RADIO GOES TO SCHOOL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 45, 3 May 1940, Page 10

RADIO GOES TO SCHOOL

Teacher-Broadeaster States A Case

(An Interview for "The Listener" by

Eric

Baker

\ X 7HEN broadcasting was once started in New Zealand it groped its way ahead, as all novelties do, without much guidance. But unlike many a novelty it found a permanent position in civic life. Backed at first by amazement end the thrill of bringing constant variety mechanically into the home, it soon became a vital force and an instrument of tremendous power. Just how that power can be guided for educational purposes has been made a personal study by W. B. Harris, a lecturer at the Christchurch Teachers’ Training College, who is well known as a speaker over 3YA, and in drama and repertory theatre circles. He told me in an interview, of means whereby, he thinks, there could be a closer link-up between the broadcasting services of the Dominion and the thousands of schoolchildren from North Cape to the Bluff. An educational talk occupies about a-quarter of an hour on the air, yet in most cases, more than six hours have gone into its composition. Recently a

lecturer who had given a talk from 3YA, asked some children how they liked it. Their reply was that, as they were doing composition at the time, the teacher turned off the radio! Appreciation From "Outsiders" That sort of thing, says Mr. Harris, might or might not be symptomatic of some teachers. On the other hand, radio lecturers occasionally receive letters, particularly from "sole charge" teachers, commending the talks and stressing their usefulness. But curiously enough the greatest appreciation comes from " outsiders," such as women in the home and men driving their cars on long journeys. Excellent booklets dealing with the educational series are prepared and distributed by the Government and they could be put to wider use. Ordinary talks on the radio suffer somewhat because listeners’ minds are not sufficiently prepared. An educational column, or page, in The Listener might be devoted to educational talks. Listeners would then be in a position to make their own selections. Talks prepared for children can be particularly interesting to adults because the teachers who take up broadcasting have open minds and do not forget that they are speaking to vast audiences. Children’s Listening Tastes Recently Mr. Harris, with H. C. D. Somerset, judged the Centennial school survey competition and

chose Wellington Technical College who made a survey of their own interests and tastes. Ninety per cent. of them had radios in their homes, and more than 80 per cent. had the radio on most va the time they were at home. Radio, says Mr. Harris, has a very powerful educational influence. It competes with the school, the cinema, and literature. But it is the teacher’s job to guide that influence. One can be sympathetic with a child in his taste for serials; it is a wise teacher who does not altogether condemn the penny horribles, but mentions other works which the child will enjoy equally well and with much more profit. "News Bulletins of the Classroom" "Let me make it plain that I would like to see teachers helping children to listen more critically to radio," Mr. Harris told me. "A teacher might select from The Listener items of special value each week and advise his class to listen to them at home. A child should be

asked to listen to a news session and report to the class next day. Just as a journalist reports on daily events, so could the child report on what he or she hears over the air. These would be the ‘news bulletins of the classroom.’ "Let’s take it a little further. Children could in turn listen and write appreciations and criticisms of plays and talks. Plays and musical compositions could be reviewed in the same manner as the newspaper

critic works. Then, having analysed three or four plays, or pieces of music, the children could construct something themselves." Getting It Out of Their Systems! In a certain New Zealand school, Mr. Harris informs me, children were given a free hand to compose a radio play. They developed the gangster theme. Very soon they worked the blood-and-thunder motif out of their little systems and, in the meantime, had learned something about play construction and the composition of dialogue-which, of course, was quite good for them. And then the same critical faculty could be brought out in dealing with a speaker’s voice, delivery, vocabulary, pronunciation, and enunciation. Is his voice monotonous and if so how can it be improved? ’ Again, children could be taught to resist certain types of propaganda. Some schools have lessons during which they criticise newspaper advertisements, discussing whether the wording gives an accurate description of the goods, The same system might be used to criticise radio advertising. Referring again to the entertainment side of broadcasting, Mr. Harris claims that offerings such as "Victoriana" and some of the abridged Shakespearean plays are most suitable for children, while operas, properly explained, are useful for musical appreciation. If, of course, one station could be tesponsible for school broadcasting, the material

might be still more carefully prepared, and the talks recorded by speakers whose voices are specially suitable. But there are no doubt good reasons why that is out of the question.