LESSONS FROM EVERYDAY LIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 475, 30 July 1948, Page 15

LESSONS FROM EVERYDAY LIFE

Documentary Broadcasts for Children

ROGRAMME material for the 1949 school year is already being gathered and stored in recorded form by the Broadcasts to Schools Department of the NZBS. This year, for the first time, the Department’s. staff are going into the field for their information which, put up in story form, will give authentic accounts of community life in New Zealand. The main object of this search for news is to help children to learn something of the pattern of social development in local and district activities, and with this idea in view, two members of the Broadcasts to Schools Department (Jean Combs, supervisor, and Rachel Wheeler) recently visited a small town not far from Wellington. For four days they studied the workings of local institutions, visiting first a sole-charge school wheres 26 children were at work, joining with them in listening to the Tales That Are Told series and discussing some of the episodes in Storytime for Juniors. The junior group was able to recall most of the stories broadcast so far this year, and the seniors were not backward in giving a few hints about ‘the kind of broadcast they would like to hear in the future — extracts from Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, Heidi, Robinson Crusoe, and anything written by R. M. Ballantyne. The visitors welcomed criticisms of past broadcasts and noted them for future guidance. They looked in at another sole-charge school (15 pupils only)-a school so small that two blackboards. had to be moved before they could enter the classroom. They also met representatives of the New Zealand Educational Institute, from one of whom they learned that the broadcast singing lessons con-

tained some songs which did not make) much impression on the sturdy youths of Standards 5 and 6. Their tastes were for something more rousing. An evening spent with the Mayor provided a good over-all picture of local body government, and showed how even in a small community democracy works effectively. The borough councillors, for instance, included in their ranks an accountant, a timber mill foreman, a newspaper representative, a power-board linesman, a bacon-curer, a baker, and a draper. Illustrating the spirit of co-operation and the sense of pride found in most New Zealand small towns, the volunteer fire brigade turned out the engine and explained its and the brigade’s capabilities, the station-master told of his experiences in fair weather and stormy, and the difficulties he had met during a heavy snowfafl, and the town constable introduced the dramatic touch with tales of searches for missing trampers in high country. At a flour-mill, part of which was built in 1868, the miller talked about the processes of his trade, and the local traffic officer told how well the school patrol he had instituted was getting along and how the children had become theif own traffic inspectors. Somewhat sadly the town blacksmith spoke of his dying trade. At one time, he said, the smith was somebody in the community. To-day it was all very different. Still, with a racecourse handy and five racing stables, he was able to keep his professional hand in, shoeing race ‘and farm horses and fitting iron tyres to spring carts. All this information, typical in the main of any small town in New Zealand, will be presented in dramatized form as part of the’ schools broadcasts of 1949.