The Children’s Story…but not just for children” – James Clavell
What symbols of your country do you have in your classroom or school?
What activities do you participate in your school each day or over the year to connect you to your country or your religion?
Do you know all the words to your national anthem and can you explain what they mean?
For many years American schoolchildren have started each school day with a short ceremony in their class which includes pledging allegiance to their country.
Look at the title of the story. Can you think what James Cavell might mean by it?
“The Children’s Story…but not just for children” – James Clavell
Part I
The teacher was afraid.
And the children were afraid. All except Johnny. He watched the classroom door with hate. He felt the hatred deep within his stomach. It gave him strength.
It was two minutes to nine.
The teacher glanced numbly from the door and stared at the flag which stood in a corner of the room. But she couldn’t see the flag today. She was blinded by her terror, not only for herself but mostly for them, her children. She had never had children of her own.
In the mists of her mind she saw the rows upon rows of children she had taught through her years. But she could distinguish no one particular face. Only the same face which varied but slightly. Always the same age or thereabouts. Seven. Perhaps a boy, perhaps a girl. And the face always open and ready for the knowledge that she was to give.
The sound of footsteps approached and then stopped. The door opened.
The children gasped. They had expected a monster – like the outer-space monsters you think about when the lights are out and Momma and Daddy have kissed you good night and you’re frightened and you put your head under the cover and all at once you’re awake and it’s time for school.
But instead of a monster, a beautiful young girl stood in the doorway. Her clothes were neat and clean, all olive green – even her shoes. But most important, she wore a lovely smile, and when she spoke, she spoke without the trace of an accent. The children found this very strange for they were foreigners from a strange country far across the sea.
“Good morning, children, I’m your new teacher,” the New Teacher said. Then she closed the door softly and walked to the teacher’s desk, and the children in the front row felt and smelled the perfume of her – clean and fresh and young – and as she passed Sandra who sat at the end of the first row she said, Good morning, Sandra,” and Sandra flushed deeply and wondered with all the other children, How did she know my name? and her heart raced in her chest.
The teacher got up shakily. “I, er, I – good morning.” Her words were faltering. She, too, was trying to get over the shock.
“Hello, Miss Worden,” the New Teacher said. “I’m taking over your class now. You are to go to the principal’s office.”
“Why? What’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to my children?” The words gushed from Miss Worden, and a piece of hair fell into her eyes.
“He just wants to talk to you, Miss Worden,” the New Teacher said gently.
Miss Worden saw the New Teacher’s smile but she wasn’t touched by it. “Good-bye, children,” she said. The children made no reply. They were too terrified by the sound of her voice and the tears. And because she was crying, some of the children cried.
Questions
1. Why is everyone afraid at the beginning of the story?
2. What change is taking place in the children’s lives?
b. Mention three things they notice about her.
4. Why do you think the pupils were surprised when the New Teacher didn’t have an accent?
5. Why were the children frightened by their old teacher at the end of Part I?
Part II
The New Teacher shut the door behind Miss Worden and turned back into the room. “Children, no need to cry!” She said. “I know. I’ll sing you a song! Listen!”
And she sat down on the floor as gracefully as an angel and she began to sing and the children stopped crying because Miss Worden never, never sang to them and certainly never sat on the floor, which is the best place to sit, as everyone in the class knew. They listened spellbound to the happy sound of the New Teacher’s voice and to the strange words of a strange language. It was a child’s song and it soothed them, and after she had sung the first chorus she told them the story of the song.
It was about two children who had lost their way and were alone in the prairies and were afraid, but they met a fine man riding a horse who told them that there was never a need to be afraid, for all they had to do was watch the stars and they would tell them where home was.
“For once you know the right direction, there’s never a need to be afraid. Fear is something that comes from inside your tummies,” the New Teacher said radiantly, “and good strong children like you have to put food in your tummies. Not fear.”
The children thought about this and it seemed sensible. All the children were happy and calm. Except Johnny. He hated her even though he knew she was right about fear.
“Now,” said the New Teacher, “what shall we do? I know, we’ll play a game. I’ll try and guess your names!”
The children, wide-eyed, shifted in their seats. Miss Worden never did this, and often she called a child by another’s name. The New Teacher’ll never know all our names! Never! they thought. So they waited excitedly glad that they were going to catch out the New Teacher.
But they were not to catch her out. The New Teacher remembered every name!
Johnny put up his hand. “How’d you know our names? I mean, well we, haven’t had a roll call or anything, so how’d you know our names?”
That’s easy, Johnny,” the New Teacher said. “You all sit in the same places every day. So I learned your names from a list. A teacher must work very hard to be a good teacher, and so I worked for three days learning them. That’s very important, don’t you think, for a teacher to work hard?”
Johnny frowned and half-nodded and sat down and wondered why he hadn’t figured that out for himself, astonished that she had worked three days just to know everyone the first day. But still he hated her.
Questions
1. To what is the New Teacher compared by the author?
2. How is she different from the Miss Worden?
3. What do you think the message of the New Teacher’s song is?
4. Why do you think Johnny hated her?
5. How did she surprise them?
Part III
“Johnny. Would you tell me something please? How do you start school? I mean what do you do to begin with?”
Johnny stood reluctantly. “We first pledge allegiance. “
The New Teacher smiled. “All right. So we should pledge.”
Obediently, all the children got up and put their hands on their hearts and the New Teacher did the same, and they began in unison, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of –“
“Just a moment,” the New Teacher said. “What does pledge mean?”
The children stood open mouthed; Miss Worden had never interrupted them before.
“What does allegiance mean?” the New Teacher asked.
The children stood in silence. Then Mary put up her hand. “Well, pledge is ah, well, something like – sort of when you want to do something very good. You sort of pledge you’re going to do something like not suck your thumb ‘cause that makes your teeth bend and you’ll have to go to the dentist, which hurts.”
“That’s very good, Mary. Very, very good. To pledge means to promise. And allegiance?”
Mary shrugged helplessly and looked at her best friend, Hilda, who looked back at her and then at the teacher and shrugged helplessly too.
So the New Teacher explained what allegiance meant. “…so you are promising support to the flag and saying that it is much more important than you are. How can a flag be more important than a real live person?”
Johnny broke the silence. “But the next thing is – well, where it says ‘and to the republic for which it stands.’ That means it’s like a like a …” He searched for the word and could not find it. “Like a well, sort of sign, isn’t it?”
“Yes. The real word is a symbol.” The New Teacher frowned. “But we don’t need a sign to remind us that we love our country, do we? You’re all good boys and girls. Do you need a sign to remind you?”
“What’s remind mean?” Mary asked.
“It means to make you remember. To make your remember that you’re all good boys and girls.”
The children thought about this and shook their heads.
Johnny put up his hand. “It’s our flag,” he said fiercely. “We always pledge.”
“Yes,” the New Teacher said. “It is a very pretty one.” She looked at it a moment and then said. “I wish I could have a piece of it. If it’s so important, I think we should all have a piece of it. Don’t you?”
Then Danny said, “If we had some scissors we could cut a little piece off.”
“There’s some in Miss Worden’s desk,” Brian said.
The New Teacher found the scissors and then they had to decide who would be allowed to cut a little piece off, and the New Teacher said that because today was Mary’s birthday (How did you know that? Mary asked herself.) Mary should be allowed to cut the piece off. And then they decided it would be very nice if they all had a piece. The flag is special, they thought, so if you have a piece, that’s better than having just to look at it.
So the flag was cut up by the children and they were very proud that they each had a piece. But now the flagpole was bare and strange – and useless.
The children pondered what to do with it, and the idea that pleased them most was to push it out of the window. They watched excitedly as the New Teacher opened the window and allowed them to throw it into the playground. They shrieked with excitement as they saw it bounce on the ground and lie there. They began to love this strange New Teacher.
Questions
1. How did the New Teacher break with the tradition of reciting the pledge of allegiance in two ways?
2. Why do you think she broke with tradition?
b. What do you think about her idea?
4. Why do you think the pupils began to love her at the end of Part III?
Part IV
When they were all back in their seats the New Teacher said, “Well, before we start our lessons, perhaps there are some questions you want me to answer. Ask me anything you like. That’s only fair, isn’t it, if I ask you questions?”
Mary put up her hand. “Why do you wear those clothes?”
“Well, it’s like a sort of uniform nurses wear. We think that teachers should be dressed the same. Then you always know a teacher. Do you like the color?”
“Oh yes,” Mary said. “You’ve got green eyes too.”
“If you like, children, as a very special surprise, you can all have this sort of uniform. Then you won’t have to worry about what you have to wear to school every day. And you’ll all be the same.”
Johnny said, “I don’t want to be dressed like that.” I’m never going to wear their clothes, he said to himself. I don’t care if I’m going to look different from Danny and Tom and Fred.
Then Mary asked, “Why was our teacher crying?”
“I supposed she was just needed a rest. She’s going to have a long rest.” She smiled at them. “We think teachers should be young. I’m nineteen.”
“Is the war over now?” Danny asked.
“Yes, Danny, isn’t that wonderful! Now all your daddies will be home soon.”
“Did you win or did we lose?” Mary asked.
“We – that’s you and I and all of us – we won.”
“Oh!”
The children sat back happily.
Then Johnny’s hatred burst. “Where’s my dad? What’ve you done to him?”
The New Teacher got up from her seat and walked to Johnny’s desk and the children’s eyes followed her.
“He’s going to a school. Some grown-ups have to go to school as well as children.”
“But they took him away and he didn’t want to go.” Johnny fought back the tears.
“He’s no different from all of you. You sometimes don’t want to go to school. With grown-ups it’s the same – just the same as children. Would you like to visit him? He has a holiday in a few days.”
“Momma said that Dad’s gone away forever!” Johnny stared at her incredulously. “He has a holiday?”
The New Teacher laughed. “She’s wrong, Johnny. After all, everyone who goes to school has holidays. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
The children shifted and watched. And Johnny said, “I can see him?”
“Of course. Your daddy just has to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts, and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them?”
“But my dad never thought nothing bad.”
“Of course, Johnny. I said wrong thoughts – not bad thoughts. But it’s right to show grown-ups right thoughts when they’re wrong, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes,” Johnny said. “But what wrong thoughts did he have?”
“Just some grown-up thoughts that are old-fashioned. We’re going to learn all about them in class. Shall we?”
“All right,” Johnny stared at her, perplexed.
And the other children nodded, and they wondered if all their parents should go back to school and unlearn bad thoughts.
Questions
1. Look at the quotes below from Part IV. What does each quote show us about the lessons the New Teacher is trying to teach her new pupils? What do the quotes have in common?
- “If you like, children, as a very special surprise, you can all have this sort of uniform. Then you won’t have to worry about what you have to wear to school every day. And you’ll all be the same.”
- “We think teachers should be young. I’m nineteen.”
- “Your daddy just has to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts, and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them?”
2. Look at the quote below.
“Did you win or did we lose?” Mary asked. “We – that’s you and I and all of us – we won.”
Who is Mary referring to when she says “you” and “we”? What does the teacher mean when she answers “we won.”
Part V
“I have a lovely surprise for you. You’re all going to stay overnight with us. We have a lovely room and beds and lots of food, and we’ll all tell stories and have such a lovely time.”
“Oh, good,” the children said.
The New Teacher smiled. “Perhaps we should say a prayer now. But let’s pray for something very good. What should we pray for?”
“Bless Momma and Daddy,” Danny said immediately.
“That’s a good idea, Danny. I have one. Let’s pray for candy. That’s a good idea, isn’t it?”
They all nodded happily.
So, following their New Teacher, they all closed their eyes and prayed for candy.
The New Teacher opened her eyes and looked around disappointedly. “But where’s the candy? God is all-seeing and is everywhere, and if we pray, he answers our prayers. Isn’t that true?”
“I prayed for a puppy of lots of times, but I never got one,” Danny said.
“Maybe we didn’t pray hard enough.”
So the New Teacher and all the children prayed very hard. But there was still no candy.
Because the New Teacher was disappointed, the children were disappointed. Then she said, “Perhaps we’re using the wrong name.” She thought a moment and then said, “Instead of saying ‘God,’ let’s say ‘Our Leader.’ Let’s pray very hard to Our Leader for candy and don’t open your eyes till I say.”
So the children shut their eyes tightly and prayed very hard, and as they prayed, the New Teacher took out some candy from her pocket and quietly put a piece on each child’s desk. She did not notice Johnny watching her through his half-closed eyes.
She went softly back to her desk and the prayer ended, and the children opened their eyes and they stared at the candy and were overjoyed.
“I’m going to pray to Our Leader every time,” Mary said excitedly.
“Me too,” Hilda said. “Could we eat Our Leader’s candy now, teacher?”
“Oh, let’s please, please, please.”
“So Our Leader answered your prayers, didn’t he?”
“I saw you put the candy on our desks!” Johnny burst out. “I saw you. I didn’t close my eyes, and I saw you. You had ‘em in your pocket. We didn’t get them with praying.”
All the children stared at him and then at their New Teacher. She looked back at Johnny and then at all of them.
“Yes, Johnny, you’re quite right. You’re a very, very wise boy. Children, I put the candy on your desks. So you know that it doesn’t matter whom you ask, whom you shut your eyes and ‘pray to’ – to God or anyone, even Our Leader – no one will give you anything. Only another human being.” She looked at Danny.. Only I or someone like me can give you things.”
Then we don’t say prayers? We’re not supposed to say prayers?”
The puzzled children watched her.
“You can if you want to, children. If your daddies and mommies want you to. But we know, you and I, that it means nothing. That’s our secret.”
The New Teacher said, “We’re going to have lots of wonderful secrets together. You can eat your candy if you want to, and because Johnny was especially clever, I think we should make him monitor for the week, don’t you?”
They all nodded happily and popped the candy into their mouths and chewed gloriously. Johnny was very proud as he chewed his candy; he decided that he liked his teacher very much. Because she told the truth. Because she was without fear. Because she was right about God. He’d prayed many times for many things and never got them, and the one time he did get his skates, he knew his dad had heard him and put them under his bed for his birthday and pretended he hadn’t heard him. I always wondered why He didn’t listen, and all the time He wasn’t there, he thought.
Questions
1. Why do you think the New Teacher has decided to have the children sleep at the school?
b. Why do the children usually pray?
3. Why was Johnny so upset?
4. How did the Teacher explain what she had done?
Part VI
The teacher waited for them to finish their candy. This was what she had been trained for, and she knew that she would teach children well and that they would grow up to be good citizens. She looked out of the window, at the sun over the land. It was a good land, and vast. A land to breathe in. But she was warmed not by the sun but by the thought that throughout the land all children, all men and all women were being taught with the same faith.
She glanced at her watch….
It was .
Questions
1. How was the Teacher feeling at the end of the story?
2. Why did she feel this way?
3. What do you think her beliefs were?
4. Why do you think the time is mentioned at the end of the story?
In Depth
1. What methods does the New Teacher use to convince her pupils? Be specific.
2. What is good about the New Teacher’s method of teaching? What is bad?
3. With which of the Teacher’s lessons do you agree? With which do you disagree? Why?
4. Who do you think was a better teacher, Miss Worden or the New Teacher? Why?
4. Why do you think the author has included Johnny in this story?
5. Which basic values did the children come in with at the beginning of the lesson? Which ones did they leave with at the end?
Literary device - A moral or message
Children’s stories are usually written to teach children a lesson about life which is often called “the moral of the story.”
Think of at least two children’s stories that you know and explain the moral of each of them.
“The Children’s Story” came into being that day. It was then that I really realized how vulnerable my child’s mind was – any mind, for that matter – under controlled circumstances.“
In the quote above James Clavell explains why he decided to write his children’s story. Explain in your own words what lesson he was trying to teach his readers in this story. Why does he say that the story is not just for children?
Writing
Write an article for your school newspaper about one of the following:
- What I consider most important to learn from my teacher. You might choose from the following: subject matter, values, general knowledge, life skills, etc.
- Should teachers challenge their pupils’ beliefs about their family, their religion, their country to make them understand them better or to even change them.
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