The adults of Kibera are working hard to offer kids a safe and stimulating…
Early Life - My First Day at School
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- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Thailand's Festival of Water: Songkran. A chance for adults to behave like kids. And for some kids a last chance to misbehave before the first day of school. The third program in the Early Life series follows three children preparing to enter primary school in Chiang Mai, Thailand. But are their lives already set on different courses? Scientists suggest that how the brain develops in the first years of life may affect a child's ability to prosper at school.
Sita is looking forward to her first day, Best is wary, and Tha Na Korn doesn't even have a school to go to yet. Their dilemmas reflect those of Thailand as a whole: how should a country with its own traditions of childhood prepare their kids for a new, globalized society? Thailand is now developing an education policy to meet the needs of a globalized economy.
Child rights might have guaranteed Tha Na Korn local schooling. But many experts who say culture should guide early child development don't like talk of 'child rights'. They say it could lead to the West imposing its own views of childhood on the world.
Can Thailand achieve child rights without sacrificing its culture? Child rights will mean more kids like Tha Na Korn go to school. But Tha's school has a different language and culture. He could become 'unrecognizable to his parents.' Child rights and respect for culture need to be combined.
'This important series translates our growing understanding of the vital role of early experience in laying the foundation for life-long learning for children growing up in poor communities around the world. It shows how despite poverty, we can combat the effects of deprivation on development and help young children thrive by promoting cost effective and humane early stimulation, attachment, and learning experiences. In this time of increasing globalization, these films bring students of child development and early education into the global community by expanding their vision of the power of child development in promoting the wellbeing of all children. An invaluable resource for programs that aim to integrate an appreciation of cultural diversity and economic and social justice into their courses.' Dr. Diane E. Levin, Professor of Education, Wheelock College, Author, Teaching Young Children in Violent Times
'This behind-the-scenes look at three Thai children as they enter formal schooling highlights the critical elements of school readiness and improving the quality of life for young children. This examination of education policy in Thailand raises questions of the role of culture and child rights in preparing children for school. This is a brilliant means to spark discussion that broadens our notions about the early years, parenting and equitable access to educational opportunities.' Mary Jane Eisenhauer, Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education, Purdue University North Central
'Appropriate for discussions of the social and emotional development of young children through pre-school activities, stimulation, and communication. Recommended for collections in child psychology and child development.' Carolyn Walden, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Educational Media Reviews Online
Citation
Main credits
Shrestha, Subina (Director)
Shrestha, Subina (Cinematographer)
Bradshaw, Steve (Narrator)
Other credits
Music, Audio Network; translators, Santia Saptim, Mee Kramer, Annie Watsena; camera, Dave Berliner ... [et al.]; editors, Peter Barker, Alex Gabbay.
Distributor subjects
Anthropology; Asian Studies; At-risk Youth; Child Development; Developing World; Economics; Education; Ethics; Geography; Globalization; Philosophy; Psychology; Social Psychology; SociologyKeywords
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[music]
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[music]
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Kids out of control, running riots on
the streets, a Hollywood nightmare.
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No, it’s Thailand’s festival of water.
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A chance for adults to behave
like kids and for some kids
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a last chance to misbehave
before the first day of school
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when anything could happen.
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Sita is a wonderful child.
She… has an imagination
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that rivals, great authors and that she is…
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she can just sit in a room and
think of million things to do.
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I don’t worry that Best might get
beaten up at school. It’s more likely,
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the best will beat someone up at school.
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I worry that my son might drown.
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An old lady drowned in the river.
We follow three Thai kids
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as they prepare for the big day. How
do we give children the best start?
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In Chiang Mai, Sita is playing
Songkran with the grown ups.
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Children’s behavior can
be dictated by biology
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and by culture. Today culture
says, it’s okay to misbehave.
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Sita had a multicultural upbringing.
Her mom is a westerner.
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My mom’s sometimes say, \"I’m naughty.\"
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Today, we won’t be naughty
because Songkran day.
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Sita went to a private
multi-lingual nursery.
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She’s well prepared for school.
She actually started nursery
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when she was just uh…
about one… ten months.
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Yeah, because she was actually asking to go to school,
she was like, \"when am I gonna go to school?\"
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No worries for Sita. Will see.
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Bye-bye I’m going to watch video.
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And best, everyone is awaiting his
first day at school with concern.
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Get up. For a start, he likes a lion.
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Get up. Best’s mother, Chan Lem
helps run a language school,
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but her toughest job can be
managing Best. Get down.
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He shouts a lot. He can be
very naughty, very cheeky.
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But, not for long.
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Songkran is a chance to see what
Best will be like at school.
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We’ll see if Best can
cope without a bust up.
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In the village of Madua, in the hills above
Chaing Mai, every day is like Songkran.
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Not much to do for Tha Na Korn
and his friends, but play.
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For most tribal families, schooling
is still a new experience.
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That’s more, Tha Na Korn
speaks Lisu not Thai.
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Still he does have global size dreams.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
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I want to be an airplane captain. Tha
Na Korn’s parents are poor farmers.
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There is no first grade
in our village school.
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So we’ll just have to send
him to the nearest school.
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But, the nearest school is far away. They don’t
have a car and can’t walk their son to school
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because they’re working.
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Here the road is not easy to walk
for a small child. In the monsoon,
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it is slippery and dangerous.
In a big rain,
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the roads flood.
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Will Tha Na Korn even make it to school?
For all three kids
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the first day at school is
going to be a ride of passage.
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Uh… When children walk into a classroom,
there’s a certain set of expectations.
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The teachers uh… have about these children
are able to do when they walk in the door.
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If children don’t have that, they’re
not gonna succeed initially at school.
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If we can prepare more children
to make that transition,
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their education uh… will start off much more
smoothly and they’ll, they may have fewer problems
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down the line. But, how to prepare
kids for this crucial transition?
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All three have already been through
some of their most formative years.
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Brain Science shows the first
years are vital for emotional
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and social development and influential
for academic schools too.
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But, most research is done in America in the
West. So, how relevant is Western science
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to countries with different cultures.
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I think it a, an interesting question to ask,
whether the work we’re doing with American children
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would generalize to children throughout the world? And I think
my brief answer to that is, it would. Many of the questions that
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we for example address, our culture free.
Some however might be
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uh… not so culture free and then we have
to be very careful about rank conclusions.
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An example of a culture free perspective would
be face processing. All primates depend heavily
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on processing information in faces. And therefore,
I don’t think we have too much of a concern
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that a three year old in the United States versus a three
year old in Germany versus a three year old in Brazil,
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processes face is very differently from one another.
As you get older, that can change dramatically.
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And that’s where culture can play a big
impact. Culture affects how kids see us.
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And culture has long defined
how we see children?
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Take six month old Erin, western
philosophers could see him very differently.
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A romantic innocent says, John (inaudible).
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A wild thing, that’s Thomas Hobbes, John
Locke, he’d say, Erin’s a blank canvas.
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Emmanuel Kant, a rational
creature awaiting tuition.
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And these are just for western
thinkers views of childhood.
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Many African thinkers have different ideas.
Some even question that Western stress
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on transition to school.
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I do think the emphasis on how any child who prepared
children for school is probably misplaced in a sense.
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Umm… I think helping children
to develop healthily
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and in all direction is an uh, is…
is an important end in itself.
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Now once that happens,
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it’s natural that their transition to school,
it becomes easier. So from my perspective,
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it’s not so much getting them ready for school as
build in them in terms of their overall development.
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Umm… build in them in a sense
that if you, a sense of joy
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and the connectedness, you know, true
to their families, their communities,
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uh… those kinds of things that do not get emphasis
are thrown in a former early childhood programs
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are very… very critical. So how should
Thailand prepare kids for school?
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Thailand is now developing an
education policy to meet the needs
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of a globalized economy.
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For a country to umm… attempt to create a new system of regular
childhood education built on ideas brought from abroad.
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It’s challenging, but it’s also exciting.
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Thailand wants to avoid the downside
that in the process of adapting
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uh, new ideas about education.
They lose their cultural soul,
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the children end up becoming
unrecognizable to… to their parents.
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Thailand has its own traditions of
schooling including in the temple.
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But in today’s globalized world, it can also
look abroad for models of best practice
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to America maybe China or
Japan, but it’s not so easy
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as a famous experiment showed.
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In the ‘80s, a team led by the University of Arizona
Joseph Tobin filmed a three model preschools
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from America, China, and Japan.
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They then played all the tapes to all the other
countries teachers. But, all the teachers
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disliked the other countries models.
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The American and Chinese viewers of
the Japanese video were… were shocked
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by many of the things they saw on video of
it, of a typical day in a Chinese preschool.
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People expected the children to be well behaved
and orderly, but it’s just the opposite
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in the video we made and I think it’s true of
many Japanese preschools, but looks like chaos.
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In less, it actually gets physically dangerous.
There’s a belief you should keep us constrained
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the temptation to jump in and intervene
and instead give children an opportunity
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to handle their own
problems and disagreements.
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The Japanese encouraging kids to behave
by peer pressure. Not harsh discipline.
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We showed the tapes to Best’s dad
to see what he would choose.
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After three years of preschool,
his son’s still a handful.
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Best, your old school, what did you learn?
What did they teach you.
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I don’t know. I’ve forgotten.
I’ve forgotten.
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It’s gone already. Do you like school.
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I don’t like. Why? I don’t want to learn.
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Of these preschools,
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I like the Japanese preschools. It’s not like
what we have around here. We should adapt
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to the Thai system. But,
what about the American way?
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Lamorna has sent Sita to a preschool that’s
given her a flavor of the globalized world.
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I have friends
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that they are from Korea, you know and
they can speak Korean, Thai, English.
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That’s so much fun.
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Lamorna once committed teachers who
balance social and individual values.
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That was the aim of the American preschool.
You want your child to be able to grow up
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into society and to be a part of society.
So she needs to learn to cooperate
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and to be working as a team
and all that, but yet again
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for her to umm… do well
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and be ahead of the rest, she
also has to be very individual
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and… and… and have the skills
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and imagination to take a… a step further.
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The American teacher intervened and
play encouraging individual enterprise.
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…you drew a lot. Let me see.
Look what Carla’s drew?
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Did you do this by yourself? But,
American best practice was disliked
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by the Japanese teachers who watched the
video. When I had Japanese teachers
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react to the American approach, they, one of
them said, \"Wow, it’s kind of heavy isn’t it?\"
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And another said, \"it looks kind of
like marriage counseling.\" …happy? Yes.
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Yes. Did you have a good time? The Japanese teachers
feel that uh… teachers in the U.S. are in a rush
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to get children to stop being children.
They value children being childlike
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which includes expressing themselves physically.
So it seems there is no universal best practice.
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Just different cultural preferences
for what kind of kids we want.
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And some go even further. I would,
would even want people to consider
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the possibility that the early childhood
environment actually become one vehicle
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through which we can promote
a child’s own culture.
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Well, I’ve used the example of myself. By the time I
went to school and went through my university education,
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I knew so much about the rest of the world. My
mindset was so certain other parts of the world,
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it what’s nice to be able to move from my
home country into North America and do well.
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Uh… But, I… I tend to see myself as
someone who through my formal education
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almost in a uh… was pushing through two roads,
neither of which, you know, I felt at home, yet.
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I think my biggest concern
is how we tend to exclude
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the contest in which we gonna develop and then we think
once we can get them the things they need to develop.
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It doesn’t matter where it comes from, I think
that is a flawed, a flawed perspective.
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So it seems culture should decide how
countries like Thailand raise kids,
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like Best, Sita and Tha Na Korn.
All agreed? Well, no.
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If our kids can argue,
(inaudible) from all the adults.
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In Chiang Mai, our three kids are almost ready for the
first day at school. A big day with lessons for them
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and as we’ll see for everyone else too.
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Best is still not ready.
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Let’s go, let’s buy it.
Buy it. Let’s buy it.
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I want this one. When it’s time to get
up, I worry that he might refuse,
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but when he meets his new
friends, he’ll be okay.
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Why don’t you like your new school?
It’s not fun.
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Why do you think it’s not fun? Have
you been studying there already?
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No. But, I… I did try it out in the summer.
And I know it’s not going to be fun.
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Why do you believe that it won’t be fun?
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Because there are no toys.
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And… oh dear,
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look what’s happened at Sita’s. I don’t
like school. Why don’t you like school?
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Because I don’t like school. I already told
you. Happily, the tantrum’s soon over.
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Yeah. So you want to go school now? Yeah?
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Tha Na Korn is staying
at his school already.
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It’s a boarding school run by Christian missionaries.
And it’s several hours away from home.
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Tha Na Korn’s case is illustrative of
the situation of hundreds of thousands,
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
if not millions of children around the
world who do not easily get access
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to this dream of universal education.
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Tha Na Korn’s parents have come to
make sure he’s ready for the big day.
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Tha Na Korn is overwhelmed to see them. He
won’t be seeing them again for a while.
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He took his father to see his room.
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Are you lonely here? Bored? Do you
sleep well? Do you miss Daddy?
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You don’t cry, but you miss me, right?
I bought some light cheese for you.
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Go get them, They’re in
the front of the bike.
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I hope well for my child.
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And I hope he studies well, but when
I’m back from work. I miss him.
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I feel sorry that my son is so far
that I have to leave him so far.
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But I hope it is all for the best.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
The plight of children like
Tha Na Korn has led many
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to believe in child rights. Child rights
are written into the UN Convention
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
on the rights of the child, signed by most
nations, they are not yet the USA in 1989.
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
A rights based approach really goes beyond
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
conventional images of doing good things for
children and making sure they develop properly
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by saying every individual child has an
entitled to be respected as an individual
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with rights to survival, development and
that governments along with parents
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and communities have an obligation
to meet that child’s rights.
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The UN who’s backed 156 cartoons
to promote the convention.
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They stress basic rights for all kids in
every culture like, the Right to Education
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and more controversially, the
Right to Self-Expression.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
In 2005, the UN made it clear
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children should be regarded
as rights holders from birth.
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
Child rights would certainly help Tha Na Korn. A decent
preschool only opened in his neighborhood last year
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when he did have the chance to learn,
his mother says, \"He took it.\"
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When he finished preschool here,
he remembered everything.
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
He knows his alphabet. But, what
if investing in Tha Na Korn
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doesn’t guarantee a good return? Well, Child
Rights would mean the arguments for helping kids
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don’t rest on what’s profitable.
Economical argument for child…
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
for early child development has gained
enormous strength and of course,
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
it’s very persuasive to governments because it’s about
how much money they might get back on their investment.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
And I’m not going to discount that as an
argument, but it cannot be the basic argument,
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
it cannot be the main argument. It doesn’t give
enough as emphasis on children in the here right now
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
on making sure they have quality experiences
that are right for them in the present.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
The main argument must be a human rights
argument. Child rights might have guaranteed
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
Tha Na Korn, local schooling. But, many
experts who say culture should guide
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
early child development, don’t
like talk of child rights.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
They say it could lead to the West imposing
its own views of childhood on the world.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
Do we really want all the children of the world
to… to be the same? Do we want them all to aspire
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
for to have the same thing? Do we want them all to act the
same way, to feel the same things, to believe the same things?
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
With that be the… a… a successful outcome
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
of the uh… spreading of, no, of the
rights of the children or of a one model
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
of early childhood education. And I’d say,
\"No. That shouldn’t be the… the goal.\"
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
I’m absolutely not advocating a
universal childhood. And Joseph Tobin
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
and many other people like Joseph Tobin are right
to emphasize that childhood is socially constructed
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
and culturally variable. There are different ways of bringing
up children, there are different values around children,
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
long may that last, but you can’t just say,
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
\"Childhood is cultural constructed
period.\" That’s not sufficient
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
because that’s not just relativity, that’s adversity
in children’s lives. There’s not just diversity,
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
there’s discrimination in children’s lives. There’s
a politics around the culture of childhood.
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
Some groups get more resources than others,
some get more opportunities than others
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
and we need to find a way of engaging
with that politics of cultural diversity,
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
not just with culture variability
and a human rights approach
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
achieves that in part at least.
Can Thailand achieve child rights
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
without sacrificing its culture? Child rights will
mean more kids like Tha Na Korn go to school,
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
but his school has a different
language and culture.
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
He could become unrecognizable
to his parents.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:05.000
Child rights and respect for
culture need to be combined.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
[music]
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
Best is late. He doesn’t even
have time for breakfast,
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
but at least no tantrums. Despite
her nerves the day before,
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
Sita is all too happy to go to school.
No running, no running.
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
Well, surprisingly Tha Na Korn
is looking a bit anxious.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
When the day ends,
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
time for a preliminary
verdict from their teaches.
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
Sita, I mean, she… she
can just sit in a room
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
and think a million things to do. She
is energetic, umm… she’s outspoken,
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
she’s a leader. Best is having
a problem with the transition
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
from home to school. His new primary teacher has
a quiet word with his old preschool teacher.
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Bests knowledge is okay.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
But, his behavior needs modification.
He keeps moaning
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
whenever his dad’s around.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
We have to know how the family behaves with him if
we are to help him develop. We need to talk to them
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
and then if we all have the same values. Otherwise,
Best will get confused with conflict in messages.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
Tha Na Korn is having his own struggle.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
The first day, Tha Na
Korn is not confident.
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
He can’t show what he knows. It
might also be because of language.
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
Everything is new for him. You have to keep
asking him. If he different to others,
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
he does not speak much. He is
not making friends either.
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
[non-English narration]
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
With their different backgrounds, our three
kids who got off to a different start.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
Pretty soon, as though skeptical of grand
claims say, they’ll probably all be okay.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Children develop around the
world in a variety of ways
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
and in most cultures, people
mature into reasonable citizens
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
or numbers of their culture, no matter,
matter how different their treatment
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
one culture from another is in
the first three years of life.
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
Our investigation into early childhood development
and its politics is covered full confidence.
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
We visited Peru, USA,
Turkey, Kenya and Thailand.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
We’ve seen how science is making new discoveries
about the importance of the early years.
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
But, while the millennium development
goals speak of child mortality,
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
nutrition, and universal primary
education, they don’t even mention
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
early childhood development.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
Governments ignore the early years of their peril. It’s a curious
thing that most people recognize just how, the important,
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
the importance of the early years are in
everyday life with their own children
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
and spent huge amounts of attention trying to get it
right during those precious years of the early years.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
But in policy terms, actually the early
years have always being neglected
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
and failing to look for effective ways
of improving children’s life prospects
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
and their quality of life now which
is that to human rights principle
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
is something that
governments cannot ignore.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Science is shown how early
inequality can set in.
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
It’s time to ask, are we overlooking
the chance to create a better future?
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:50.000
[sil.]
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:25.000
[sil.]
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 25 minutes
Date: 2009
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 9-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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