Effective Telephone Communication for Schoolkids, 1940s
Created | Updated Nov 5, 2017
A few weeks ago, SashaQ reviewed Techniques of Effective Telephone Communication, a 1989 work that explored the uses of the telephone in the pre-mobile days. This inspired my purchase of the following volume from an antiquarian in town. The cost of the experiment was $5.
Effective Telephone Communication for Schoolkids, 1940s
The Telephone and How We Use It
Bell Telephone System
With the assistance of the Audio-Visual Materials Consultation Bureau
College of Education, Wayne University
N.d., but the dealer's note says 'before 1950'.
SashaQ's musings on telephone etiquette made me think about the conundra of polite distance voice communication, from the first 'Ahoy-hoy' to the vagaries of emoji texting and butt-dialing. So when I stumbled across this slim volume, misplaced in a box of ancient sheet music, I jumped at the chance for more primary research. Here's what I found in The Telephone and How We Use It, a 24-page booklet designed to teach elementary school children how to master this cutting-edge technology.
The book is profusely illustrated in the classic 'smiling kids' style – think 'Highlights for Children' – and contains a useful set of Suggested Activities intended to deepen the learning experience. The stamp on the cover indicates that my copy originally belonged to Redbank Valley High School, although all the kids in the pictures are about ten years old. I don't know what a seventeen-year-old would have made of it, even in 1945.
Explaining Difficult Technology
The Telephone and How We Use It starts with the technology. 'Kinds of Telephones': Hand, Wall, Stand, and Coin. 'In some places, the telephones have dials. In other places, the telephones do not have dials.' Hey! This is actually useful! How many of you can remember rotary dials? The parts of the telephone are labelled. Did you know the little hook at one end of the dial was called a 'finger stop'? I grew up with these telephones, and I didn't know that. (My school obviously never got this book.) Wow.
Kids are shown how to hold the receiver. There are pictures. It says, 'You do not have to shout. Speak as though the other person were in the room.' Someone should have told my grandmother that, seriously.
There's a diagram of a telephone dial, with an explanation of how to use that all-important finger stop. There's a set of instructions for using telephones without dials. You will notice that I avoid the use of the word 'phone'. That's because such low, vulgar slang does not sully the pages of this work. (I'll bet they never talked about 'planes, either, even with that qualifying apostrophe.)
And now, a word about gender issues.
Gender Politics, 1890-1950
All of the telephone operators in this booklet are shown as (friendly, professional) women, and referred to as 'she'. This was because Bell only hired women as telephone operators. Yes, this was on purpose. In the 1890s, when telephone operators first came into existence, the company tried using teenage boys as operators, the way other offices started their apprentices in simpler jobs before letting them work their way up in the organisation. The teenage boys were a disaster: customers complained that the telephone operators were rude. (Who would have guessed?) So Bell hired women instead. Result? Satisfied customers, and women with lucrative jobs and more status. A win/win for capitalism and social progress, and the story behind the hit song of 1901, 'Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven'. If that little girl had tried to call her dead mama in heaven, and got a snarky fourteen-year-old boy on the line, the jig would have been up.
I might as well mention the other gender issue: pronouns. This Bell Telephone book avoids gender pronoun issues entirely by using 'You'.
You will then hear the brrr-brrr- sounds. When Jane answers her telephone you can start talking with her.
Both boys and girls are included in the examples, along with situations that would make sense to a child.
Social Issues
Life was slower in the 1940s, you can tell. The book suggests you let the telephone ring for about a minute, because people might be doing something other than sitting by the telephone. It also explains how to use a telephone book – print version – and how to get information over the telephone. Dial 'O' for Operator, of course.
The all-important issue of Telephone Manners is discussed at length. One wishes that this section were still studied in school. How many wrong numbers have you answered, politely, with 'I'm sorry, you have the wrong number,' only to hear an abrupt click, possibly preceded by cursing, as the offended party hangs up? (And probably calls you again immediately.) The same thing happens if you call a wrong number by mistake. I'm sorry, but I can tell the age of the other person on the line by this behaviour. Very elderly people definitely follow the book's advice to 'Be polite if someone calls your number by mistake.' Good advice then as now.
Next comes a blast from the past: party lines. Yes, children, in the Dark Ages people sometimes shared telephone lines. And it didn't turn into a reality show.
A good neighbor hangs up quietly right away when he picks up the telephone and hears someone else on the line talking.
A good neighbor also hangs up promptly when someone else on the line needs to make a call.
Kids Learning About Telephones
The booklet ends with educationally approved Suggested Activities. Exercises such as alphabetising a phone list or practicing making calls are obviously useful. Even more useful is the one that has the kids making a list of personally important numbers, like 'Your father's place of work,' (yep, sign of the times), 'Your family dentist', or the Police Department. There was no 999/911 in the Dark Ages, kids: you had to know the Police Department's number, or dial 'O' for Operator.
The last activity is my favourite: 'Write a playlet on using the telephone correctly. Act out your play with the help of your classmates.'
Was it just my classes, or is this activity an invitation to an Ionesco parody?
There's a handy page in the back for a telephone list. A student has written three names on it, but only two numbers. I really hope she found Helene Henderson's number before it was too late to invite her to the party.
