1988: Life Education Trust
August 27, 2019
By AHNZ
Life Education was an early Dignity Culture institution (1988) to help sew DC values into Millennial kids. From the start they had the typical DC agenda to be funded from the people rather than at the taxpayer’s expense.
That’s probably why they still survive today. Life Education works with rather than as the Department of State Education, and are part of the community rather than astroturfed in by Central Government. They get their money from community sponsors and their education curriculum gives Public Education a subsidy and Public Teachers a free break.
What I remember as a kid being inside this travelling classroom caravan was, of course, the mechanistic giraffe named Harold. An animatronic head lowered out of the wall on a boom to talk to the class. The travelling teacher/learning facilitator also showed us a video which stuck in my head ever since. There were little communistic kids spiralling around in a circle chanting “We are all the same” in a droning voice.
A core, or the core, of Life Education’s programme was to empower New Zealanders from a young age to not become substance abusers. The founders, especially Trevor Grice, thought the best way to achieve that was to promote DC values of individuality and independence and community attachment so that nobody would need to turn to drugs. I’d have to see that c.1989 video again to judge if it were propaganda or persuasion. I’ll ask them if they’ll share it¹.
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Image ref. Classic Kiwi; Facebook
1 Emailed them in April 2019 asking; Got no reply. Will try again now.
Hello again,
I’ve just created a post about your history and would also love to share with my audience some of the first Life Education materials you showed children.
(With approval, of course. Love your work.)
Can you put me in touch with the right people to be able to find this old content?
Thanks,
Rick
——– Original Message ——–
| Subject: | We are all the same |
|---|---|
| Date: | Tue, 23 Apr 2019 07:40:42 +1200 |
| From: | Rick Giles <> |
| To: | enquiries@lifeeducation.org.nz |
Hey there,
In about 1989 there was a video shown in the Life Caravan I’d like to watch again. Along the lines of how everyone is unique by contrast to a spiral of kids in an animation chanting “we are all the same.”
Do you still have access to this old tape? Love to watch it again.
Thanks,
Rick
—
Update:
Thanks for getting back to me and sorry to hear that. New Zealand history is the poorer for it.
Thanks,
Rick
On 29-Aug-19 12:17 PM, Hayley Sims wrote:
Thanks for getting in touch.
Unfortunately we’re not able to supply any of our classroom resources externally, they are only for use inside our mobile classrooms.
If you want to check out any of our videos to see what Life Education and Harold are up to these days we do have a Youtube channel you can check out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZnYIzrFi6y1QPTVSi_Y-hw
You can also find out about our programme and what we teach currently at: https://www.lifeeducation.org.nz/
Thanks, Hayley
Update 2020: Added image of the old (worn) sticker given to me as a kid when the giraffe visited our school
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