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The Life Education Centre is a uniquely Australian concept concerned about the health education
of children and young people and especially related to educating them about the dangers
of drug abuse.
The programs provide children with a basic understanding of themselves by exploring the
wonder of the human body and of their needs as human beings.
The intention is to enable children from kindergarten upwards to visit Life Education Centre programs
once a year until the end of their schooling.
What are all these ready parts on this side of town?
Everybody has to have their hand up for that.
Come on, ready parts on this side of town.
Help you move, keep you strong.
Goodness.
Everybody's hand up.
Natalie.
Muscles?
Yes, they're muscles.
Right, what about these blue lines here on town?
Hands up, what do you think the blue lines are?
Yes.
Right, very good.
Very, very good.
Blood vessels and kidneys and appendix and that's all, actually.
What about this thing?
Heart.
What about the things that help you breathe?
Lungs.
What are the blood tubes called?
Veins.
Do you remember what the other ones were?
What's the thing that helps you think?
Brain.
Well, very good.
Okay, Adam, what important part of the body is affected by alcohol?
Your brain.
What three things are carried in the blood that give us energy?
Food, oxygen and water.
What immediate impact has this program had on the children?
I think it's had a marvellous impact.
They've been enthusiastic response, they're stimulated and they're all talking about what they've just heard and seen today.
Okay, great.
What follow-up would you do when you get back to the classroom?
Well, we plan to go back and do a five and six week unit on ourselves, myself, how do my friends and I grow and change.
And what we've seen here today will provide us with an excellent stimulus for the next five weeks.
And how do you think the program's presented?
I think it's presented beautifully, particularly Tam, is that correct?
Yes, I can.
The model.
So that model provides for the children a vision of what I as a classroom teacher couldn't provide in four weeks of talking.
It's excellent.
Excellent.
Okay, what about you?
What did you like about the program today, Catherine?
I like seeing Tam and hearing about what everyone else has to say.
And especially because you can see what's in your bodies but on Tam.
And I like hearing about all the drugs and how bad it is for you.
And because of this program, I'm never going to do anything bad for me.
How do you think what you've talked about today will help you maybe when you say you get to high school?
Do you think it will help you in any way?
Yes, because you know how bad it is for you and how it can affect you.
And if you get any exams or anything, you'll know what it's all about.
Okay, what about you?
What did you think of it today?
I found it quite interesting and what we usually have got here, it's been just as interesting.
And we learn quite a bit.
And I just know when I go into high school that peer pressure won't affect me if they try and get me to do drugs.
What about if it's your best friend?
They say, come on, come on, do it.
You can do it.
Well, I still won't do it just because the program, I just know that the program and it tells me not that I shouldn't do it.
It makes you think about it, makes you think about what goes into the body.
It makes me think twice what I'm doing at the moment.
Yeah, it's good, isn't it?
Chris, what were some of the things you liked about the program upstairs in the classroom?
The ads that the people made up that upset.
Why did you like them?
Because they told you the truth about cigarettes.
And what was that?
That they're bad for you.
Anything else? Do you remember anything else that those ads told you?
That they give you bad press.
Right, okay.
They make your teeth yellow and if you smoke enough, most of your teeth will fall out.
What about in real ads you see around you? Do you see those sort of things?
No, you see things like, it's a whole lot different, like they're great for you, you should smoke them and all this sort of stuff.
They're going to make you fabulous, they're going to make you feel great,
and they're going to give you more friends and boyfriends and all this sort of stuff.
What benefits do you think this classroom has compared to your classroom?
Obviously taking the presentation out of the normal classroom focuses the attention of the children on that particular aspect of the work.
So it becomes something special for them.
They probably get a lot more out of half an hour here than they would in two or three days in the normal classroom.
What did you think about the presentation of this program?
I thought it was an excellent presentation. The children were involved, they enjoyed it.
The physical opportunities for them to touch and feel themselves and to move around were excellent.
What did you enjoy most about the program?
I enjoyed when we were in space.
Okay. And what did you learn from the program?
What's something that you'll always remember from coming from the van?
How my body's so important and I shouldn't drink drugs because I never have.
Okay, Joshua, what did you enjoy most about the program?
Learning about inside the body and I also liked the man who built his own planet.
And I liked how he talked to us about how the body functions and lots of things like that.
Okay. What was the thing that you learned the most about your body?
The veins and arteries, how they go from the heart, from the brain down to your heart and all around your body.
And what's a friend to you, Joshua?
A friend who's loyal and who understands what I like to do and who's very friendly and who likes to play what I play with.
Okay. And if a friend offered you a drug, what would you do, Joshua?
I'd just say, no thanks, and then I'd walk away.
And if they kept conning me into it, I'd just try and think of an excuse pretty quickly.
And if somebody offered you a drug now, what would you say?
What kind of drug? I'd say no.
Okay. Why?
Because when it takes, I don't have a cold or anything and I'm not sick and I just don't like them.
Okay.
And what's something that you learned in the van that you'll remember for a long time?
That when people ask you to do something like when Steve's friends asked him to go behind the toilets and smoke,
you have learned that you think about what it will do to your body.
Okay.
And if a friend ever offered you a drug, what would you say?
No. No thanks.
I think drug prevention programs have to start at this age and they have to start with the common drugs,
with the alcohol and the tobacco rather than leave it until the children are already committed.
So it is prevention at this age. Once you leave it a little bit longer, it becomes a cure.
It's doing me a lot of good and it's just great because it's just going to tell more kids that a lot of things are bad for you and a lot of things are good.
And the thing that I like most about it is when I can't wait to come back the next time.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Drive along a suburban road or rural highway any morning of the week and the chances are
that you'll see a life education van on its way to the next school.
This particular unit represents a yearly intake of 13,000 students and is equipped with latest
technology including electronic modules, star ceilings and audio visual programs which when
presented by a specialist teacher gives the children an appreciation of the wonder and
awe of the human body.
The objective is to build within every boy and girl from preschool right through to high
school a sense of self-esteem which gives them the strength of character and motivation never
to take any substance into their body which will adversely affect them in any way.
The 1985 pilot study shows a marked increase in drug abuse amongst our school children.
In a country as beautiful as Australia it's unbelievable to think that all young people
are at grave risk from some form of drug addiction.
Drug abuse is a global problem involving a network of crime, corruption and prostitution
with profits from these totalling billions of dollars each year.
In 1974 the Reverend Ted Knopf's established the Life Education Centre believing that prevention
and education were the biggest factors needed to win this war.
Every week an important public figure is launching another mobile life education centre.
In this case it's the Premier of New South Wales Mr Neville Rand.
The alternative is absolute disaster and tragedy and therefore I'm so delighted to see so many
people, so many people from all walks of life here this morning in support of the launch
of this first life education unit in Newcastle and I can assure you that the government will
continue to be behind the project here in Newcastle and all over the state.
Thank you very much.
When Ted Knopf's asked Alan Butt's company Special Purpose Vehicles to build the first
mobile unit in 1983 little did Alan know that three years later it would become an industry
with new orders being taken almost every week.
Around one concept Alan Butt has created a whole new technology.
Well it's been four years of very interesting engineering from the first unit which we built
and then three last year and now another six this year.
It has required quite significant engineering design to incorporate the very specialised
equipment which we're now putting in these life education mobile classrooms.
It's nearly 40 feet in length, we've had to design it to be as light as possible because
they have to be manoeuvred into school grounds and that's not always easy.
It's a lightweight steel structure, fully air conditioned and insulated to take into
account the extremes of temperature which the Australian Environment Subjects units
such as this to particularly operating out in country areas.
This is our template chassis, it's been very accurately dimensioned to ensure that each
unit has been correctly engineered to very demanding standards of strength.
A box frame section with subsequent box framing running down the chassis length.
Over here we have a heavy duty A frame which carries the toe point of the vehicle and with
its reinforcing through the floor with these heavy duty outriggers that are very much part
of the engineering of a unit of overall 40 feet length.
We have here our template for the construction of the wall frames of each unit again to ensure
very accurate dimensioning of all the frame members.
There are three sets of walls prepared for the next production run.
These are heavy duty 2 by 1 inch high tensile steel members which we set down the frame
of the unit to carry the stress loads in the classroom.
Each unit is fitted with three axles, the two front axles carrying our electric brake
system which is the latest technology for all caravans in Australia of this size.
The brakes automatically come on in the event that the towing vehicle loses the caravan.
The springs are also interlinked to give a load sharing ride again essential for the
care of the high technology equipment that's inside each vehicle.
We believe now that we've evolved a final design that is not only very attractive, it's
functional, it's engineering is of the highest quality.
This is the production control centre of each mobile classroom with its high technology 16
millimetre projector and the 35 millimetre carousel slide projectors which are part of
the audio visual system.
They are all shock mounted for road transport and this is our electronics control unit which
integrates the audio visual as well we provide for start administration over small sink and
the refrigerator and storage facilities in the cupboards for the variety of equipment
and program books which are taken out and given out in each lesson.
This is our model affectionately known as Tammy, she's been made by Richard Rush in
the United States specifically for the life education program.
Each part of the anatomy lights up to give children for the first time a correct appreciation
of their human physiology.
All her electrics are wired into the audio visual centre down the production end of the
classroom.
With the increasing availability of drugs to all young people we have no choice but
to keep the world safe for all our children.
With the mobile unit fully equipped and on the road it takes a short time to be positioned
in the playground where expectant children await this unique presentation.
So people just as the correct sort of fuel for a fire, this correct sort of fuel for
the body and we've been talking about those three correct fuels for our body.
What are they?
What are they those three correct fuels for our body?
One thing is?
One thing is food.
Certainly.
Person behind just here.
Water.
Thank you and the third thing was?
Oxygen.
Good well done.
Sometimes people put things other than those correct fuels into their bodies and I'd like
to hear your opinion 5W.
I'd like you to tell me anything you can think of that people might put inside their
bodies that's not the correct fuel.
Something that might damage their bodies.
Something that's not food, water or oxygen.
This person.
Drugs.
Alright 4W would you like to name some drugs for me?
Hand up and I'll try and take as many different answers as we can and we'll start at the
front and work across the row this way.
Smokes.
Right do you know the drug inside smokes?
Person behind might know.
Tobacco.
That's the leaves you burn.
Do you know the name of the drug in the tobacco?
Marijuana.
That's another sort of smoke.
Right that's another drug.
We'll come to that in a moment.
Nicotine.
Exactly right.
So nicotine is the drug.
More drugs.
This person.
You had your hand up.
I forgot all the drugs.
Your brain will help you remember.
We'll come back to you.
So people tell me why might someone have their first cigarette?
If this nicotine is going to speed up the message system and give them maybe troubles
with their heart and not make them have healthy lungs.
Why might they have their first cigarette?
To try to slow it down.
Right they might think it's going to make them feel better and slow their body down.
Alright thank you.
Why do you think?
Just your opinion.
4W why do you think people might try their first cigarette?
Their friends might do it.
Right certainly.
The group's going to walk up and they're going to say it's only a play I know you're not
really like this but we want you to really act this out.
Pretend for our just for our cameras and things that this is really what happens when kids
do it in the playground.
Do I have to say what's going on?
You have to decide what you would do.
Yes Rebecca you tell yourself.
You decide you pretend.
Hey Stephanie you want a snake?
I know.
Oh come on.
Come on please.
No.
Come on.
Come on I got a whole pack of them I brought them yesterday at the shop.
Um no thanks.
Chicken?
No I'm not.
Wimp?
Yeah.
No.
Wimp.
Chicken.
Wimp.
No.
Yes you are.
Chicken.
Yeah.
Little chicken.
No.
Come on.
My mum hates me going up this shop and buying a full pack of Dari's when there's supposed
to be food for me grandma.
I just get an extra pack and have them for myself.
Yeah.
Come on.
My mum doesn't even want me to.
No.
Oh come on you chicken.
No I'm not like you.
Why not?
Birthday's a fly.
It's a big tough country for big tough men.
In a country like this one a man needs a cigarette that'll give him breath bad enough to stop
a herd of wild horses.
Bronson.
A big bad breath is not all you'll get from Bronson.
Yellow stained fingernails.
Lungs full of thick black tar.
And a racking painful cough.
It all adds up to one thing.
Yuck.
Get it.
Bronson breath.
Greg and my best friend if he was doing that he would probably, if I said no he would probably
join me and just walk away with me.
Just say no.
Just say no and walk away.
And at my brother's high school people get together in their toilets and they smoke and
when they come out they come out chewing on bubble gum to keep the smell away.
Right so that sort of worries you doesn't it?
The sort of things that go on there.
Yeah because I think my brother's going to join them.
The class is sometimes similar to a confessional with children asking questions which normally
due to fear of incriminating themselves would go unanswered.
Here the teacher explains a few examples.
That's certainly an issue that's come up and I've found one of the advantages of having
the van in the school is that the children feel safe.
We've been through a program, we've exposed a fair number of issues and they come back
at the end of the program and they want to talk to me about things that are worrying them.
I've had a couple of eight year old children in who say to me geez Gwen I was blind drunk
last night.
And it's not a case of me saying terrible child how did you get the grog?
What happened to you?
Tell me about it.
How did you feel?
And well look you know I've seen the old fella drunk and I really thought well I would just
be a bit sick or something like that.
But I didn't think it would affect me eyes.
And so you know why is too much alcohol affecting my eyes?
And so suddenly here we are confronted with eight year olds drinking alcohol to a point
where they're blind drunk and then being put in a situation where they've now got to think
about what they're doing.
A school I visited earlier this year, a couple of the children came back from year four and
I don't know if you've seen this, I've had Bong actually presented to me in one of the
schools I visited earlier this year and we've had some problem here in the Hunter in such
an extent that one primary school actually no longer carries this particular brand of
orange juice container because of the problem of the children with these homemade apparatus.
Just make marijuana.
I suppose we have to realise that there is one task facing the world.
I believe it's this task.
How can we keep the world safe for our children?
That's the only question that I believe should concern adults today.
How can we keep the world safe for the children of the 21st century?
They're at risk through nuclear war, they're at risk through hunger and poverty,
they're at risk through disease, but needlessly in a beautiful country like Australia,
they're at risk through involvement in drug abuse.
And I believe that the task is therefore a very simple one, to keep the world safe for our
children so that they'll enter the 21st century full of their health and happiness and they'll
be able to make a world that is more beautiful than we've ever dreamed possible.
That's the real main thrust of the work of the Life Education Centre at the Wayside Chapel.
Thank you.
Well one day in 1965 a little girl was dropped, she was almost unconscious, she was dropped
outside the Wayside Chapel on the patio by a passing motorist and this girl was almost
unconscious as a result of her involvement with heroin.
She managed to crawl inside the Wayside Chapel and a couple of hours later we found her
lying under one of the pews in the chapel and discovered that she was very, very high
on heroin and I looked around to discover what facilities existed in Sydney to care
for a drug addict such as this and discovered to my astonishment that there was absolutely
nothing, that in Sydney there were no facilities to deal with drug addicts, there was no centre,
there were no doctors, there were no nurses, there were no social workers, absolutely the
city was absolutely empty of those kinds of things and it was necessary therefore to gather
together a group of doctors and nurses and social workers and eventually to start what
I called a drug referral centre and that became the basis of a network of such centres around
Australia because here at the Wayside Chapel I've now buried about 159 young people under
the age of 25 who have died as a result of an involvement with drugs somewhere in their
lives.
But eventually I realised that we were starting at the wrong end when we were concerned about
rehabilitation alone, that that was only one side of the problem, the real side of the
problem that I began to become involved in and concerned about was the issue of prevention.
How could we stop young people being involved in drug problems at all? How could we begin
with the great numbers of children entering our primary school system and prevent large
numbers of them ending up with some kind of an addiction? Because after all at any given
time perhaps 5 to 10% of our children may have some serious drug problem when they end
their primary or high school life. But what about the 100% of children who go into the
primary school system? If we concern ourselves with that 100% of children through some educational
program we may be able to reduce by perhaps 1%, 2%, 3% hopefully the number of children
who end up with some kind of a drug problem. If we do that, that percentage even though
it sounds small represents 3 or 4 or 500 children whom we will stop from dying perhaps.
When we started the life education centres in 1979 we needed to provide children with
a wonderful centre that would teach them the issue in these terms, not don't take drugs
because if you do God will punish you, not to say to them don't take drugs because if
you do the police will get you, but rather to say to children with the most beautiful
technology we could find, look your bodies are so beautiful, you are so beautiful, in
this whole world there will never be anyone like you and for that reason don't take anything
into your body that will in some way stop you from becoming the wonderful little girl
or wonderful little boy you really are.
Have you ever sat under the stars at night and thought about what an incredible sight
that really is?
In the millions and millions of miles out there in this place there are planets, stars
and other worlds that seem to go on forever and ever.
And all of this, our world is just one small beautiful planet, just a point on the
bounteous, like a grain of sand on a beach.
And there you are, the one sitting, watchful, marvellous.
It's as if the scene was created just for you.
But they share everything and the universe with all living things.
Everything is alive.
It is wonderful for you to be a special part of it.
We are none.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
What do lungs help us do?
Breathe.
You're right, their lungs breathe oxygen.
Can you put them back when they go on?
That's right, good.
And you can see just before we put them back, you can see this tube, this is where we take
air down.
And hold it up and show everybody.
Hold it up high, Mark, so everybody can see.
What's that?
I don't know.
What is it?
I don't know where it goes.
I think it's teeth.
Put it up to your mouth, Mark.
Too big.
Put it up to your mouth.
Don't think so.
Couldn't do that.
It's that thing that goes around there.
That thing that goes around there, what's that?
Oh, the big intestine.
Oh, what did you say?
The small intestine.
Gee, I'm very impressed.
Stomach?
Hands, everybody thinks it's a stomach.
Hold it up, Scott.
Yeah, it's the child's stomach.
It is, it's the stomach.
Why do we need to put the stomach back in?
Because that gets all the pressure out of the body.
It does.
And that gets all the pressure, it forces them up to the liquid and the liquid goes,
kind of liquid, goes into the small intestine.
Small intestine goes into the big intestine, and the big intestine divides it up, the good
things and the bad things.
Brilliant.
I think I should have better myself.
A little applause I think for that one.
Applause, I think, for that one.
Congratulations.
Hello. My name is Tammy.
It stands for transparent anatomical mannequin.
My skin is transparent so that you can see the anatomy of a normal female body.
As I turn, you can see that my right half shows some muscles.
My muscles acting together make it possible for me to move in many ways.
On the surface of the muscles, you see some of my veins, shown in blue, which return blood to my heart.
This venous blood carries carbon dioxide and other waste products.
Jill, is this just a one-off that the kids then go home and forget about?
Oh, no. A program such as this, Claire, really has to be continuing.
So it's designed that the children come once a year, every year, all through their primary life.
Now, it also takes for it to be followed up back at home and at school.
Because what you're really aiming for is a change of behavior, not just a change of attitude or whatever.
It has to be a change of behavior, ideally.
So if that's what you're working for in the long term, of course it has to be continuous.
And these same vibes have to be coming from everywhere, from the family, from school, and from us.
Well, how do you go about bringing the family and teachers into it?
Right, okay. Every Tuesday night before the children come to see a program themselves, we have a parent and teacher night.
Now, that is a very important night because it allows teachers and parents to ask a lot of questions that they're wondering about.
They often hear sort of a drug program in King's Cross. Everybody immediately a gasp and thinks,
oh, no, I'm not letting my child go to that.
So this is why it's very important that we do offer that, because the idea of drug programs has been misused in the past, I feel.
There's been a lot of sort of scare tactics used and these sort of things.
So from that, people can see that our program is positive, is giving the kids a really good view on life,
getting them to think about their bodies, and therefore hopefully affecting their behavior.
Okay, a lot of you, you've mentioned a lot of different types of drugs.
Some of those drugs are legal, and some are illegal. Illegal meaning we're not allowed to use them, okay?
Today we're going to be having a look at some of the legal drugs and some of the decisions we need to make about those.
What's the drug inside coffee?
Caffeine.
Yes, what else do you find caffeine? What else do you find caffeine in besides coffee?
Tea.
Tea, Coca-Cola, Bidin Choco.
Another drug you mentioned, people really need to think about that one, another drug you mentioned was nicotine.
Okay, found inside cigarettes.
My mum, when she was in high school, there was all these kids hanging around and they were all smoking
and they said, you're too scared to smoke, and mum said, I am not, and she took a smoke and it just, she liked it.
And she just got carried on to it and she can't, mum can't stop now.
So would you say influence a friend?
Yeah.
Why was it such a hard choice?
Because they might call you a chicken or not be a friend anymore.
So you can't say no to that person and still keep their friendship?
Yeah.
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah.
But aren't friends, what does friendship mean to you?
Tell me what you think friendship means.
What is in front of a friend is somebody that you can't say no to.
What's a friend? What's a chance? What's a chance?
Before we launch the Life Education Centre, the mobile version, I'd like to ask the chairman of the North Coast Life Education Centre, Mr. Garth Jones, to say a word.
Garth, how does the Life Education Centre work as a mobile?
We find that our first action is that we send letters through to the schools and tell them that this is available to come
and it's from there then that they contact us and say, yes, we want your band to come along.
I guess what we find so successful with the caravan is that we go to a school every year.
It's not just a once-in-a-lifetime. We lock ourselves into a program.
We start from Tweed Heads and go down to Ballina and we're locking ourselves into a program that we will guarantee to visit those schools every year.
So that means that a child starts in kindergarten or grade one, by the time they finish primary school they're going to have seen six programs.
And so it's a fantastic program that young people don't have to be traveling by train, by bus, but we take the program right to there where they are.
It is working, it is successful and I am absolutely convinced that life education caravans have a tremendous part to play in helping young people's development.
Thanks, Debra. As Minister for Health, what value do you think this project has?
I think it's one of the most valuable projects anywhere in the world as far as educating young people is concerned about the dangers of drug abuse.
I think we get more value for money out of this particular project than almost anything else we do.
And it's a great facility and one that we're very keen to see expanded and used and made available to all of the school children of our state.
So you see it as being mainly preventative?
Oh, absolutely preventative and I think the importance of it is it gets the message across to children before they encounter the problem.
That's the great benefit.
And if we can have this sort of van operating right throughout the state, the center here at the Wayside Chapel operating as it is,
and the new center the government's made land available for at Colleton for the western suburbs,
then I think we'll start to get the network of services that will guarantee all children in the state access to this wonderful facility.
We're getting a lot of material back from the kids, which I think in itself is a very good evaluation of the impact of the program.
They send thank you letters as well as talking about what the program or what part of the program they enjoyed the most.
Because it was fun, you got to see heaps of things.
Yeah? And why did you think?
It was educational.
Yes, did you enjoy it as well? And what kind of things do you think you learned?
What to do and not to do with your own body.
And parts of the body and how they work and everything.
And you?
I liked tennis because we found out about all these different things about the body.
And did you know them before you came here today?
No.
With reference to what teachers send back, we supply teachers an evaluation form, which gives us an idea of what we're doing.
I thought it was tremendous.
The whole atmosphere here is just so alive that it gets kids motivated the minute they walk in the door.
What's your reaction to it as a teacher?
I'll go back to the classroom and I'll be able to carry on with this.
And the kids have got the motivation behind them. They know what I'm talking about.
They've seen TAM. We haven't got anything like TAM in a classroom.
We haven't got anything like these modules where you can show them how things move.
Everything's here. It's fantastic.
Hopefully by the end of the time they get to sixth grade, which is the time, they're going to be able to make their own decisions and think about things.
And that's their chief learning thing, I would say.
I think being able to make a decision, a knowledgeable decision, because we're not saying to them, you can't do this.
They're going to know what it's going to do with them.
And they're going to be able to think, to be able to make a decision themselves.
Because no matter what I say to them or what their parents say to them, in the end they're the ones that are going to make that decision.
But as long as they know what's behind it, then they'll be able to make one, you know, a thoughtful one.
I suppose we have to realise that there is one task facing the world.
I believe it's this task. How can we keep the world safe for our children?
That's the only question that I believe should concern adults today. How can we keep the world safe for the children of the 21st century?
They're at risk through nuclear war. They're at risk through hunger and poverty. They're at risk through disease.
But needlessly in a beautiful country like Australia, they're at risk through involvement in drug abuse.
And I believe that the task is therefore a very simple one, to keep the world safe for our children so that they'll enter the 21st century full of their health and happiness.
And they'll be able to make a world that is more beautiful than we've ever dreamed possible.
That's the real main thrust of the work of the Life Education Centre at the Wayside Chapel.
Music
In 1974, after 10 years of never ceasing crisis counselling on drug and related abuse, the Reverend Ted Knopf's realised that nothing would be ultimately achieved if the situation continued to be tackled solely at the end of the road stage.
And the breakthrough of a positive lasting quality could only come through preventive education of all young children from four and a half to 12 years of age.
In 1979, the first pilot Life Education Centre was opened at the Wayside Chapel.
The demand for schools to attend the centre rapidly increased, particularly in outlying communities.
And in 1982, the first mobile Life Education Centre was developed.
Since this time, the program has undergone a rapid expansion with many Life Education vans being established.
Today we look at the operation of the South West Life Education Van and the valuable service it provides.
Speaking with Wendy Kelly, who is the educator with the South West Life Education Van.
Wendy, what is Life Education?
Life Education is a program designed to give children an idea of how to look after their bodies.
It's basically a health program, not just physical health, mental health.
It's a drug preventative program for primary and infant school children, but aimed at health.
In kindy and the infants programs, they're very much healthy lifestyle, balanced diet, plenty of sleep, the right things to eat and of course Harold.
As they get older, it's more of, we look at peer pressure and we also look at advertising and the influences that people have, maybe good influences and maybe bad influences.
The van is often incorrectly referred to as a drug van.
Just where do drugs fit into the program?
Well, it is a balanced lifestyle program.
So if drugs don't fit into a balanced lifestyle, then we look at the abuse of drugs, how drugs may be abused and what we can do to prevent that drug abuse.
The communities and the parents and the schools right through the region have contributed substantially to raising the funds to get this program off the ground and to purchase the van.
What about the future role of the community and parents and schools in the program?
Well of course there are ongoing costs every year, so people are going to have to put up for those again.
Thank you very much everyone for contributing before.
And there are also the other role of parents, the most important role, that they make sure that there's follow up for these.
We can give them an hour and a half every year, but it doesn't count if it doesn't get out of this van, out of the classrooms and into their homes.
That's the main thing, that's where they fit in the most.
And the support we've had from them has been, well it's been fantastic hasn't it?
Really has.
Welcome to the Life Education Van. My name's Wendy.
Has anyone here been to a Life Education Van before?
Oh right, well then you might remember some things from last year.
What do you think that we'll be talking about today though? Any ideas? Yeah?
I think we might be talking about cigarettes and how bad it is for your body.
Certainly we'll be talking about that. What's your name?
Rebecca.
Thanks Rebecca. What else do you think we might be talking about today?
The human body.
Mm hmm. What's your name?
Shannon Hutter.
Thanks Shannon. Yeah?
And other drugs and bad things that could affect your body.
Yeah, we'll be talking about all these things today.
As Shannon mentioned we'll be starting off talking about the body, the human body.
And later on we'll be talking about the things that might affect our body,
the things that might affect our health and things that might influence us in life.
And what about you? What did you have for breakfast?
Toast.
Well let's find out where the weak bits in the toast have gone.
You ought to put it in your mouth.
What have gone down this tube, the esophagus here and into your stomach?
Mixes up with different acids.
It breaks down even further, goes into your small intestine.
That squiggly bit there, bits that you want you can see go into your blood.
Bits you don't want into the big intestine and out of the body.
That food that's gone into your blood, it's going to be going all around your whole body.
As you can see here, the red lines are the arteries, blue lines are the veins.
And of course, where's the most important part that that food's going to go to in your blood?
The most important part of your body.
Shane.
The heart.
And even perhaps more important than the heart because this even controls your heart.
The lungs.
This controls your lungs as well.
The brain.
Yeah, of course. Your brain is the most important part of your body.
Because it not only makes your body work, but it makes each one of you so special and so different.
Different from everyone else in the whole wide world. It's pretty incredible.
My brain is the focal point of the central nervous system.
From my brain and spinal cord, nerves make lines of communications to all parts of my body.
Sensory nerves in my arms, legs, and other organs send messages to my brain.
Motor nerves carry messages from my brain to my muscles.
Special sense organs, my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin,
respond to stimuli from the world around me sending their messages to my brain.
Your emotions, anger, hate, fear, and love, begin in the brain.
Your brain helps you to control these emotions.
This wonderful bodily structure helps you and me to understand that our brains and our bodies are priceless possessions.
This gift is truly yours to care for and enjoy for a lifetime.
And could you tell us some of the typical questions that children give you?
Well, not so much questions, but the funny answers you get from them are quite amusing.
Things like knowing where their stomach is.
The thing I find that's so refreshing about country children in comparison to the city children that I was teaching
is that they seem to learn a lot of their anatomy from cut up sheep,
which tends to make them think that everything's green inside us because everything inside a sheep's green.
And Wendy, do you use any teaching aids other than the audiovisual displays?
Well, we use TAM and the modules as well as the speaking brain.
And we also have a little special friend called Harold who comes out and speaks to the younger years.
Don't fight it this time. Harold, just behave.
And Harold sings and he talks to the children.
Well, tell them what you do in year three.
Harold, what do you mean tell them yourself?
I'll just explain. Harold, in year three, Harold's been not looking after himself.
He's been drinking and smoking.
Don't look so thrilled about it.
Harold's been drinking and smoking, so we tell him what he's been doing to himself
and how he really should look after himself
because he's too important to be abusing himself.
And that's how we introduce drugs into the program.
It's not bought in as a separate entity.
It's bought in as something that you don't abuse if you want to have a healthy lifestyle.
And this is Harold. He's a big favorite. He gets a lot of letters.
He gets about 50 letters every week.
And I have to reply to them for him because he has a bit of trouble.
But he's generally the big favorite of the van.
Harold moves too fast for focus.
Wendy, what training did you have to undertake to take on this position?
Well, to be an educator, you have to have three months training at the Wayside Chapel.
That doesn't just involve learning how to teach the children.
It also involves getting a view of the other aspects of life education in general
and the Wayside Chapel.
In my training, I had to spend some time in the crisis center,
which was a bit unnerving, but I think it opened up my mind a lot,
as well as getting to know the ideas of Outreach, the program they have for the elderly people,
and as well as things that they have like Shepherds of the Street,
which is people going out in the street, picking up the young children that have lost their way, so to speak,
and helping them back on the tracks.
Year five boys and girls at Kaira Primary School, did you enjoy your visit to the life education van?
I enjoyed my visit to the life education van because I learnt so much about the drugs that can harm your body.
The part of the experience that I remembered the best was that beer and smokes kill the most people
and that drugs off the street don't.
Audio visuals like this excerpt from the year four program are designed to help children understand influences on them,
like peer pressure.
We have a friend who walked and talked with me today.
When the sun shines we like to go outside and play.
Sometimes we fight and we argue and it's not,
Just pretend by the next day we're together and he's back to being my friend.
What's a friend? What's a friend? What's a friend?
Boys and girls, have you done any preparations for your visit to the Life Education Band?
We had a big talk on how to say no when you get pressured by your friends to have a smoke.
Some of my friends are up in high school and when I see them on the weekend,
I'll tell them it's been a good experience for me and I hope it is for you.
Brian, are you going to do any work when you go back to class following your visit to the Life Education Band?
Yes, we're going to work through those Life Education books.
What teaching strategies do you use with the children?
Well, in the band, it's different from the classroom.
We try and promote that, that it is different from a classroom, perhaps to get them thinking different thoughts in a way,
getting them to use different avenues of imagination.
There's no distractions in the band. The walls are plain. The floor is plain.
There's no chairs. There's no desks. It's different.
Whatever's on, whatever's happening, they have to concentrate on it because frankly there's nothing else to concentrate on.
How do you see the Life Education Centre's improving the health of our nation?
Well, we're putting the responsibility towards the children.
We're not telling them to do anything. We're telling them the facts.
We're giving them the information that they need to make decisions.
At a very young age, we're starting this.
So hopefully as they get older, they'll be capable of making decisions about their health,
realising that there are influences that might affect them,
but knowing how they can cope with these influences if they are put up against them.
I think the program has a really incredible impact on the children.
The children seem to remember so much from last year.
The few children that have been through the van last year on promotional, they seem to remember so much.
It's quite incredible.
And just imagine, we've six years of being through this program,
and building on that all the time, it's really quite amazing to think how much impact it will have,
hopefully with the right aim, giving them the ability to make these decisions later on.
Just judging from the letters I get, I gather it has an impact.
I mean, the main idea is to get it out of the van and into their classrooms and into their homes,
and hopefully that's what it's doing.
I suppose we have to realise that there is one task facing the world.
I believe it's this task.
How can we keep the world safe for our children?
That's the only question that I believe should concern adults today.
How can we keep the world safe for the children of the 21st century?
They're at risk through nuclear war, they're at risk through hunger and poverty, they're at risk through disease.
But needlessly in a beautiful country like Australia, they're at risk through involvement in drug abuse.
And I believe that the task is therefore a very simple one, to keep the world safe for our children
so that they'll enter the 21st century full of their health and happiness,
and they'll be able to make a world that is more beautiful than we've ever dreamed possible.
That's the real main thrust of the work of the Life Education Centre at the Wayside Chapel.