MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf September 2019 Discussion • The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks

Bookpossum · 09-22-2019, 11:12 PM

Thanks Bookworm_Girl - lovely to see, and you had good weather, which of course isn't always the case up there!

I have had a feeling that much of our discussion about farming communities, education and so on, was reminding me of something. I have realised that it was a French documentary made in about 2002 called Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have) filmed over the course of a year in a one teacher primary school in rural France. It's a delightful film and showed the pupils both at school and in their homes.

In one case, there was a boy who was struggling with his school work and he was shown with his family at home in the farmhouse where several adults were as puzzled as he was over his homework - mathematics from memory. But we also saw him working on the farm, handling a tractor with consumate ease as well as carrying out other activities.

So this was a small farming community, a one teacher school covering all ages from about 5 to 12, and a family of adults who didn't understand the 12 year old's homework. Let's say it was filmed in 2000-01, and we have something comparable to Rebanks' scenario almost 20 years after his childhood in Cumbria.

09-22-2019, 11:12 PM	#80
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,137 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	Thanks Bookworm_Girl - lovely to see, and you had good weather, which of course isn't always the case up there! I have had a feeling that much of our discussion about farming communities, education and so on, was reminding me of something. I have realised that it was a French documentary made in about 2002 called Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have) filmed over the course of a year in a one teacher primary school in rural France. It's a delightful film and showed the pupils both at school and in their homes. In one case, there was a boy who was struggling with his school work and he was shown with his family at home in the farmhouse where several adults were as puzzled as he was over his homework - mathematics from memory. But we also saw him working on the farm, handling a tractor with consumate ease as well as carrying out other activities. So this was a small farming community, a one teacher school covering all ages from about 5 to 12, and a family of adults who didn't understand the 12 year old's homework. Let's say it was filmed in 2000-01, and we have something comparable to Rebanks' scenario almost 20 years after his childhood in Cumbria.