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Pacifica Radio Archives’ “From the Vault”
Each week the Pacifica Radio Archives chooses a program "From the Vault" of broadcasts in a half-hour program.
This week on From The Vault we feature American novelist and playwright William Saroyan. Winner of both and Academy Award and the Pulitzer Prize, speaks on the craft of education to an auditorium full of English teachers at San Francisco State University in 1965.
We also throw in a short poem from William’s son Aram Saroyan at the break.
William Saroyan was the last of four children born to Armenian immigrant parents, and the first to be born in America. He began his life in Fresno, California in 1908 and died there in 1981.
After many years of writing starting at an early age, William would win both the New York Critic’s Circle Award AND the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1940 for his play The Time of Your Life.
He would also win an academy award in 1943 for the adaptation of his short story The Human Comedy.
The topic at hand is the craft of teaching and Saroyan’s advice as to the best way to educate students. Saroyan uses his own troubles in school as a context for developing better techniques to break through to children who do not naturally thrive in our education system.
This was 1965. Since then the public education has seen many changes and now one of the issues is how to break through in a digital world. Listen for aspects of 1965 that should still apply today.
