Group Listening Now Popular Home Activity

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 8

Group Listening Now Popular Home Activity

“Group listening now has more immediate general appeal than anything else we undertake,’.’ said Mr Bernard Smyth, adult education tutor at the University of Canterbury, when he announced the radio listening programme for 1958.

“No longer do we have to ‘sell’ this idea,” Mr Smyth said. “People know what it is about, they are keenly interested, and their only problen- as whether domestic arrangements will enable them to take a full part. The trend is evident from last year’s enrolment 65 groups with more than 500 active praticipants.” After two pilot schemes, limited to Canterbury, the adult education department of the University of Canterbury has now been organising winter group listening to discussion programmes broadcast simultaneously over all main national stations for four years.

Sometimes the broadcasts were in July; but it was found that many people were already committed to activities of local societies. By holding this year’s programme at 8.30 p.m. on Thursdays from April 17 to May 8, it is hoped that many more groups will be ble to take part without interfering with community efforts.

The general pattern of group listening is that broadcast discussions are followed by home groups, who then debate their own views, and report findings to the adult education department. These are compared at the start of the next broadcast. In the early years, it was known that k .dreds of families heard the broadcasts; but took no other part. As more groups learned that, for a nominal fee of 5s a group to cover the cost of supplying written background material, they could take a more active and intelligent interest, enrolments have grown rapidly. “Men versus machines” is the theme this year. The adult education department says it may be a truism to say that this is a machine age; but the full extent of its influence is not always evident. Mr Smyth described the content of the discussions as follows: April 17, “The Family Versus The Machine”: whether the introduction of so many “gadgets” in the home is causing the family spirit to disintegrate because there are not many individual duties? April 24. '‘The Machine Versus Society”: to what degree does mechanisation and automation rob

the worker of his individual responsibility, interest, and pride in his work?

May 1, “The Machine Versus The Arts”: Can, say, a pressed plastic radio cabinet be a work of art and do machines (as tools in art) increase the scope or diminish the craftsman’s skill.

May 8, “Men Versus Machines”: a retrospective review of the programme and a consideration of whether the machine, although it may exercise a limited intelligence, can ever display real wisdom.

Those leading the. broadcast discussions will be:— Mrs Vera Mackay, better known as a colour consultant and interior decorator, Ann Site wart; Mrs J. W. Mosley, a country housewife from Scargill; Mrs Eileen Saunders, a university lecturer’s wife, who recently revisited England; Mrs Jill Brett, an artist, designer, and restaurateur; Mr W. G. V. Fernie, recently resident of the Associated Chambers of Commerce; Mr G. S. Troup, liaison officer at the University of Canterbury; Mr J. D. Stewart, a lecturer in farm management at Lincoln; Professor L. W. McCaskill, of Canterbury Agricultural College; Mr E. O. Lenz, lecturer in education at the university; Mr R. H. McDonald, a trade union official; Mr Peter Greenslade, a journalist; Mr F. A. Shurrock, a sculptor; and Mr J. R. Tye, a lecturer in English at the Teachers’ College. Mr Smyth will be chairman for all discussions and give the weekly review.

the programme just announced, the adult education department- already has 15 groups enrolled. Early registration has been urged so that. background material may be sent in good time.