School of the Air (Ohio)

• Benjamin H. Darrow, OSOA Director, 1928–1937 • Ann Charles, WOSU program director, 1937–1941 • Margaret C. Tyler, OSOA Supervisor, 1941–1968 • Gordon G. Humbert, OSOA Director, 19??–1973 == History ==

Ohio-born Benjamin Darrow was an educator, entrepreneur and salesman. He promoted radio as an educational tool and relocated to Chicago in 1924 when radio station WLS, owned by Sears, Roebuck and Company, hired him to develop broadcasts of the "Little Schoolhouse of the Air". The program was known as the ''"nation's first school-of-the-air program", with Darrow as the "radio schoolmaster"''. It aired for a year and half attracting an audience of 23,000 to 28,000 schoolchildren in Chicago and neighboring states. Chicago's school of the air (SOA) success inspired Darrow to expand the concept, conceiving a national school of the air. He began searching for sponsors and in 1927 connected with the Payne Study and Experiment Fund of New York. == Operation ==

During OSOA's experimental phase the State Department of Education published annual operating reports at the conclusion of each school year, continuing through its final 1936-37 session. Thereafter, annual operating summaries were reported in OSU's College of Education ''Educational Research Bulletin's''. • Due to budget constraints, OSOA experimented and found it feasible to rent out scripts from its program inventory. It created a feature service for other radio stations, collecting supplemental income from stations in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. • Supplemental monies were redirected to OSOA from the Ohio Promotion Fund administered by Ohio's Director of Education and OSU's Director of Visual Education. During 1936 these funds paid salaries for several script writers. • OSOA received some government support via depression-era recovery activities, e.g., the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA, est. 1933) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA, est. 1935). • During 1933-35 OSOA used FERA-paid stenographers to help produce program publications and for office support and its understaffed radio workshops were backfilled via FERA's un-employed teachers lists. • OSOA added a summer school program in 1935, aided by FERA supplied staff. • WPA's first Federal Radio Workshop (FRW) was developed in Cincinnati, its staff selected from FERA's list of unemployed teachers and trained by OSOA's director in both script writing and radio broadcasting. In OSOA's 1936 budget analysis the FRW had contributed $21,050 in the value of its script writing and presentation, nearly twice the amount contributed by Ohio's State legislators. • In 1936 WPA's Federal Radio Workshop (FRW) and the Radio Education Project partnered with OSA to produce a series of Latin America travelogues, programs intended for commercial radio broadcasts. FRW also employed out-of-work Ohio educators to create a series of OSOA classroom programs. The “Travelog” program aligned with President Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, a revamped policy promoting cultural exchange where previous U.S. actions had involved military intervention. FRW's “Travelog” programming so obviously followed Roosevelt's new doctrine its works were labeled politically themed in radio industry publications. Its purpose was to present OSOA's current operational status, its curriculum summary and to develop corporative plans for increasing lessons' usefulness. Over forty educational representatives from across the state were present during the two-day event, attendees enumerated in the "Members of the Conference" list. OSOA was assisted in 1930 when the Payne Fund supported educational radio development by funding the Institute for Education by Radio to provide nationwide aid to producers of educational programs. OSU's Bureau of Educational Research Radio Division conducted the institute's annual meetings with "proceedings published in the Education on the Air Yearbook" [sic]. Darrow believed the best use of radio was to support the teacher by reinforcing existing curriculum, a philosophy supported by educational research. A criterion for OSOA's program selection was developed with potential topics having three necessities: • align with subject preferences requested by school administrators • adapt to presentation over the air with minimal visual support from classroom teachers • "availability of talent" (knowledgeable, interesting, affordable presenters) capable of delivering the subject-matter via microphone. There was scant time to screen and train every presenter. Candidates were profiled ahead of time, sometimes covertly, searching for the crucial quality Darrow felt necessary to connect with listeners- enthusiasm. Natural enthusiasm was far more valuable than delivery technique or subject-matter organization. Presenting lessons over the radio required special attention to the speaker's voice cadence. Without visual cues available to classroom teachers, radio's delivery via microphone had to maintain students' concentration with an interesting, appealing message. Content had to be thoroughly memorized, lest pauses ensue that distract the audience. Scripts had to be written, practiced, rewritten and rehearsed until delivery was spontaneous, a process evidenced by markups on the accompanying 1936 Contemporary Writers program script. One OSOA experiment assessed sentence complexity, concluding vocabulary used for young children's audiences should not have more than "one hard word for every hundred different words.” Benjamin Darrow had one simple rule in preparing radio scripts: “If in doubt, take it out.” OSOA's educational programming integrated at least three different pedagogical methods in lesson structure and delivery techniques. Distribution of program guides and schedules was planned to align classroom preparations with program broadcasts. Teachers were an express target of lesson leaflets, attempting to develop their closest possible cooperation with program presentations. While OSOA provided teachers with lesson books and suggested visual props, teachers received little support from their schools. Jarvis argued that teachers and school administrators needed to become more interested and involved with the implementation and improvement of educational radio, or else students "will be seriously harmed by their haphazard use." In preparation for the 1941–42 school year WOSU assigned Margaret Tyler as OSOA's dedicated supervisor. During 1957-58 Ohio's K-12 public school system enrolled 23% (2,135,000 students) of the state's 9,230,000 age-eligible population. During 1935-36 19.2% (1,289,337) of Ohio's total school-age population was enrolled. OSOA's mission was to reinforce and enrich Ohio's existing curriculum. Audience surveys demonstrated its usage rates: • 1936: a survey estimated 75,000+ listening children, benefitting 5.8% of Ohio's 1936 student body. • 1945: OSOA produced 256 programs for an ~381,320 student audience. • 1954: 150,000+ Ohio school children listened to at least one of OSOA's programs. By 1935 OSOA was broadcasting a full week's schedule for grades 1-12. To coordinate broadcasts with class schedules OSOA sent broadcast plans to school administrators prior to schools' opening dates (see Tentative Schedule for 1935-36). • During Darrow's prior "Little Schoolhouse of the Air" tenure he discovered young school students' affinity to hear like-aged voices, a technique frequently used in OSOA's programming. • In 1930 OSOA aired a nature study program designed and produced by students from Bellefontaine, Ohio. • School children at McGuffey School in Oxford, Ohio were live participants in the 1948-49 "Play Time" programs created by Miami University and broadcast by OSOA. • In 1953 fourteen-year-old radio speech class student, Lynn Preisler, was enlisted as the broadcast voice for "Boys and Girls in Bookland" and the "Storytime" programs. • During 1953-56 OSOA re-broadcast the St Louis Public Schools' ''"Let's Find Out"'' science series. School children were present during the series' recording, supplying enthusiastic background noises, albeit their voices occasionally muted when the teacher's questions were soliciting audible responses from the radio audience. • Work Shop players (a troupe of dramatic actors) used the radio workshop to prepare and present OSOA's original "Men Who Made History" drama series. National Youth Administration (NYA) students wrote the program scripts about the country's leading history makers. • OSOA shared its program scripts with the WPA's Emergency Schools program who then developed and re-broadcast them to Cleveland public school children via multiple commercial radio stations in the city. OSOA's scripts were also shared internationally with a station in Peiping, China, where they were translated and re-broadcast. • In 1936 two discussion series were added. A Round Table series was introduced, hosted by rotating invitational guests, e.g. a law professor, presenting to a high school student panel and discussing current problems. Keith Tyler, Bureau of Educational Research, hosted a high school student discussion program entitled "The High School Student Talks it Over". Topics covered issues impacting teachers, students and their parents. The series were presented without any cost to OSOA. OSOA integrated Tape Network programs into its educational series later that year, re-broadcasting works from WTDS-FM (Toledo, Ohio), OSOA partnered with Columbus' WTVN-TV station broadcasting two test lessons, "The Art Workshop of the Air" and "Science around Us". Up to 100 Columbus area control group classrooms watched the programs with Stanford Science Achievement Tests assessing benefits of television versus radio. Positive results enabled a 1958 3-year follow-up experiment across the full Columbus Public School system, conducted by OSU and sponsored by the Fund for the Advancement of Education. Subsequently, OSU's Telecommunications Center developed hundreds of weekly-series programs per month during the 1963–64 school year. • During the 1954–55 school year OSOA broadcast 9 program series, four being sourced from other radio stations. Two were rented via NAEB's Tape Network program; one was re-broadcast from station WABE (FM) (Atlanta, Georgia); and one obtained through a station-to-station exchange between OSOA and Toledo's WTDS-FM. • OSOA's "Ohio Today" segment featured Ohio native Roy Rogers, his dramatized biography "Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys" broadcast on April 22, 1958, co-aired by 12 radio stations across Ohio. The Courier, a scheduled program listing and teachers' preparation guide, was routinely sent to school administrators and teachers in the September preceding the school year, e.g. The Ohio School of the Air Courier, Vol I. Eight volumes of the Courier were published, the program guide available from 1929 through the 1936–37 school year. In addition to the Courier, monthly lesson leaflets were also sent to teachers, supplementing courses and detailing exact upcoming program times to help integrate OSOA's programming with regular classroom instruction. and Courier circulation quickly grew to 12,000, mailed to listeners free of charge. In August 1935 E.L. Bowsher succeeded B.O. Skinner as State Director of Education. The state governor requested his new management team reassess the School of the Air's utility. OSOA was prioritized to prepare such reports, putting preparations for the 1935-36 schoolyear on hold, delaying the ''Courier's'' publication. The schedules eventually reached school administrators, though so late school classroom plans had been made without using any OSOA broadcasts, making that schoolyear one of OSOA's least successful. Fee assessments for the The Courier and the subsequent ''Teachers' Manual publications varied. During 1929-31 The Courier was sent freely to teachers around the state, intended to increase classroom usage and the number of listening students. Beginning in 1932 a subscription fee was levied to provide additional OSOA income. In 1954 OSOA began charging for supplementary manuals to nullify publishing expenses. In 1958-59 the Bureau of Educational Research and Service financed Teachers' Manual'' expenses. The announcement nearly tripled the number of manual requests from the previous year, from 4,871 to 15,807. In 1935 the continuation of printed pupil's record books (workbooks) by the State Department of Education was discussed. The alternative of mimeographing a single program version, e.g. Story Plays, would cost OSOA over $1,200 without including mailing costs. The State Department's unwillingness to continue free distribution and OSOA's budget cut limitations brought future pupil's workbooks to an end. • 1930-31: The Ohio School of the Air Courier, Vol. 2 • 1931-32: The Ohio School of the Air Courier, Vol. 3 Classroom broadcasts via WLW and W8XAL, Cincinnati; and WEAO, Columbus. Foreign language programs originated from WEAO. • c.1937: Ohio School of the Air Radio Workshop Plays • 1948-49: ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual- Play Time for the First, Second and Third Grades'', the series, its scripts and teachers' manual prepared and conducted by McGuffey School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. • 1952-54: ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual- Making Friends with Music'', a two-year series of musical activities, produced by the Toledo Museum of Art. Premiere broadcasts originated from Toledo Board of Education's station WTDS-FM during the second year, then rebroadcast by OSOA. • 1953-54: • ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Let's Find Out'', the series and manual prepared by KSLH-FM and St Louis Public Schools. • ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Adventures in Folk Song (First Semester), Up and Down the Scales (Second Semester)'', prepared by the Junior Leagues of Columbus and Salt Lake City with the 2nd semester produced at Salt Lake City's station KSL (AM). • 1954-55: ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual for Primary Grades- Play Time, Let's Find Out, Polly and Puffy, Story Time'' is a series of programs prepared by: • OSU's Department of Physical Education, Women's Division • Flint Board of Education and staff members of station WFBE, made available via the Tape Network program of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB). • OSU's Department of Elementary Education • Saint Louis Public Schools' Elementary Radio Science Committee, station KSLH, available via the NAEB Tape Network. • 1955-56: • The Tiptop Twins- a Series on Health and Safety with teachers' manual and broadcasts prepared and produced by the Public Schools of Flint, Michigan at station WFBE, available via the NAEB Tape Network. • ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Let's Find Out- A Science Program for Grades 1-3'' a series prepared and produced by station KSLH, St Louis Public Schools, available via the NAEB Tape Network. • 1956-57: • ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Once Upon A Time in Ohio'', series and manual prepared by the Supervisor of Education, Ohio Historical Society. • ''Americans to Remember (first semester) Canadian Hearts and Minds (second semester) Teachers' manual'' with the 1st semester produced by New York City Schools and their station WNYE, available via the Tape Network; 2nd semester authored and by Canadian journalist David Watson with support from the Canadian Department of North Affairs and National Resources. • Just Why Stories- a Science Series for Primary Grades with teacher's manual prepared by the Elementary Science Radio Planning Committee of the Saint Louis Public Schools, broadcast by KSLH and available via NAEB's Tape Network. • 1956-62: Music activity for the lower grades from 1956 through 1962, a series planned and produced by WNYE (FM), the radio station of the Board of Education, New York City. • 1957-58: ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Hands Across the World'', written and produced by WNYE-FM, Board of Education, New York City and distributed by the NAEB. • 1959-60: ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual Boys and Girls in Bookland'' • 1962-63: • Play Time- A Program of Physical Activity for the Primary Grades • ''Ohio School of the Air Teachers' Manual- A Program of Physical Activities for the First, Second and Third Grades'', a series planned and conducted by OSU's Women's Physical Education Department. • 1963-64 Ohio School of the Air- WOSU Program Bulletin, OSOA's broadcasts were made on WOSU-AM, WOSU-FM with selected audio-visual programs debuting on WOSU-TV. • 1968-1969 Ohio School of the Air- Program Bulletin, the last schoolyear Bulletin stored in OSOA's archives. == OSOA's closures ==

OSOA's first phase was an acknowledged experiment in radio education, conducted by the Ohio State Department of Education and operated for 8 years and 9 months. It was the longest and most active classroom broadcasting program of any State education department in the country. Its programs were heard in 22 states by more than 100,000 listeners. The first phase operated until June 1, 1937, when State legislature funding expired, then received a continuance by the governor to allow OSU's preparation for the second phase of operation. While some published articles indicate OSOA "disbanded in 1937" (Lamb, 2012), OSOA operated throughout the 1937–38 school year and received subsequent Ohio Legislative funding to initiate its 1938–39 school year as an Ohio State University entity. WOSU's partner station WLW withdrew from OSOA's programing in the Spring of 1937 and introduced a self-produced version of the program, renamed the ''"Nation's School of the Air"'' sponsored by the Crosley Radio Corporation. Joseph Ries, Darrow's successor as station WLW's educational director, with staff of five produced their version until WLW joined the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio network in 1939. Operational artifacts of OSOA's 1929-1937 experimental phase are archived at OSU's Special Collections Registry, Columbus. Contents include administrative records; audiovisual materials; scrapbooks; and broadcast program scripts in both written and audible form, i.e., phonograph records and magnetic audio tape copies. In 1938 the Ohio legislature approved $13,000 for OSOA's second phase of operation, beginning July 31, 1938, with operational responsibilities transferred to Ohio State University. Educational programming continued through at least 1973; OSOA's archives containing: • multiple story scripts for the 1969–70 school year • 1971-72's Massey Lectures featuring the February 15 broadcast of Dr. George Wald's "Therefore Choose Life" • the "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" script for 1972-73 OSOA's ultimate closure was attributed to multiple causes: • Acceptance issues with school staff and student boredom • Integration issues between programming times and schools' schedules • Quality of the presenting talent • Technical issues with reception and audio quality • The invention of television • Funding reductions, with potential retribution issues between Governor Martin Davey and Darrow == Accolades and Diatribes ==

Comments about Ohio School of the Air • In the Spring of 1929, just months after its initial broadcast, OSOA's state-wide acceptance was so prominent that surrounding midwestern states Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana and further to Nebraska had begun parent-teacher discussions hoping to mimic Ohio's success with radio instruction in their school systems. • In 1930 the Advisory Committee on Radio Education (the Wilber Committee) reported OSOA had provided one of the most successful examples of radio education to date, its broadcasts being used in the schools of twenty-nine States. OSOA was complimented for its effectiveness in classroom radio education, producing the highest successes seen to date in schools of the air, according to Harper’s Magazine (Vol 163, November 1931). • In 1938 OSOA was considered to be the most carefully developed of all state-wide school broadcasting systems in the country by the Church of Christ's Department of Research and Educational. • OSOA, along with The American School of the Air and Wisconsin School of the Air, were analyzed decades later, post-pandemic. These SOAs served as early remote learning models, all producing novel broadcasting programs for classroom or home use. OSOA was exemplified for offering special discussions on topics of interest to high school students, airing the series Men Who Made America and introducing students to literature via dramatic story readings. However, later analyses noted students receiving solely SOA-based education combined with (social) isolation reported less overall learning, problems getting special assistance, loss of relationships and degraded social-emotional health. Some of their peers did adapt however, acquiring new skills for self-reliance, time management and organization. • Ultimately, OSOA's radio experiment was unable to alter the established form of education. A 1943 report by OSU's Bureau of Educational Research found that only a minority of the state's teachers had accepted radio education; radio was not viewed as a bona fide educational tool. Comments about staff • A 1931 Journal of Education article praised OSOA's B. H. Darrow for its 1929 State Governor's inauguration broadcast. Via radio, Darrow had given "a vivid picture of the maneuvers about the capital building", vitalizing and enriching the event for children in classrooms and their parents at home. • The primary facilitator of OSOA's success was Benjamin H. Darrow, educational radio's "biggest proponent". He was one of the first to successfully develop educational radio. • OSOA's success, attributed to its director's tireless efforts, ironically discouraged many educational departments from experimenting with radio programs. • OSOA's choice of content and presenters was considered biased. Darrow's goal to provide uplifting themes and bring culture to the masses, e.g. poor and working-class children, was culturally biased toward upper-middle classes' version of success. Curriculum was chosen based on Darrow's selection of cultural groups to include or exclude. Presenters were commonly assigned based on gender, women leading the young children's activities, demonstrating typical early twentieth-century prejudices. In 1931 cultural bias was inherent in two OSOA programs recorded at the National Education Association's headquarters in Washington D.C.; presenters were all white, "US literary figures and politicians" espousing power, rank and privilege. == Gallery ==

File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 4).jpg|Annual Report Ohio School of the Air, 1935-36, by B. H. Darrow File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 5).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Liberals; Jan 16, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 6).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Extra Extra!; March 13, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 7).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Today's Posts; April 3, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 8).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Culture in a Changing World; October 15, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 9).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Pulitizer Prize Winners; October 29, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 10).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Short Stories Prize Winners; December 10, 1935; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 11).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Art in America; January 21, 1936; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 12).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Modern Humorists; February 4, 1936; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 13).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program script: Contemporary Writers- Best Sellers, Fiction; February 11, 1936; by Paul A. T. Noon File:Ohio School of the Air materials - DPLA - 322d91275a5953b218490bc69b1b499f (page 15).jpg|Ohio School of the Air program syllabus: Modern Problems Feature* Some Problems of Workers, Employers and Society; (undated, c.1935); by William Papier == Other educational radio broadcasts of the period ==

• Some of the earliest stations were in Pittsburgh and Detroit, with stations KDKA (AM) and WWJ (AM), respectively, both alleging to have been the first airing educational broadcasts during the fall of 1920. Some of the earliest public school systems experimenting with classroom broadcasting were in Oakland, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburg, all having produced and broadcast a series of educational programs as early as 1922. • Oakland, CA was an early public school broadcasting core curriculum into its classrooms using station KGO. Its date of first broadcasting was misquoted in some sources, e.g. 1921 (Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 1938). Station KGO (later renamed KSFO) began transmitting on January 8, 1924. KGO was a commercial station, though also broadcast classroom-oriented lessons during 1924-1926. • In early 1922, Tufts College, later Tufts University, was broadcasting college course lectures through Boston's station WGI with subjects including arts, architecture, economics, athletics and world events. Media labeled their programming a "wireless college." • In 1923 Haaren High School of New York City became the first public school to employ radio-broadcast instructions in the classroom. and magazines of the time, e.g, Radio News and Popular Science. Later that year California's public schools begin broadcasting penmanship, arithmetic, and history lessons. • The Standard School Broadcast (SSB) began broadcasting September 20, 1928, in California. Its seventh of a series of musical lesson broadcasts received advanced announcement via local newsprint. SSB's educational program was designed as a supplement to regular classroom instruction. • In 1930, Europe's educational focus with radio programming was parsed between three target groups; young students, adults and general public. • Britain's school systems did not have a centralized curriculum, but used material chosen independently by the head teacher at each school; this splintered plan-of-study did not align with a common program model. Britain's use for radio broadcasting consisted of approximately 70% music directed to the general audience; 20% talks (e.g. general news, commentaries, debates) with its educational content directed equally between adult and school-aged audiences; 5% for an early evening children's hour; with the remainder religion. • In Hungary and Russia, both having populations with high illiteracy, educational programs aired throughout the day targeting primarily adults with current news, music, and instructions in reading and writing. In regions around Moscow the content changed in synchronism with laborers' work shifts as they departed their factories. Content became focused near-solely on industrial issues, e.g. regulations, working conditions and factory output. This implementation of targeted content based on location and time-of-day was deemed novel, worthy of replication in other radio market areas. • Switzerland was the only European country to organize technical training specifically for young apprentice students, establishing mandatory remote learning courses for those living in mountainous areas, inaccessible to technical schools. • Wisconsin's School of the Air (WSA) was born from a 1930 Payne Fund experiment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, assessing radio teaching effectiveness. WSA focused on the educational needs of the rural elementary students and teachers. It began broadcasting over station WHA (AM) on October 5, 1931, Its Radio-Visual Education Department gave students practical hands-on experience in program production, broadcast announcing and radio station operation. OSOA re-broadcast several of Toledo's student programs acquired via the NAEB Tape Network and by direct station-to-station barters (see "Program creation" section). • Through the 1930s-40s educational programing across America had primarily developed as city-focused, state-focused or national. Several city-based examples were Cleveland's schools, Chicago's schools via WBEZ and Detroit's via WTDR. State-wide SOAs existed in Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolia, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin. Nationally broadcast examples were CBS' The American School of the Air and NBC's Walter Damrosch's Music Appreciation Hour. == See also ==