Distance learning is nothing new, as shown by these New York high school students 100 years ago, pictured in the July 1923 issue of Popular Science. While the magazine identifies the school as “Haarken High School” in New York, this is almost certainly a typo, and it should read Haaren High School, as confirmed by this site and others reporting the same accomplishment.

This is the accountancy class at Haaren, and the students are listening to a series of accountancy problems broadcast by WJZ in Newark, NJ (now WABC New York). A receiver and loudspeaker had been installed, and the students are seated at their adding machines. Problems were read slowly and distinctly, and the correct answers were read a few minutes later. “The general correctness of the classroom work was testimony of the clearness with which radio waves carried.”

Witnessing the successful demonstration are officials of the city Board of Education, as well as more than 25 principals of city high schools.

The students shown here are now almost 100 years old, but 85 years ago, they were learning about the atmosphere in science class. These students, Marian Oakley, Henry Kehrer, Hannah Esterman, and Bruce Kunkel, were receiving instruction in person from science specialist Harry A. Carpenter, but hundreds of other students were taking part in the same class by radio, on station WHAM.

For several years, the Rochester, NY, schools had been conducting this sort of distance learning via radio. Afternoons, radios would be switched on in classrooms both in and outside of Rochester, and students would get their lectures by radio. Lessons could include well known guest speakers, music programs featuring the Rochester Civic Orchestra, and programs on books presented by the Rochester Public Library. The photo shown here appeared in the February 1938 issue of Rural Radio, and the students shown here attended Frank Fowler Dow School No. 52.

They didn’t have Zoom classes 60 years ago, but when a polio outbreak struck Nunda, NY, in 1962, the high school tapped the ingenuity of local hams and CB’ers to come up with a method of distance learning.

Several students came down with the disease and were confined to their homes. Initially, they had to discontinue their studies, but the school bought a number of CB radios. Hy-Gain antennas were placed on the school roof, with coaxial cables running to classrooms. The school purchased Johnson transceivers, and volunteer students carried the radios from class to class and plugged the radio into the coax outlet in each room. The teacher was then able to transmit lectures to students at home.

Individual homes had smaller mobile-style whip antennas installed hooked up to transceivers there. When homebound students were called upon, it was a simple matter of pressing the push-to-talk button.

The pictures here appeared in the November 1962 issue of Electronics Illustrated, which pointed out that so far, seven students had received their schooling at home via CB. The teacher shown above was discussing the lesson with a student after class. The magazine confirmed that call letters were always given as required.

The December 1970 issue of Popular Electronics provides some good advice to anyone seeking to learn about any subject. They were talking about electronics, but the same general advice applies to any field.

The magazine began by noting that money spent on a formal education is a generally wise investment. But in many cases, the student might not want to commit to a formal education. Among other things, formal education normally costs money.

But even though it has built-in disadvantages, a course of informal “go-it-alone” self study can provide a firm understanding, at a minimal investment. In 1970, the monetary investment came to $18.55. But in the internet age, that cost is essentially zero.

The magazine warned of simply buying a book and hoping that it would provide the correct study material, since it might not provide a broad enough scope. But the magazine noted that there were inexpensive books that were well designed for the purpose, namely, training manuals used by the military, and for sale at a nominal cost by the Government Printing Office. It went on to list those books recommended for a basic course in electronics, and the total cost was only $18.55.

Today, most of those same books are available at no cost on the internet. Specifically, here they are, with links to Google Books or other sources:

• AF-101-8 Fundamentals Of Electronics
• TM-11-661 Electrical Fundamentals (D.C.) 
• TM-11-662 Basic Theory And Application of Electron Tubes
• TM-11-664 Theory And Use of Electronic Test Equipment
• TM-11-665 C-W and AM Radio Transmitters and Receivers
• TM-11-684 Principles And Applications Of Mathematics For Communications -Electronics
• TM-11-690 Basic Theory And Application Of Transistors
• TM-11-4000 Troubleshooting And Repair Of Radio Equipment

Of course, these texts are all now more than a half century old. But the basic theory is unchanged, and that course of study would provide an excellent background, even though the student might learn a bit of archaic material in the process. With minimal research, the interested student could update the course materials and include modern texts in electronics–or modern texts in any other subjects.

Today, it is quite possible to get a good university education and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. If you do this, two things will happen. First, you will presumably become a smarter person, because you have learned the material that was taught. And you will also get a handsome piece of paper from a prestigious institution attesting to the fact that you have learned the material. That piece of paper is very good to have. Indeed, if you want to do some things, such as perform surgery, then having that piece of paper is absolutely required.

But you can gain all of the knowledge without the piece of paper. Even though I have an advanced degree, I’ve come to the conclusion that for many, the piece of paper isn’t particularly valuable, even though the knowledge is.

If you pay tuition at a university, you will take courses, and during those courses, you will be given a list of books to read, and you will attend lectures explaining those texts. The books have always been available for purchase, or you can read them at the library. And in many cases, the lecture is available online for anyone to view, whether or not they have paid tuition.

If you pay tuition, you also have the privilege of showing up at the professor’s office hours and asking questions. But in my experience, students never do that.

In short, my advice to many students is that perhaps paying tuition isn’t really in your best interest any more. You can gain the knowledge for free. At that point, you’ll need to figure out a substitute for the piece of paper attesting to your knowledge.

In 1970, one suggestion that Popular Electronics made was to obtain your FCC Radiotelephone License, preferably the prestigious first class license. That option is still available, although it’s less prestigious, and the license is now called the General Radiotelphone Operator License (GROL). In fact, I’m the author of a study guide to earn that license.

The GROL is still the ticket to a handful of jobs in electronics, but in many cases, it’s unknown to employers. But there are probably other methods of proving your bona fides. And before long, other people like me, who have advanced degrees and a stake in higher education, are also going to start coming to the realization that maybe that fancy piece of paper is overpriced. And eventually, someone is going to come up with a less expensive alternative piece of paper. In many industries, that piece of paper probably already exists.

In short, my advice is to consider whether self-study might work for you.  If done right, you can learn almost as much, or as much, as students undergoing formal education.  And if you’re smart enough to do that, perhaps you are also smart enough to figure out a way to prove it, even without that handsome, but expensive, piece of paper.

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