CHILDREN'S SESSIONS

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 11, 30 September 1927, Page 4

CHILDREN'S SESSIONS

Si dieichieeadiee i ae METHOD OF DEVELOPMENT . The announcement that the Broadcasting Company intends to develop its Children’s Sessions lias been received with great approval, A survey of the lines which it is intended to follow has now been given by the General Manager, Mr. A. R, Harris. In the course of a statement on the subject, Mr, Harris said:-"It ig the aim of the Broadcasting Company so to arrange the programmes for the children’s hour that they will prove instructive as well as enter’ taining, at the same time avoiding the heavy, dry pedantic form of tuition, "Tn an educational sense broadcasting becomes a veritable channel for knowledge, and it is necessary that the company’s officers should so use it for the benefit of young listeners. The best of everything will be pro vided, making what is broadcast interesting, and possible of assimilation by the children. "T cannot do better than quote an extract from the report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education: ‘All education is development and discipline of faculty by the communication of knowledge; and whether the faculty be the eye and hand, or the reason and imagination,’ (to which broadcasting appeals to a great extent), ‘and whether the knowledge be of nature or art, of science or literature, if the knowledge be so communicated as to evoke and exercise and discipline faculty, the process is rightly termed education,’ ° "The Radio Broadcasting Company, however, intends to go further than this, or rather to enlarge upon this, and to so use the power it has in the medium of broadcasting as to act in the nature of a stimulant to the juvenile mind in the development of character; by creating a greater sense of the fitness of things; by impressing upon the children the im-« portance of a readiness to obey cheerfully and willingly the. calls made upon them by duty; by inculcating in the child’s mind thoughtfulness and respect..for others, and the beauty of honour and truthfulness in word and act; and, further, to create a keener appreciation for the good, the beautiful, and finer things in life. "Bearing in mind the plasticity of the childish brain our intention is so to present our programmes during the children’s session as to be readily absorbed by them, and the children’s organisers in line with this policy will take care that no item will be broadcast that may prove a possible danger or detriment to the child’s future welfare. "Of course, this is no easy matter. Juvenile education always demands a good deal of care and attention. To accomplish the aims and ideals set forth it means the closest co-operation of all those concerned, It means a clear insight into the different standards of education desired by the various classes of people, it means a final merging of these standards into the one we have outlined. I fully believe that parents want the best procurable for their children "Our intention is to so arrange the programmes that all ages are catered for. Not only will this be done in the actual items submitted for broadcast to our juvenile audience (whose ages vary from two to sixteen years of age), as well as to a large number of adults, who find the children’s session vastly entertaining, but consideration will also be shown in the times selected for transmission, Children, from two to six years will have the first fifteen to twenty minutes, from six to ten the next, and so on. We shall commence at five for the tiny tots, keeping to the usual six o'clock hour for the advanced session, except in the winter time, when we shall carry right through from five to six-thirty o’clock of an evenine, In this way the ‘tiny folk’ will be sent off to bed in good time by the wise: parent who realises that ‘early to bed’ is the best means of ensuring their continued good health. "Consistent with the outlined policy we shall not only study the child’s welfare mentally, but in a physical sense as well. In this connection, Mr. Maceldowney, secretary of the Y.M.C.A. in Christchurch, promises us every assistance possible, I am sure the same help will be forthcoming for the other stations. "A vast field in the way of entertainment fer children is to be opened up, and in doing so it is desirable that the items broadcast should be rendered, as much as possible, by the juveniles themselves under the aegis of "Uncles," "Aunts," "Big Brothers," and "Big Sisters." Juvenile orchestras, bands, and choirs will be formed; orchestras and bands to be string and instrumental-choirs to, be either of boys’ or girls’ voices, or of both. Child performers will ‘be graded and indexed in the same manner us are adult performers. "Stories and lectures will play an important. part in the entertainments, Stories, of which there is a very wide selection, will not be of a gloomy or hair-raising type. Lectures offer as wide and varied a choice as do stories, and much tseful instruction can be given here. "Under the heading of lectures there can be talks on:-"Health.-Personal attention, first aid, physical culture. "Geography.-With entertaining accounts of the various countries and their people. "Music-Including sketches of the lives of our great musicians, in.._terspersed with short familiar renderings of their compositions. "Literature--Covering authors and their books, and including probably chats on painting and drawing. "History-A ‘wonderful and inexhaustible ficld of entertainment and instruction. These lectures could deal with the characters, aims, and ideals of famous personages, and the progress of the nations could be traced by the reading of their deeds. These stories would inculcate in the minds of the young listeners the love of all that is noble and honourable, as we see it in the lives of the nations’ heroes on the battlefields, in naval battles, and in battles waged by word and pen in Parliaments and churches, as well as in the scientific world." °