The Times

Will Your Child Be Shortchanged By Classroom TV? Or will he have a greater opportunity to learn than ever before?

BY MURIEL LEDERER THIS MONTH, Educational Television takes to the skies to test the most ambitious plan in its brief seven-year history. Beginning about the time you read this article, a fully equipped TV station will be sent aloft in a DC-6 and from the cruising plane lectures in 24 subjects will be transmitted to a potential audience of five million students in 13,000 schools. Spectacular, everyone agrees—but do we want teaching "processed" on this scale? According to one educator: "Classroom television is a terrible evil which is stealing insidiously into our schools; it goes against our most cherished educational concepts. Conformity, uniformity, and sheeplike behaviour will be the order of the day for our children." Many parents are troubled because they feel that their children are watching too much TV as it is. Some school boards fear Educational Television (ETV) will cost too much to install. Meantime, in the face of their doubts, the experiments continue all over the country. Why? Because, say U.S. educators, only a fundamental break-through in education as sweeping as past break-throughs in science, industry, and agriculture, can give the boost in educational quality that's absolutely essential in our schools. And where ETV has been tried, many educators, and students, too, are already in favor of the new aid. If your child's school is wired for ETV his Social Studies class might be conducted something like this: during the class period he and about one hundred other students will meet in the school auditorium, cafeteria, or large classroom for the telecast, a lesson delivered from the screen by the studio teacher. Since she is an especially good teacher, she will make her children feel she is actually on the spot. When she says, "What's the biggest city in the U.S.?" the children shout out, "New York City!" When she says, "Good-by for today," a chorus waves good-by. A classroom teacher is with the large group of children all during the telecast. Later in the day this teacher meets with the class for a second full period, in groups of 25 to 30, for practice, drill, class PHOTOGRAPH BY ROY STEVENS FOR THE FORD FOUNDATION Above: the DC-6 which will take to the skies this month with a fully equipped TV station, sending lectures in 24 subjects to schools all over the Middle West. Below: students concentrate on TV science lecture. 16 Suburbia Today, January 1961