Executive Committee to appoint a new committee on Magazine Study to examine and pursue the materials already discovered, as far as these seem to be usable ; that they be empowered, however, to go further in the study of this magazine or other magazines used by high-school people; that they report to us, the Directors, next year; and, that that committee consist of persons not now on the Magazine Committee nor on the Executive Committee.” On January 15, 1945 the present committee was notified of its appointment and was composed of ; Harlen M. Adams, chairman, Jean Cravens, E. A. Cross, Irvin C. Foley, Thomas Pollock, Mar FILM AND RADIO GUIDE ion C. Sheridan, and M. E. Trabue. The present committee reports as follows ; 1. We question whether the original investigation should have been requested by the Executive Committee in the first place. We recommend that no further analysis of The Reader’s Digest or any other single periodical be undertaken unless the National Council desires objective study of a number of the magazines most commonly used in the schools. Even such study should not be undertaken until the pamphlet suggested in paragraph 3 has been formulated and accepted by the National Council. 2. The report of Mrs. Miller’s Committtee deserves commendation for its thought-provoking qualities ; however, it falls short of the objective viewpoint necessary for sponsorship and publication by the National Council, and it is inadequate as a reply to the request of the Executive Committee. Further, Dr. Broening’s handling of the report lacked complete objectivity. We recommend that neither the Committee’s report nor Dr. Broening’s subsequent analysis be used as an official National Council report and that the Executive Committee’s stand in not accepting the Committee report for publication be sustained. 3. There is as yet no official National Council statement concerning periodical literature in the English classroom. The increasing popularity of magazines and newspapers makes desirable a report on the choice and use of periodicals. We recommend that the National Council sponsor the preparation and publication of a pamphlet on the evaluation and use of magazines and newspapers in the classroom. 4. We recommend that a committee be appointed whose first duty should be to prepare such a pamphlet and that a suitable budget be appropriated for the work of the committee. ★ ★ ★ Script-of-the-Month for Discussion Groups Radio-minded teachers, club advisors, and discussion leaders will be interested in “Script-ofthe-Month,” a new monthly service sponsored by The American Mercury. This is a 15-minute radio program that can be used on or off the air as the basis for group discussion. Scripts are based on articles appearing in The American Mercury. Gretta Baker, instructor in radio techniques at New York University, writes the programs. She also acts as consultant to groups who plan to go on the air. Such groups are invited to write to Miss Baker. Free copies of the scripts may be obtained by writing to Radio Department, The American Mercury, 570 Lexington Avenue, New York 22, N. Y. Films on Alaska, Bermuda, and Lafin America Three new travelfilms, in color, have just been completed for Pan-American World Airways by The Princeton Film Center. Production of the new subjects was supervised by the MotionPicture Department of J. Walter Thompson. Designed to stimulate public interest in various areas served by the far-flung lines of the Pan-American System, the new motion pictures deal respectively with Alaska, Bermuda, and Latin America. All of the films feature interpretive musical scores, which were specially composed and recorded for these pictures.