Television in the Schools

Report Outline
Wide Interest in Classroom Use of TV
Varied Uses of Television in Teaching
Television and the Future of Teaching

Wide Interest in Classroom Use of TV

Opening of the new school year finds television occupying a firm foothold in American education. Indications are strong that the TV set will soon be as indispensable in the typical classroom as blackboard and chalk. The significant development is not that countless schools tune in—or ask their pupils to tune in at home—on occasional programs of educational merit. What is new and likely to have profound effects on American education is that entire courses, or major elements of systematic instruction, are now being offered to school children and college students by way of the video screen. In such cases the telecast is not an educational frill; it is the heart of school instruction in a particular subject.

Educators who have considered the new medium carefully believe that it has great potentialities for improving the quality of teaching, enlarging the content of school curriculums, and extending the influence of gifted teachers. Many school administrators see in televised instruction the only feasible answer to problems posed by teacher and classroom shortages.

At the same time, nearly everyone recognizes hazards in too rapid introduction of a mechanical element at the center of the educational process. Preservation of values inherent in the personal relationship between teachers and students is deemed all-important. Education of American youth, it is generally agreed, must not be reduced to a one-way exercise in which the student is expected simply to soak up information from a TV screen.