NAEB Newsletter (Aug 1958)

MEMO FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR —Harry Skornia The very few days I am able to be in the office this month, between snatches of vacation, necessary trips, and the various seminars, workshops and other meet¬ ings, forces this column to be brief this month. In fact, I could almost say that it is not by me at all, but rather by Arthur Wells Foshay, executive officer of the Institute of School Experimentation at Columbia University. Dr. Foshay was the first speaker at the NAEB Seminar on Instructional Uses of Radio and TV at Purdue University July 22-25. Dr. Foshay graciously agreed to my quoting him here. He began by pointing out the ambiguity of the term “educational broadcaster” which leads to fre¬ quent misinterpretation and even to some mis¬ chievous distortion. If he were privileged to select our name, now that he knows us well from our Re¬ search Seminar, Washington Conference, and the re¬ cent one, he would suggest ABE—the Association of Broadcasting Educators. I must be too brief to elaborate. But I hope you will reflect on the not-too- subtle difference implied in the distinction he makes. If affects our behavior and objectives, even if we pre¬ serve our present name, of course. Dr. Foshay next defined profession; a professional is someone who does something to people who don’t know very well what’s being done to them. This would be distinguished, for us, from entertainment, by adding “with a high moral purpose.” Dr. Foshay feels that educational TV and radio can deal with all the steps in the learning process which he defined as starting with a feeling of dis¬ satisfaction, taking a hard look at the problem, focusing to define the goal, organizing efforts, and ending by gathering and interpreting the data. He feels the child being educated needs to learn about the learning process, not have it concealed. Education should teach mep not merely to think, but also to he and do. Finally, Dr. Foshay suggested some criteria for program evaluation which I feel have been all too neglected in evaluation blanks of most of our mem¬ bers. To give a few samples of the very fundamental questions we need to ask about the impact of a pro¬ gram, I might mention: —Does the program convey a high-level attitude or concept of the student or man, and respect for the disciplines. This implies dignity and mobility in concept of all men portrayed. —What significance is given to skills being taught if such is the objective? Why learn these? What do we expect the student to do? Are these high goals? —Does the program offer clarification of data, or only the data, cold, subject to distortion and am¬ biguity? —Does the content extend knowledge—and the desire to learn? —Do you cause the student to think or feel, really? Do you check on this? Or have you only checked his memory? These are a few questions Dr. Foshay asks, far better than I have been able to phrase them from hurried notes. Two other statements, as food for thought: “An educationist is a custodian of the morality of our culture.” “A seventeenth century mathematician could walk into many present day algebra or mathematics classes and have not a single surprise.” To those who see themselves merely as gad'geteers or technicians, I found his words especially challeng¬ ing. I was sorry not to have been able to stay for the entire seminar. However, with the fine hosting by James Miles and his staff, the fine consultants available, and the selective winnowing (26 were selected out of 83 applicants) which resulted in un¬ usually highly qualified participants, I feel that this is one of the NAEB’s finest seminars to date. We shall try to share all of them, as much as possible, with all of you soon. With Frank Schooley on an overdue vacation, I extend his greetings as well, and wishes for a fine summer and vacation to you all. NETWORK NEWS —Bob Underwood This promises to be a rather busy month for the net¬ work staff: the fourth quarter offering is being dis¬ tributed and orders are being recorded, the 1959 in¬ school offering audition tapes and manuals are to be duplicated and distributed, and the first quarter 1959 general offering goes in the planning stage. What with vacations keeping the staff one or two short all the time the activities of this month indicate less chance of daydreaming on the part of those here, including me. Seriously, the men who do the actual duplicating and packing week after week deserve a tremendous amount of credit for keeping this service going. During the summer we are running around 800 tapes a week plus extra orders and now, with in¬ school auditions to be dubbed, the work load is pretty heavy. Yet, the tapes keep rolling out right on time, thanks to the energy of these fine workers. AUGUST, 1958 Are Planned And We 3