1. Just What Happened on April Thirtieth? 5

2.Who Planned It?  7

3. Who Did the Work?  8 

4. What Programs were Presented?  11 

5. What Equipment was Required for Such a Day?  14

6.How Much Did It Cost?  ,16

7.What is Your Relation to the DuMont Organization ? 17

8. What Did the Press Say Concerning It? 18 

9.How are You Organized to Carryon Such a Work ? 23

10.Who Came to Watch It? 25

11.What Did the Educators Say? 29

12.What Did the Participating Teachers Say? 30

13.What Did the Workshop People Say? 31

14.What Did the Children Say? 32

15.What Did You Learn About Script Writing and Programming? 33

16. What Did You Learn About Directing and Handling Television Equipment? 34 

17. What Did You Learn About Teaching?   35 

18.What Did You Learn About Educational Television? 36

19.Postscript: Now What Happens Next? 39

A. Statement in Brief

The New Jersey State Teachers College at Montclair produced eight programs of lesson material planned by public school teachers for their own classes; and these eight, lessons were transmitted over Ultra High Frequency Channel 54 to specially prepared television receivers in thirteen public schools in the towns of Bloomfield and Montclair, where they were used as a part of the regular school work for the day by the classes for which they were designed. Deliberately planned units of education by television were carried on in these various schools from 8:50 in the morn· ing until 3 :20 in the afternoon of April 30, 1952.

· This was undoubtedly the first full day of educational telecasts to the schools.

· It was undoubtedly the first use of an Ultra High Frequency Channel for such a purpose - though these channels are being held now for educational use.

· It was education's first full day of freedom to "try anything", without any reo striction of time or limitation of method, on television.

· Only thirteen schools received the pro· grams. "Regular" TV sets in homes are not yet adapted to Ultra High Frequencies.

B. More Details of the Experiment

Superintendents of Schools of the towns of Bloomfield and Montclair gave hearty endorsement to the plan from the beginning.

Each assigned his Director of Audio·Visual Aids to help in planning and coordinating the experiment. Teachers in the two school systems were quickly organized into The Bloomfield·Montclair TV Committee, and this Committee selected the types of lessons de· sired for the various age levels in the schools. The programs decided upon were chosen so as to provide a wide range of lesson material, and to give a thoroughgoing test to the flexibility of television in school classrooms.

We Visit Our Town

Focus on Current Events 10:25-10:55 Upper Elementary Program Spanish for Children 11 :00·1130 Junior High School Program Music Appreciation 

. The programs were prepared or suggested by the teachers who were to use them. Scripts were written by the students in the Television Workshop course at the college; and these college students produced the pro· grams, sound, camera work, and direction. Some of them served as talent in the pro· grams, also.

. All engineering and receiver operations were controlled by the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc., who kept a technical staff on hand all day.

Page Five

Facts and Figures on TV Day

. There were thirteen public schools involved; six in Bloomfield, and seven in Montclair, including the high schools in both towns.

. Some three hundred pupils in the schools of the two towns were actually in classes that were "taught" by television on this historic day. It is estimated that about 1400 pupils in these schools seized the chance to observe what was happening, and saw a program or two during the day.

. No visitors were permitted in schoolrooms in which scheduled classes were receiving programs.

· The regular TV studio at the college is far too small for such an extensive activity; and so the entire college gymnasium was converted into a studio for the day.

· Visitors to the college saw the programs either on the 30-inch screen of the receiver that DuMont installed in the auditorium of the College High School on our campus; or stood in a roped-off area just inside the doors of the gymnasium and saw the whole production as a studio scene.

· The specially-adapted television receiving sets, with which the thirteen schools were equipped for this occasion, were actually moved into the classrooms where they were to be used, at least a week before April 30, so that the pupils might become accustomed to their presence and their use.

. Bloomfield schools receiving the broadcast programs were: Brookdale, Demarest, Fairview, Carteret, Junior High, and High School.

Page Six

WHO PLANNED IT?

A. It Goes a Long Way Back

Something was said about it as long ago as September, 1950, when the first talks got under way, exploring the possibility of cooperation between the College and the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc.; Dr. Harry A. Sprague, then President of the College, and Dr. Allen B. DuMont had a conversation of which there is no record. It may have been mentioned then.

On September 26, 1950, Mr. H. E. Taylor, Jr., and Mr. Francis Rice, representing the Laboratories, and Dr. Harry A. Sprague, Dr. E. DeAlton Partridge, Mr. Edgar C. Bye, and Mr. Edward C. Rasp, Jr., representing the College, held a full-dress talk on the subject, reaching a number of agreements.

On October 18, 1950, there was formed at the College a Committee on Television in Education. Dr. Herbert B. Gooden was elected Chairman. This committee immediately laid plans for a credit course in television on the undergraduate level; and began to talk about the possibility of arranging broadcasts of school lessons from our campus. In preparation for this and other related enterprises, Mr. Edward C. Rasp, Jr., of our faculty, was designated to receive intensive training generously offered by the DuMont Laboratories and their TV Station W ABD.

B. But the Plans Were Made in 1952 In January of this year, Dr. E. D. Partridge, college President, and Mr. Edward C. Rasp, Jr., Director of the Television Project, invited Dr. Clarence E. Hinchey and Mr. Henry T. Hollingsworth, Superintendents of Schools of Montclair and Bloomfield, respectively, to cooperate in planning a full day's educational broadcasts to the schools of either or both of these towns. Both men accepted, and the Bloomfield-Montclair Television Committee was formed, to proceed with plans. The Committee is composed of the following teachers from these towns.

· BLOOMFIELD-Franklin Alliston, Regina Garb, John T. Jordan, Mary Moran, Charles Morgan. Fred Grill is the AudioVisual Coordinator for this group.

· MONTCLAIR - Morris Goldberger, Raymond Hugg, Donald Knowlton, Teresa Relihan, Emmett Riley, Louise S. Roe, Elizabeth Smith. Dr. E. Winifred Crawford is the Audio-Visual coordinator for Montclair.

· Mr. Rasp met with this Committee regularly. Mr. L. Howard Fox and Mr. Walter Kops did likewise. Dr. Partridge and the two Superintendents sometimes participated in the planning.

C. Truly A Cooperative Enterprise

· Here were teachers from two neighboring towns working together on an educational problem, and each group making its contribution.

· Here was a Teachers College going to nearby classrooms to ask, "What are you teaching?" and "How can we help you?" · Here was an educational experiment being carried out in more than a dozen schools at once, in the open, and taking genuine risks of failure.

· Here were modern science, modern industry, the modern school systems of two fine communities, and an earnest group of educators exploring together the possibilities of a new medium of education.

Page Seven

Mr. Edward C. Rasp, Jr., Director of the Project, is the one person on our campus who has a well-rounded training in all phases of television work. Before the Project began, he was a teacher of speech and Director of the Audio Laboratory on our campus. Mr.

Rasp is a graduate of the College, and holds a Master's Degree in Education, also secured here. His Master's thesis was a brilliant piece of work: a documentary sound motion picture embodying a study of the values of field trips in secondary education. His training in television work was secured in the DuMont Laboratories and in their television studio, W ABD, at their expense.

. With his technical training, Mr. Rasp has had to carry the greater part of the work of this experiment. Long before April 30th, he moved the plans along from week to week. And on the day itself, he was on the floor constantly, and seemed to be everywhere. His was the greatest single contribution, in every phase of this very complex enterprise.

. Associated with Mr. Rasp in developing the plans for the day, and in training and coaching the college students who were to carry them out, was Mr. L. Howard Fox, Chairman of the Speech Division. One of

three instructors of the Television Workshop. Mr. Fox found himself giving much of his time to these fascinating groups; meeting them in "idea sessions", then helping them to develop their ideas into program scripts, and training them in the techniques necessary to staging their programs. Mr. Fox became a television technician whether he wanted to or not.

. The third member of the "television faculty" is Mr. Walter Kops, of the Social Studies department. Interested in audiovisual aids, Mr. Kops has worked enthusiastically for the television project from the beginning. In the events of April 30th, he found a full outlet for his interest and his energy.

B. The Television Workshop Group

This is the group of twenty-nine college students, twenty-two of them girls, who handled the cameras and the cables and the lights and the sound apparatus, and directed and produced the programs. But long before that, they moved their studio with all of its equipment from a basement room at the west end of the building, to a first-floor room at the east end. They moved the scenery, set up the flats, hung the drapes, rehearsed their "shows", in which they took part whereever they were needed; and drilled themselves in all operations until they were sure of success. And still more, when the day was over and the weary spectators went home to rest, the Workshop crew dismantled the studio and put everything back where it belonged, so that physical education classes could meet in the gymnasium the next morning.

. Heroes of the day? Yes, but they were a pretty sweaty crew, and their hands and faces were dirty, and they were simp]y DEAD for sleep, before. they got into bed that night.

· The Director and his staff wou]d say that these are the ones who really did the work of the day.

· The 29 TV Workshop students follow:

Joan Amorison Ken Burnett Louis Busch Willa Ann Calvert Jack Carroll Emil Cebulski Churchill Clark Joan Dittig Eileen Dolch Kathy Douglas Barbara Flatley Gloria Giamo Ben Harris Nannette Harris Catherine Howard

Lynn Jacoby Norma Jean Jaeger Sandra Lerner

Evan Maletsky Robyn Mendelsohn Maxine Minkowitz Mary Oliger Shirley Page

Grace Rainey

Carol Rous

Harriet Schmidt Diane Schorn Theodore Sokolowski Betty Ann Thomas

· 28 of these students are in their sophomore or junior years in college. One is a graduate student. There are no senior students, as most of our Seniors are involved in supervised student teaching, away from the College, during the spring semester.

· It should be noted that these people were the complete "studio crew." We employed no technical help. Did they know how to do their jobs ? Yes, they have learned how, during their experience in one or another of the two-point courses in which they have done all of these things before.

· College students learn these jobs very quickly. Almost from the first day, they get quite good results from television apparatus. · In situations in which there is a seriousminded learning group, the expense of maintaining a studio crew can be held down considerably.

C. The Television Committee

Faculty members of the Executive Board of the Television Committee took pride in greeting visitors who came to the campus for this occasion.

Page Nine