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Educational Television, History of
Educational and informational programming—defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1996 as “any television programming that furthers the educational and informational needs of children 16 years of age and under in any respect, including children's intellectual/cognitive or social/emotional needs”—has evolved rather dramatically from the 1950s to the present. Today, educational programming offers a rich array of educational opportunities for young viewers that engage them long beyond the duration and confines of the telecasts of traditional television programs.
Don Herbert and a young assistant conduct an experiment on Watch Mr. Wizard, a pioneering show in educational television for children. The program aired from 1951 to 1965 on NBC, then returned for a season in 1971. Created and hosted by Herbert, the show aimed to make science applicable to children's everyday experiences, and it often used everyday household items in the demonstrations. Watch Mr. Wizard was shown in the classrooms of many schools and spawned thousands of Mr. Wizard Science Clubs in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Origins of Educational Television
The development of educational television was greatly facilitated by a television station license “freeze” between 1948 and 1952, during which the FCC paused during a period of frenzied development in television's early history to engage in a number of important deliberations that would ultimately shape the future of broadcasting. The concept of educational programming was extremely controversial at this time. Commercial broadcasters claimed that the reservation of noncommercial channels was not necessary, because their programs already served the educational needs of the audience. In fact, they argued that broadcasting was too important a resource to entrust to those who had no profit motive to spur the new medium's development. Such an industry view had prevailed during the discussion of public radio leading up to the Communications Act of 1934.
An important “voice crying in the wilderness” played a pivotal role in shifting the ground rules for television away from radio's prevailing model of pure commercialism. Frieda B. Hennock, the first woman FCC Commissioner, argued eloquently and forcefully that 10% of television channels should be reserved for educational television. Thanks to an effective public communication campaign initiated by Commissioner Hennock, when the FCC issued its Sixth Report and Order in April 1952, the license allocation plan included 242 specific channel reservations for non-profit educational licenses.
Major Developments from the 1950s to the 1980s
During 1950s and early 1960s, as educational television stations struggled through a formative period, most of the educational programs introduced for children featured adult “talking heads” addressing child audiences, assorted puppet shows, make-believe vignettes, and other primitive means of instruction and edification. Targeted children's programming, such as Friendly Giant and Tales of Poindexter, occupied only a minor percentage of programming time on these educational stations, and they were not given much consideration on the emerging state and national educational programming networks.
Educators and the general public were not very satisfied with these early programming developments for children. In response, the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic organizations not only supported capital facility grants to community and educational organizations, which helped dramatically expand the number of educational stations, they also joined with federal education agencies to support a number of remarkable programming initiatives during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. As a result, a number of innovative and popular programs were developed and broadcast, including the perennially popular and educationally effective Sesame Street, developed by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now Sesame Workshop).
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