Group Radio Listening Popular Winter Pastime

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27690, 21 June 1955, Page 14

Group Radio Listening Popular Winter Pastime

Every Monday evening in June more than 500 persons t fT ou A ho SLf <^ t Sr bury are taking part in the first proper programme of group listening eve r organised in the area. A. pilot project two years- ago had little response, out this month more than 50 groups are formally enrolled, and as the radio discussions are broadcast nationally f jom Christchurch it is safe to assume that they are heard in hundreds of other h °To e show how the scheme works, the adult education department of Canterbury University College invited The Press” to send an observer to a typical group. Last evening it met in a comfortable lounge in a flat in Richmond. The organiser is a prominent member of the Housewives’ Union who invited a friend in the W.E.A. (a young grandmother whose husband is a foreman in the Railways Department) to help form the group. With their husbands they invited two other couples they knew. One of these was absent last evening, but the other couple are English, both engaged in clerical work. The organiser’s husband, who took tne ehair, described himself “as anything from a wool-sorter to a civil servant, now retired.” The average age was about 50. They all gathered about 8 p.m. and enjoyed 20 minutes general conversation. , , , Just before 8.30 p.m. they heard Mr Donald Rutherford, regional director of adult education, review by radio the findings of all groups on last week’s broadcast about responsibility for moral training. Continuing the series on influences affecting the modern family, the radio panel then discussed factors destroying the ability of I families to hold together. The perma- ! nent members are the Dean of Cnnst--1 church (the Very Rev. Martin bulh!van), a university lecturer’s wife (Mrs ■ Eileen Saunders), and a farmer’s wife i from Methven (Mrs Diana Goldsibrough). Mr C. T. Ford, senior lecturer in education, was the visiting - speaker, and Mr Bernard Smyth, an • adult education tutor, was chairman. ' Conformity to environment was a strong urge with children, the panel said. They hated to be different. How far, then, could parents interfere with their family’s desire to do what others did? In the present transition of social patterns how much should children determine for themselves. Panel i speakers suggested that the family was not now certain of its own function but through home activities and conversation it handed on its own culture. Children’s regular cinema attendances, radios continually used, greater leisure, and high wages were mentioned as influences which could be disintegrating. The grandmother immediately urged that children should be encouraged to make their own decisions. “I told my boys: ‘Live and don’t just exist.’ ” she said. They had been encouraged to develop their own interests at home

and other children, being curious joined in; so there were no local dk’i tinctions. This helped the problem of families of “ones and twos.” When the boys were about 17 she was con tent to sit back and watch their own choices and she was not disappointed Separation of families was inevitabu but the ties endured. The English couple thought thn greatest evil in New Zealand was the desire to “get rid of the kids’’ instead of providing activities at home. “PeonlJ are just too lazy to make the effort’’ the woman said. The man thought high wages for the young placed out side entertainment within their reach too easily. When a girl of 17 got £7 10s a week and her father only £a 15s on the basic wages everything got out of proportion. * 601 The Housewives’ Union officer em phasised that few complaints weri made about family participation in vol untary organisations or educational meetings. Commercialised entertain, ments like the cinema, dances, and races separated parents and children The retired man also complained of subtle entertainment propaganda draw ing children away from home and of too many clubs turning mothers into a “frying-pan brigade.” " This group’s first discussion went on till 12.30 a.m. Last evening they had discussed four of the nine questioni submitted by the adult education de partment by 10 p.m. They then took a break for supper. “This is just what we need,” the re tired man said, when questioned about the group listening scheme. “Too often we listen to the radio with one ear only. With this we have to pay attention and then the written questions and subsequent discussion ensure that you think.” The group found the half hour panel broadcasts on a developing theme about the right length, and the speak ers stimulating, but all of them surl gested that one member at least be ‘ down to earth, someone who has known hardship, and can speak for the common man.” They liked the comfort and informality of the home meeting and the chance to speak on their own ground. “Will the scheme be continued?” they all asked eagerly Mr Rutherford (who, with his” staff is attempting to visit most grouns during the month) was present last evening and said he thought ther would. A programme of listening to music was being «onsidered for late* this year and another sociological topic might be discussed next winter. Mmv of the 50 groups had originated from someone previously interested in adult education, others came from established country groups, but more than half were complete newcomers and inquiries since this series began promised even better future support.