For Children at Home and at School

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 660, 29 February 1952, Page 7

For Children at Home and at School

E process of educating a nation is carried on at many levels and by many means. Radio has always functioned as an educational device for adults as well. as an _ entertainment medium, but its role as a strictly practical tool in the education of children is relatively new. Broadcasts to Schools is a programme that has been successfully conducted by the NZBS for some years, but’ this year marks the opening of a new venture-Kindergarten of the Air. Every Monday morning throughout the school year Kindergarten of the Air will be broadcast by YA and YZ stations from 9.4 to 9.30 a.m. to children under five years of age who cannot attend kindergarten. Jean Combs, Supervisor of Schools Broadcasts and Children’s Programmes, pointed. out that although attendance at kindergarten was desirable; there were many children barred from doing’so by the fact that they lived too far from such schools. These are the youngsters whom the new programme hopes to attract, Miss Combs, and Loma Jones, who will run the kindergarten, both emphasised that the feature is intended also for the mothers of such children. It has, for this reason, been carefully arranged to include activities in which the mother can help the child, and, in fact, "this

side of the radio kindergarten is essential since, as Mrs. Jones explained, children rely strongly on observation of others for their knowledge of how to do something. Instruction by voice is often not enough. What the programme will offer is musical accompaniment to activities for the youngsters, stories to entertain them and lead them on to work of their own, as well as advice to the mothers from an experienced kindergarten supervisor. In Australia, where some of the earliest work in this field was done, Mrs. Jones watched their Kindergarten of the Air in.progress and gained valuable knowledge to be applied to the venture in this country. An advisory council (comprising J. H. E. Schroder,

assistant Jirector of the NZBS, as chairman; Miss I. Jamieson, executive representative of the Free Kindergarten -Association of N.Z.; Miss M. Gallagher, Education Department Representative and Supervisor of

Pre-School Services; and Miss Combs) will direct the efforts of those responsible for the new educational programme. The variety of activities included in this: feature is designed to overcome the difficulty of keeping small listeners interested for twenty-six minutes at a time. Mrs. Jones explained that she would be satisfied if each child found for itself some one thing in the programme at least which it wanted to hear. Although broadcast only once a week, much of the work of the radio kindergarten will, it is hoped, be carried on by the mothers during the remainder of the week, and for this reason suggestions of books, games and activities for the

children are passed on. Care has been taken in selection of songs and stories to incorporate seasonal and environmental features likely to attract the children’s interest; about the time lambs are appearing on the farms for instance, a story featuring lambs would probably be used and appropriate nursery rhymes taught. But the difficulties are numerous and those that have not yet been overcome will be met as they come up in this experimental venture by radio-Kinder-garten of the Air, due for inauguration on Monday, March 10,

The same date has been set for the resumption of the Broadcasts to Schools series. Like a good "hit parade" the series this year features "something old and something new." But the accent is on the renovation of ideas already found highly successful in schools throughout the country. The feature The World We Live In, for example, will be expanded into a three-dimensional coverage of day-by-day history. Brief accounts of events over the preceding week will be included in the Monday programme, and from these one or two will be selected for treatment as special talks by authorities on the subject concerned. The third "dimension" of this newsreelstyle programme will be provided by the collection of talks supplying a background to major events and a library of travel-talks given by visitors about their own countries. Reviews of books that might prove of help to teachers in the discussion of currents events will help to consolidate this new function of Broadcasts to Schools, Unlike Kindergarten of the Air, the school programmes are heard each week-day between 1.30 and 2.5 p.m., and although teachers do not customarily use all the programmes offered during the week they do take those which co-ordinate with their own plan of work and which will therefore be of especial interest to their pupils. The question of how a programme is re-

ceived by the students is an. important one for the School Broadcasts.staff and it affects their year-by-year schedule considerably. Requests for a nature study: programme have résulted'in the plan for a series of six talks! on this subject. Student and teacher reaction to programmes is gathered by department officers who visit Wellington and Hutt Valley schools, and listen in with the class, later joining in discussion on the feature. Also, certain teachers throughout the country send in, regular reports on the broadcasts, The publication of booklets to accompany the different series is an important. part of Broadcasts to Schools, and the Work done in this direction last year has been continued and expanded for the 1952 programmes. Films, too, play an important subsidiary role in the scheme, and co-operation between the Education Department, with its School Journals, and the NZBS, strengthen the éffectiveness of this modern educational development.