St. Edward's University Newsletter (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 2, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 1, 1973 Page: 3 of 40
forty pages : ill. ; page 12 x 10 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this periodical.
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1973 Quest Medalist
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By Joan Ganz Cooney
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The Second Generation
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Commercial television is entering its
second 25 years, and Kettering often
stated that the second 25 years of an
industry was its true period of develop-
ment.
He cited the telephone and electric
light as examples. In both cases, the
fundamental development took place in
the first generation. But, as with the in-
vention of the metal filament and the
more recent fluorescent lamp, more than
25 years after the electric light came
along, the really constructive develop-
ment didn't begin until the second
generation.
That doesn't even cover some of the
difficulties of getting the true possibilities
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of an invention accepted. When news
from the United States reached England
that a Mr. Edison had invented an electric
light, the British called a Parliamentary
commission at which expert witnesses
assured the gas companies that nothing
further would be heard of this imprac-
tical invention.
One witness—the chief engineer of the
post office—was asked, "What about this
latest device these ingenious Yankees
have invented, the telephone. Do you
think this has any applications in Eng-
land?" Whereupon the chief engineer re-
plied: "No, sir. The Americans have need
of the telephone, but we do not. We
have plenty of messenger boys."
The engineer's limited vision kept him
from seeing that the telephone would
transform the patterns of business, of
social life, and would change many as-
pects of human affairs.
This seems quaint and comic in retro-
spect, but the same patterns have pre-
vailed in other innovations.
When the first horseless carriages
started junketing about, it was pointed
out that, even when the bugs had been
eliminated, and the vehicles might reach
50 miles per hour, they would be of lim-
ited use for one simple reason: There
were no roads outside of cities.
Who would have anticipated the paving
over of much of the American landscape
in half a century?
Closer to my own field is a similar his-
torical footnote.
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Thank you for the honor
you have bestowed upon our quest to put
television to work in behalf of educating
the young.
At the Children's Television Workshop,
we are gratified to have successfully
completed such ventures as "Sesame
Street" and "The Electric Company." But
we also know that these applications of
technology for education are just be-
ginning.
Furthermore, I am going to add a leaf
to the notebook of that wizard of in-
ventiveness, Charles Kettering, by sug-
gesting that educators and producers have
barely tapped the real strengths of the
medium of television.
Joan Ganz Cooney, the
woman who has perhaps done more than
any other for the education of pre-school
children, was the third recipient of St.
Edward's University's Quest Medal.
The medal is given annually in recogni-
tion of a person's intellectual or humani-
tarian exploration in new areas. It is the
university's highest honor.
Mrs. Cooney, founder and president of
Children's Television Workshop, is creator
of "Sesame Street" and "The Electric
Company." She is a native of Phoenix,
Arizona, and began her career as a news-
paper reporter there before going to New
York to work for the National Broad-
casting Company. She worked as a tele-
vision publicist and later produced public
affairs documentaries for educational tele-
vision.
"Sesame Street" came into being after
many months of study and research on
the possibility of beginning a child's
education through the medium of tele-
vision. The study was directed by Mrs.
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Cooney on assignment from the Carnegie
Corporation.
Mrs. Cooney came to St. Edward's
campus April 3 to accept the Quest
Medal. Her schedule in Austin included
a news conference, a luncheon given by
wives of St. Edward's trustees of Austin,
a supper hosted by Brother Stephen
Walsh, and a reception following the
evening convocation at which she spoke.
"The Quest Medal exhibits a galleon
in full sail, moving into regions uncharted
and unknown," Brother Stephen ex-
plained in introductory remarks at the
convocation. "Yours was not the first ven-
ture into the area of television and the
pre-school child," he said to Mrs. Cooney,
"but it was the first that carried with
it the element of effective surprise which
characterizes the truly creative act. More-
over, "Sesame Street" has achieved a
standard of excellence not only in chil-
dren's programming but for the entire
medium as well."
Mrs. Cooney's address follows:
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St. Edward's University Newsletter (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 2, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 1, 1973, periodical, April 1, 1973; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1528636/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting St. Edward’s University.