The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast January 14, 1989

     Have a pencil and paper ready for an address soon.
     Many radio amateurs are also schoolteachers.  One of them is Carole Perry, WB2MGP, of Staten Island, New York.  She was voted the radio amateur of the year by the national convention of radio amateurs two years ago for her outstanding work in using amateur radio to motivate and stimulate the students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes of the intermediate school in Staten Island, New York.
     The premise of her course is to stimulate interest in other areas of the school's curricula.  Social studies and geography are enhanced many fold through the use of amateur radio.  What can compare to a student actually contacting a citizen of a foreign country that he has been studying about?  The children are always excited when they are able to contact places they've only read about in a book.  Carole Perry said the school children were thrilled to hear a missionary, Father Mike, describe where he lived in Sierra Leone, a very small country in Africa.  One child immediately located Sierra Leone on the globe and another pulled a piece of string from Staten Island, New York to Sierra Leone on a big classroom wall map.  The human contact, she said, was incredible.  Father Mike is a missionary who described how lonely it could be in such desolate areas of the world.  He told them how amateur radio has helped to relieve this loneliness.  He's able to reach out to others for help and relay messages to his family back home.  This gave the children a terrific feel for the value of radio communications.
     Another time, their friend Brother Joe, who is a radio amateur in Vatican City, sent greetings to all of the school children in the class of the Staten Island public school.  The children also learn about handicapped radio amateurs and how the human spirit can persevere over all kinds of adversity.
     The amateur radio course was met with tremendous enthusiasm by the children.  Carole started with a pilot program eight years ago and now she is teaching ten classes a term for a total of approximately 350 students.  The course is called "Introduction to Amateur Radio."  She always encourages the children to study the Morse code and radio theory at home with a parent or sibling.  Carole has received many letters from parents over the years, thanking her for providing a curriculum that the whole family can get involved with, both as an activity for studying together and as a hobby.  One of them wrote, "My special thanks to Mrs. Perry for creating a program that brought my son and me closer together.  Studying and being tested together was fun; and we're now both in this fantastic hobby of amateur radio."
     If you would like to obtain more information, you can write to her at this address:  Carole Perry, P.O. Box 131646, Staten Island, NY 10313-0006.

January 14, 1989

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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