Time Capsule: From the archives of local weeklies

Lake County Leader, June 6, 2016

Watching TV isn't learning

Channel One, Whittle Communications' 12-minute newscast beamed by satellite into grades 6-12 classrooms every morning, is again being considered in the Polson schools.

Whittle provides the necessary equipment to view the newscast, and the school is free to use it for other purposes after the obligatory viewing of the newscast and its attendant commercials. The service is controversial because of just that: Schools must guarantee that at least 90 percent of students will watch Channel One every day.

Allowing classroom time to subject a captive audience to one private company's commercial message not only smacks of exploitation, but results in an unfair taxpayer subsidy. The company doesn't have to compete for its audience but rather acquires it through a commercial contract with the school district.

It's also been noted that classroom time is already precious enough without having to devote about 15 minutes each day — five full school days per student per year — to material that is widely available outside the classroom.

Mindful of these ethical pitfalls, the Polson school board has postponed its decision until administrators evaluate the feasibility of the district purchasing its own video equipment.

This caution is prudent. But one question that has not been considered is why does the school system even need an expensive internal video network?

According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, by the time a young person graduates from high school, he or she will have spent approximately 20,000 hours watching TV, compared with only 12,500 hours in the classroom. Schools must depend on continual mental exercise for increasing intellectual capacity, yet experts are unanimous in declaring that video is a passive experience — it does not exercise the mind, it merely occupies it.

Learning by video can be like trying to get in shape by working out on a motorized exercycle.

Ideas best learned are the ones that result from the combined interplay of reading, discussion and writing. This is a dynamic process that depends on the guidance and feedback of a live teacher. That is why we think there are better ways to teach than video, and better uses of school money than investing in TV sets.

RHS to get new bleachers

New bleachers are in the works for Ronan High School.

The Ronan school board will hear a proposal for replacing the bleachers at the football field at the July board meeting.

The existing bleachers need to be torn down, said athletic director Frank Ciez. At the very least some excavation work and the crow's nest need to be redone, he said

Ciez has talked to the Anaconda Job Corps about building new bleachers. He reported an estimate of $84,000 to buy 15 rows (currently there are less than 10 rows), plus the Job Corps would do some excavation work. Those could be ready for the 1998 school year.

He is still doing research, however, for next month's meeting.

In other business, the board:

• Voted not to rebid the concrete portion of the seventh-eighth grade school addition. 

•Heard a report from Ciez on baseball fields for the new girls' softball program which will be started next year.

•Heard a report from board member Dan Saloman on the gifted/talented program. The committee involved with that group is currently discussing a seminar class for the high school, he said, in which students would both go into the community or have community members come to them to discuss items of interest.

•Accepted the resignation of Kris Salonen as head girls track coach.

•Hired Alan Anderson as a carpenter for the district.

Local shines for Jimmies

Kris Rohfleisch of St. Ignatius finished her season with the Jamestown College (N.D.) Jimmies fastpitch team with a .333 batting average, fourth highest on the team.

Rohfleisch played 25 games for the team and had 30 at-bats. She had 10 hits and scored five runs. She also struck out five times and walked twice.