Childhood Commonwealth on Film

It is with much pleasure that I greet you,

the representatives from the parliaments of all the lands within

our Commonwealth family of nations which enjoy responsible government.

It has different ties of race, faith, language and finance,

and yet the Commonwealth is there.

It cannot be stated exactly but it lives and works.

Well, it should mean the relations between everybody

of sharing and giving and taking.

We do all we can to strengthen our ties with the Commonwealth

countries because we believe that the Commonwealth has a decisive role

to play in the cause of peace in the world.

-Where did you get those freckles from?

-I'm from Buronga.

That's miles away from here.

WHISTLE BLOWS

THEY CHEER

Time to go to school. And this is Canada's most unusual school bus.

When the seagoing school bus first made its appearance in 1947,

it was quite a novelty.

Now it's just routine.

In this school district

transportation has always been a big problem,

with 120 pupils scattered thinly over 1,400 square miles

of jagged coasts and little islands.

Most are fishermen's children

and the waters that provide their fathers' livelihood

also add to the difficulties of getting an education.

Without the Romany and four other sea buses, it would be harder still.

But despite it all, the teachers say that hardly anybody plays hooky in

this rugged part of British Columbia where the school bus is a boat.

Joseph Chepkwony is 13 and he lives in Kenya.

Just as a Welsh schoolboy may dream of being a rugby international,

a black American another Muhammad Ali,

so Joseph emulates his country's great runners.

It's an interesting fact but it's extraordinary

that over half of Kenyan's established athletes

still come from two particular tribes.

Staggering, at least, until you remember

that as for so many others,

his school is four miles from the family shamba, or farm,

and the quickest way is across the fields.

Running free with good air, plenty of sun and time on your own

is not a bad childhood for an aspiring athlete.

The continent of India lies to the southwest of China...

..and to the south of Russia.

Calcutta. Early morning.

In Calcutta's streets, they find nothing strange in gathering

round their teachers on the pavement with their slates.

There's nowhere else to go.

Many of them have no homes anyway.

What is the good of going to school?

The good of going to school, sir,

if you go to school we go to the straight line.

If we doesn't go to school, we've got a crooked line, sir.

What do you mean by that?

That means by if you go to school, we be the good and gentleman,

gentleman and good and kind boy.

And if we don't go to school, sir, it means we will disobedient boy,

naughty boy, dirty, filthy boy, loafers of the roads.

So, my mother and father says that's the time to pull up your socks

and if the socks goes down, there's no more chance

-to pull up your socks.

-What do they mean by that?

Sir, mean by that this is your chance,

this is a chance to learn and learn.

For over 30 years, the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe

has been at the forefront of African literature.

Achebe's early novels, which redefine a Nigerian

and an African identity, are a part of every Nigerian child's education,

even though his later works are often critical of the modern state.

# Arise, o compatriots

# Nigeria's call obey

# To serve our fatherland

# With love and strength and faith

# The labour of our heroes past... #

Arrow Of God is the story of the chief priest, Ezeulu.

Ezeulu wins the respect of the white administrators

when he takes a reasonable stance in a land dispute

that threatens to bring his people into conflict

with the nearby town of Okperi.

-People still scramble for land, isn't that so?

-ALL: It is.

-It is.

And in this chapter, chapter two of The Arrow Of God,

we are going to see how the people tried to settle their problem

of land dispute between them and their neighbouring town, Okperi.

"Let everyone return to his house if you have no heart in the fight.

"We shall not be the first people who abandoned their farmland

"or even their homestead to avoid war.

"But let us not tell ourselves or our children that we did it

"because the land belonged to other people."

SHE RECITES

Some trains carry people, some carry freight.

But this one, of all things, carries book learning.

It has only two permanent passengers -

the teacher and his wife -

and it's their home all through the school season.

For this is the little red schoolhouse on wheels.

At Nicholson in northern Ontario,

youngsters tramp across miles of snow-covered fields

to attend the mobile classroom.

They are the sons and daughters of railroaders, woodsmen,

trappers - men whose work takes them

to places where there just aren't any regular schools.

So, school comes to the children

in the form of a specially converted railroad car.

Are you ready to read to me today? Over.

What page would you like? Over.

Will you read to me from the picnic page?

Just start the story and read the first four lines. Over.

"Everybody," said Tom, "I have a...splendid plan.

"Why not have a picnic...next week?"

The school reaches about 50 children scattered over

an area as large as Britain.

I asked Gary's mother how her children

compared to those of normal schools.

Well, they seem to be streets ahead of the schoolchildren.

I think it is because they're an individual

-and they're taught just...

-Just for themselves.

Just for themselves.

Whereas a teacher in town has 30 or 40 children

and they can't give them that same attention, can they?

Tall oaks from little acorns grow.

This saying may well be applied to human beings

as they develop from infants to adults.

The best possible form of education is provided

and the courses are broadened

to include subjects like woodwork,

metalwork.

Students learn to make useful household articles.

Agriculture is an important part of the course.

Pupils are taught to understand the problems of farming,

and arithmetic.

This subject is often introduced to pupils in projects

like playing shop, which give them opportunities for learning

the value and use of money, as well as developing habits of courtesy.

In 1954, Anthony Burgess travelled to the Far East

to take a job as a housemaster in a Malayan private school.

It was accident rather than design that took him there -

when he first applied to the post

he thought it was in the Channel Islands.

He was 37 years old, a badly paid teacher who had written

two unpublished novels but still thought of himself as a composer.

Malaya changed him.

This is the place where I taught,

the Malay College in the town of Kuala Kangsar.

It was founded in 1905 as a kind of British public school

for the sons of Malay sultans and rajas and chiefs.

The Eton of the East, it was called.

Residential with a house system, a school uniform and a Latin motto.

Instruction in English, of course. Cricket, rugby football, hockey.

House loyalty, lifelong devotion to the alma mater.

HE RECITES A PRAYER

The Malay people were against it at first,

fearing infidel contamination of the Muslim faith.

The sultans and the rajas were for it -

if the Malay aristocracy could not learn to marry their native culture

to the bigger culture of the West,

they'd never see Malaya rise into the ranks of the nations.

There had to be bigger horizons than those of the river and the jungle

and so they were sent here, the young aristocrats of Singapore,

Penang, Malacca, Selangor, Kelantan, Trengganu, Negri Sembilan

and all the other states, to be stuffed with British learning

but to keep their Muslim faith intact.

Soon the college was democratised.

The son of a paddy planter or fisherman or village medicine man

was welcome, so long as he was bright and earnest enough.

The college still flourishes but the British who built it have gone.

When the children walked into the room that day,

they had no idea that we, the camera crew,

had set up our equipment in their class.

We wanted to see how they'd react to this new experience.

That's how children learn in a kindergarten - through experience.

What do you see that you didn't see before? Anything?

At first the children seemed shy

and didn't quite know what to make of the new situation.

Come on in now and meet these people.

First of all, this gentleman here is Mr Spartan.

Say good afternoon to him, will you? ALL: Good afternoon, Mr Spartan.

THEY GIGGLE

PIANO MUSIC PAYS

BELL RINGS

Good afternoon, girls and boys. ALL: Good afternoon, Mrs Giles.

Has anyone any news they'd like to tell today?

-Meryl.

-Once, in our building, there was two boys,

they got stuck in the elevator

and then they had to wait there for six hours.

-Did they? That would be a long time.

-They couldn't even breathe.

They have to keep their breath.

What did they do if they couldn't breathe?

We have to breathe all the time. Larry?

In the newspaper, two boys were playing tag on the road

and they got killed and died.

-They did.

-They're not alive now, they're dead.

I guess that'll be a lesson to all of us not to do that. ALL: Yes.

The governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks,

gets a warm welcome from officials and children at the opening

of the Lord Mayor's country children's holiday camp at Portsea.

Many of the children come from areas where

there may be dietary deficiency and this is soon remedied.

Well-balanced diets and plenty of good, rich, simple food

build up the youngsters in their 12-day visit to the seaside.

Three square meals help the day go round.

And in the schools throughout Hong Kong,

children enjoy equally loving care and attention.

No shortage of food for them.

They're sure enough of their next meal to ask for more at this.

Children everywhere are growing up in more enlightened world.

Nourishing milk for the children of India

is one of the fruits of today.

Today, when science goes hand-in-hand with everyday life.

The Selangor Children's Home shelters children who are homeless.

Some are orphans, some were abandoned by their parents,

some were born in the jungle

and then left by the terrorists by the roadside

and some are here whose parents cannot provide for them

because of sickness or poverty.

For almost every person that dies in India, three babies are born.

At the moment the population is increasing

at the rate of 12 million a year.

12 million extra mouths to feed in a country

which can barely support the 520 million she has already.

-How are you?

-Dudley Gardiner is 58, a retired British Army major

who has given both his pension and his life to helping others.

With the help of the Salvation Army, Oxfam and a Canadian charity,

he personally feeds 2,000 people a day, every day.

They might not be fed at all if he didn't.

What is your baby's name? HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

Oh. There we are.

Now, you see, the trouble with these little babies are

that they're so very, very small when they're born.

They're strong enough but they are so very, very small.

-Look, look, look, look.

-Do many of them suffer from malnutrition?

They do, when they are very, very young but if they survive

until they're 12 months old then they develop into bouncers.

Get out the way, please. Mind, mind, mind, mind.

A great pioneer movement, the Far West Homes

brings hundreds of children from the distant inland to the sea.

It's their first sight, too, of a big city,

-and this is what they think of it.

-Hello, kids, how are you?

-Where do you come from?

-Morwell.

-Where's that? Far away?

The other side of Navarro.

How do you like the big city, seeing it for the first time?

Pretty good sort of place.

-Is it like it is way back where you come from?

-No.

-How do you mean?

-How is it different?

-Well, here, you see,

-when you want to go anywhere you have to get all dressed up.

-Yes.

Up home that's more you just have to put a shirt on,

-a pair of shorts and wash your feet and go wherever you want to.

-I see.

-Once you've watched your feet you're off, hey?

-Yes.

-Where did you get those freckles from?

-I'm from Buronga.

-That's miles away from here.

-You're a long way from home, aren't you?

-Yes.

-Would you rather live up there at Buronga or down here in Sydney?

-In Buronga.

-Why do you say that?

-It's too noisy up here.

Would any of you like to invite me to your house in the country sometime?

ALL: Yeah!

I'll remember that! Goodbye, kids. See you again.

Sunrise in Port-of-Spain on Sunday morning.

Half an hour later, people are on their way to church.

Two out of three Trinidadians are Christians

and more than half of these are Catholics.

Whenever you see these flags you can be certain

you are by a Hindu temple,

for many Trinidadians who came originally from India

still keep the Hindu faith.

It's a Hindu Sunday school and the service has started.

THEY SING

They haven't had their breakfast and the smaller ones are still sleepy.

Nearly everybody in Trinidad goes to church except the youngest ones.

When you have been to church you can play,

get out your roller-skates or perhaps go to a party.

# I thought I saw my pussycat... #

That's Auntie Kay of Trinidad Radio's Children's Hour.

The party is in her back garden.

# Just as I was making sure there came a young lady... #

In Trinidad, we love to dance and sing

and the children are dancing to a popular calypso.

# It's my birthday

# She says, it's my birthday

# She says, it's my birthday... #

HE WHISTLES

That's Carlene. Her mother is Portuguese, her father is Chinese.

That's Elizabeth. She is partly Negro, Portuguese and Spanish.

One more time. # It's my birthday. #

And young Ian. He is pure Negro.

In fact, at any Trinidad party you can find children

of half a dozen races enjoying themselves.

When Australia's 4,000 city schools close for the day,

or the week, or the year, what becomes of their 700,000 pupils?

There's two-way traffic on the speedway, any side you like.

Skipping doesn't even slow the party down,

or the skippers for that matter.

Few big cities have playing space enough for all the children so they

make their own and if the street's on a slope, you move the faster.

Not so many years ago, wooden swords

and heroes in armour were the fashion.

Nowadays it's the cowboy suit and the six shooter

which open the door to adventure.

We're ambushed! Make for that rock! Let them have it!

GUNSHOTS SOUND

-AS COWBOY:

-Jammed again!

Whoa there, Silver!

It's all in fun.

But on the streets it can be dangerous fun

for even the sharpest youngster, as any hospital will tell you.

Small children in the company of adults

should be placed in the more protected position, on the inside,

as there is a tendency for young children

to wander into the middle of the road.

Teachers are as concerned over the safety of the children

placed under their care as our parents

and every opportunity is taken

to impress the importance of road safety.

Stepping out from behind a parked vehicle without first making

quite sure it is safe to do so can be extremely dangerous.

These two lads decided to play it safe.

But is it ever safe to play on the street?

It's unsportsmanlike and very dangerous, too.

To you as well as to passers-by.

Apart from the inconvenience of having to stop

so often for passing traffic, it is not considerate to other road users.

It is better for everybody if you take your game off the road

to the safety of your own back yard, to the community playing field

or park, where there is enough space for games of every sort.

City baths are crowded throughout the long Australian summers

and learning to swim well is an essential part

of the general high spirits.

Sound training does nothing to lessen the fun or the keenness.

Classes for the deaf, the dumb and blind

have for many years been the special care

and pride of stout-hearted volunteers

who have given many of these young people the freedom of the water.

Though they are skilled in lip-reading,

fingers are still used sometimes to help one another with the lessons.

Once in the water,

disabilities are forgotten in the sheer joy of the moment.

By a roadside temple in India, the old man, Chan,

passes on his skills as an entertainer.

He teaches his nephew, Mustafa Rafiq,

have to mesmerise an audience with the simplest of means.

In India, we have countless thousand

performers like Chan and Mustafa Rafiq.

They travel from village to village, sometimes invited

but mostly arriving by chance, hoping that they will be welcome.

Almost always they are.

These are the people who turn every village square

into a living theatre.

HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

THEY LAUGH

The last official act of the day

is when the teacher reads them one of their favourite stories.

"And the bunny woke up and was never alone again."

-BELL RINGS

-Look at the time.

-Do you think we should go home?

-MANY: Yes.

Miss Sharp, you know what?

My sister, you know what she has? A beautiful riving...

-a living room. Beautiful.

-Is it?

And she didn't have no television but now she has one.

Why is her living room beautiful? What makes it beautiful?

-Well, almost everything, almost.

-Really?

What colours has she in her living room?

I think kind of yellow.

-Do you like that colour?

-Yeah.

-I do, too. Bye, darling.

-Goodbye.

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Goodbye, Dawn. Goodbye.

If you'd like to learn more and trace the progress

of the English language across the Commonwealth

through an interactive timeline, go to...

..and follow the link to the Open University.