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I By
the dawn's early light.
On January 27, 1958, in a grim postscripl to Sputnik,
President Eisenhower said: "National security requires that prompt action be taken to improve an 1 expand the teaching of science . . ." Only one high school student in four was studying physics, only one in three taking chemistry. Since 1950, the number of qualified high school science teachers had dropped an alarming 53%.
On October 6, 1958, the National Broadcasting Company, in partnership with leading American educational and industrial organizations*, undertook prompt action by launching the world's largest class. The subject: Atomic Age Physics. Telecast five times weekly from 6:30-7:00 a.m., NBC's Continental Classroom exposed a priceless national asset — the knowledge and teaching skill of eminent physicist Harvey E. White — to teachers and students throughout America. And strange things began to happen . . .
As dawn broke over America, television sets flicked on in homes, in fraternity lounges, in high school and college classrooms, in dormitories, in engineering laboratories. In rapid sequence, 149 stations cleared time for the course; 265 colleges and universities offered full academic credit; 27,000 students mailed in 50 cents each for a syllabus; an estimated 270,000 Americans began sitting in with Dr. White and his students on their home sets.
Dr. James R. Killian, Jr., White House scientific advisor, considers Continental Classroom "truly a bold educational experiment in the nation's interest." How far can it go, in one two-semester stroke, toward erasing the most perilous educational lag this nation faces? No one is certain. But the only television network ever to use its commercial facilities to create a national classroom is certain that it is worth finding out.
NBC TELEVISION NETWORK
*THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES FOR TEACHER EDUCATION • BELLTELEPHONE SYSTEM • THE FORD FOUNDATION ■ THE FUND FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION • GENERAL FOODS FUND • INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES • PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS FOUNDATION • STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA • UNITED STATES STEEL