No.10: An Interesting Experiment

In the early 1960s, Tupelo and Lee County students began to experience what is now known as "distance learning." Today's distance learning is via the Internet. In our day, the innovation was "educational television." Channel 9 (WTWV, now known as WTVA) in Tupelo began broadcasting educational programming during the school day at the request of Tupelo school superintendent Charles Holliday. Some of the stars of educational television, Tupelo style, are pictured above. Left to right, they are: Senora Wilson, Betty Duvall, John Shelton, Terry Thornton, and Sarah Tate. You may remember another, Elizabeth Taylor, who taught a science class via educational television in the last stages of the educational television experiment. Some of us had her live and in person for ninth grade general science class at Milam. One day she wanted us to watch a recorded version of her television lesson where she sang: "The earth is like a great big grapefruit, 26,000 miles around. You could dig right through to China, if you could get through the ground." (If you want to charm your grandchildren with that little educational ditty, she sang it to the tune of Rueben, Rueben, I've Been Thinking.)