Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

May, 1 946 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 21 of each individual and of the group. Of course, follow-up activities do not take place only immediately following the program. Teachers are always delighted with the fact that days, sometimes weeks, after a broadcast something learned on a radio program will be brought up in connection with a subsequeiii classroom activity. In addition t o motivating the teaching of subject-matter, techniques, and skills by radio, we have a real job to do in training our youngsters to be discriminating listeners. This means that we have to tram them in good listening habits. We have said that the average American “listens” to the radio for five hours a day. What we mean is that he turns his radio on for that length of time. Blu we know that the radio listener has frequently been equipped with “boilermaker” ears. Radio should be received as a guest in the home or the classroom. As such, it should be treated graciously and with the good manners one accords to a guest. Courteous radio listening should be encouraged by using the radio properly in school. In a program planned for kindergarten and primary grades, “Radioland Express” (WFIL — Tuesday at two-fifteen), we are attempting to establish good listening habits at an early age. One kindergarten teacher observed that the first or second time the program was tuned in the children talked during the broadcast. Then they became aware that ii was a program just for them; they were invited to sing a song with the lady on the program ; t o participate in a “sound-effects game” ; to listen to some one tell a story all dressed up with a musical background. And then they began to listen attentively. Now they re mind the teacher : “Today’s Tuesday ! Don’t forget we’re going to Radioland.” When the program is on the air, they sit in rapt attention and participate in everything. The same thing holds true with programs at higher grade levels. Students are learning good listening habits. That is the first step in discriminating listening. A n important development in radio-in-education is that teachers are being trained in summer workshops and in evening courses in the techniques of radio broadcasting. Then they use their knowledge and skill to train children in how to discriminate between good and bad radio programs. Children learn not to accept a program simply because it is on the air. In other words, they learn to evaluate what they hear. They are becoming aware that the American system of broadcasting is theirs, that they are now, and will be in future, the editors of American radio. Pointing the utilization of a radio program toward an appreciation of radio as a form of art and literature as well as a means of communication carries over, of course, to out-of-school listening. Many teachers who cannot, because of poor equipment or rigid bell schedules, use radio broadcasts in the classroom find that they can make excellent curricular use of the programs on the air outside of school hours. We make use of books and periodicals as sources of information, to supplement text books. Why not make use of the many excellent radio programs now on the air for the same purpose? The American School of the Air (broadcast daily this year in out-of -school time, five o’clock, E.S.T., WCAU), The Ha mail Advent arc, Exptoriaii the Unkaoivii, Cavalcade of America, Within These Gates, Hate, Inc., America’s Town Meeting of the Air — these are only a few examples of the excellent radio fare to be had for the asking at times when students can listen. Wise utilization of these programs can result in specific curricular activities in the field of social studies, science, or English. In addition, such listening on the part of students can be directed to an appreciation of radio as an art form and as a social force. An understanding of network and local broadcasting, of the significance of the FCC, of radio’s role in the community, of its influences on American life — this should be part of the educational experiences of young America. Another way in which out-ofschool radio can be used to advantage in the classroom is by applying radio techniques to classroom activities. We can use the program ideas and techniques of such broadcasts as Taformation Please, Hobhij Lobbij, Quiz Kids, or John Nesbitt of the Westinghouse Hour to stimulate pupils to engage in desirable actvities. We can use the techniques of radio script writing and production instead of “composition” writing and the assigned formal “talk.” We can use certain radio programs as desirable standards of speech. We can also use the simulated broadcast in the classroom to motivate children who otherwise might be shy and inarticulate. Teachers tell of students who never had volunteered or had anything to say, who suddenly under the stimulus of these new techniques developed new skills. They write radio scripts, they do make-believe newscasts before a “dummy mike” (made i n the school workshop) ; they develop the ability to think on their feet as