Japan Prize 2003

“We come to school to be happy, so let’s all be happy together!” This is the vow made by Grade Four, Class One and their teacher Kanamori. Each day, three children read letters to their classmates, talking honestly about their feelings for each other and events in their lives. The class searches together for ways to understand and cope with troubled relations, unhappiness and loss of loved ones. In the course of the year, the children’s characters develop naturally as they share their experiences, and grow to understand the value of life and of caring for each other’s feelings.

This program is one from a series which targets ages four to six, with the aim of helping children realize diverse ways of seeing and thinking. It supports development of problem-solving skills from various perspectives. The theme of the seven segments in this episode is “new view”. Children are led to see objects differently by looking at them from different angles. Using computer graphic animation, children can see a square shape changing its meaning when viewed from different perspectives. Moreover, a song is used to show children how the meaning of “father” can be “businessman“, “guest”, “passenger” or “patient” according to the context in which it is used.

Street Cents is a magazine format series that provides teens valuable consumer education. It gives teens the information they need to survive in the marketplace, in school, on the job and after hours. There is increasing evidence that young Canadians, especially women aged 13-19, are becoming the new risk group for contracting HIV/AIDS. Teens tell us why they think sex-ed is failing at school and hosts run a course on condom etiquette. The show tests hydration packs and investigates complaints from Philippines students who are not getting the number of minutes they pay for on their long distance calling cards.

In Kabul, Afghanistan, as the country struggles to recover from war, there are still 50,000 street children. Afghan film director Siddiq Barmak attempted to produce a powerful movie to describe his hope for freedom and liberty after an eight year absence. One day, he met Marina, a girl begging on the street, who had lost her family and lived in fear. She became the main character in his film, and the expression in her eyes so strongly influenced the director that he was moved to change the intended ending of the film. The program exposes the misery of war beginning with an encounter between a desperate girl and a film director. It describes the trauma hidden deep in Marina’s heart.

“We come to school to be happy, so let’s all be happy together!” This is the vow made by Grade Four, Class One and their teacher Kanamori. Each day, three children read letters to their classmates, talking honestly about their feelings for each other and events in their lives. The class searches together for ways to understand and cope with troubled relations, unhappiness and loss of loved ones. In the course of the year, the children’s characters develop naturally as they share their experiences, and grow to understand the value of life and of caring for each other’s feelings.

The aim of the site is to reinforce the program message about the need for international cooperation to protect Antarctica and the global environment. In a game format, children must stop environmental disaster in order to rescue penguins. A picture chat allows children to communicate across language barriers. For schools, there are video clips to demonstrate different approaches to environmental problems.

The proposal for “A School Among Glaciers” describes a compelling feature documentary that traces the journey toward self-discovery by Nawang, a newly graduated Bhutanese schoolteacher. In Bhutan, teachers are assigned to remote places to teach children, and Nawang faces a long trek of 14 days over a 5,200 meter pass to the Lunana valley, where the Lunaps (semi-nomadic yak herders) live. The documentary is to follow Nawang’s hard trek and the process of how Nawang teaches children but also learns about Lunap culture and its ancient and enduring wisdoms.

This historical drama opens with a high school student preparing for the upcoming presentation on slavery. His desk is piled high with books about slavery. He gives an introduction to his presentation by showing a videotape. This first episode in the series is about villagers working peacefully on the West African coast. They are caught and packed into a ship like sardines in a can and transported across the Atlantic.

More than 300 minority ethnic groups live in the highlands of the Philippines. Education for children is the biggest problem for those people because of their remote location. Since several years ago, there has been a movement to build local schools and teach children reading, writing and ethnic cultures. This program shows people trying very hard to work together to convey their endangered traditions and ethnic dignity to the next generation.

This program is one episode from a series, which leads to interest and discovery through the joy of learning in a variety of daily life events. This particular episode focuses on the role of teeth and on giving information about how to prevent tooth decay by showing smiling children and cheerful performances.