CHILDREN'S SESSIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 274, 22 September 1944, Page 5

CHILDREN'S SESSIONS

Sir-yYour correspondent, "Let Well Alone" fears that radio programmes are going to be ruined if modified for children, Perhaps I can allay that fear by assuring her that her taste in programmes probably coincides with that of most intelligent children, and that most parents, though perhaps regretting, would not ban a comedy programme because of an occasional lapse from. the decorous. Hood writes somewhere: "In a species of composition where, like the ignis fatuus that guides into e

bog, a glimmer of the lucidrous is apt to lead the fancy into an indelicacy, I feel some honest pride in remembering that the reproach of impurity has never been cast upon me by my judges. It has not been my delight to exhibit the muse high-kilted." If. ever Hood admitted temptation, we can perhaps afford to be lenient with an occasional lapse. As to boredom in features like "The Brains Trust," here again "Let Well Alone" has the support of the children: my nine-year-old son adored the only session of "The Brains Trust" he was privileged to hear, while I recently heard a senior secondary school child refer to it as "childish" or "weak." "As regards classical music, my six-year-old son home from school for the day tuned into a programme of classical music followed by semi-classical. After 45 minutes he came in great distress because he was enjoying the music, but it wouldn’t stop, and "he wanted to go outside and play." He wanted to know why it was different: he hadn’t had to turn the, noise off once. What parents object to is that all the Programmes they regard ags_ suitable take place after eight o’clock, while the earlier part .of the evening is either taken up with serials or talks which have no interest for a child, My children seldom hear the children’s sessions for the simple reason that they are either at school or outside enjoying the last of the daylight. I am looking forward to the time when I can get my grandchildren up in the early morning by calling "Get up quickly! There’s an ‘Arthur Askey’ on," or "If you don’t get up at once you'll miss "Wild Life."

AN ADULT

(Dunedin).