REVIEW BY OWEN RICHARDS
Our Boys
Directed by Kerry Brewster
Produced and edited by Andrea Lang
Screening on ABC TV
8pm, February 10
A new television documentary series about marginalised students in the public education system gives the lie to Prime Minister John Howard's whining about a lack of "moral values" in public schools. The only immorality revealed is the government's own contempt of Australian students by its failure to guarantee them a decent education.
Our Boys is a four-part documentary series filmed at Canterbury Boys High in Sydney. It features intimate glimpses of the lives of five teenage boys and their teachers as the boys struggle their way through high school and try to overcome problems encountered owing to their disadvantaged social backgrounds.
Each of the four episodes focuses on a particular boy (or, in the final episode, two boys) and provides a very graphic and realistic insight into their lives at school.
The first episode introduces us to Filipe Mahe, a disruptive, 15-year-old Tongan who has managed to reach Year 9 without being able to read or write. The school does not have the financial or human resources to deal with such problems, but through the help of head welfare teacher Kevin Bolten (who encourages Mahe's love of Tongan dance), Mahe develops the courage to overcome his shame and accept outside help in overcoming his illiteracy.
In the second episode, 17-year-old African immigrant Frank Mainoo hides his academic problems behind an effervescent personality. He dreams of being the next Denzel Washington, but his school performance starts to undermine his dreams.
English teacher Daryl Currie confronts Mainoo over his school performance. Mainoo breaks down as he reveals he has no social support — his mother lives in Ghana, and his sister, his only carer, intends to move to Germany. Mainoo's loneliness is palpable, and is felt further by the viewer reading the end notes at the episode's close — his mother passed away a month after filming.
Another struggling student is Iraqi refugee Roni Ishow, 17, who we meet in the third episode. In one powerful scene, Ishow and his mother discuss their escape from Iraq. Ishow was shot three times by border guards as the pair ran across the border to Turkey. His mother breaks down retelling the story; he laughs as he shows us where the three bullets entered his body.
Ishow wants to be an architect, but his dream becomes increasingly jeopardised by frequent school absences. He is often absent because his mother, who has poor English, needs him to translate for her in various situations.
In the final episode, director Kerry Brewster juxtaposes the problems faced by students Mohamed Yassine and Thong Le. Yassine, a devout Lebanese Muslim, hates academic subjects and is frequently in trouble. Thong Le is a studious Vietnamese youth under a lot of family pressure to get into medicine at university.
The final exams approach and both students are in trouble. Thong Le can't sleep at night and Yassine faces a long suspension.
Our Boys makes for compelling viewing. One can't help but emotionally identify with each of the students and teachers, so skilfully portrayed by Brewster.
A Walkley-award winning journalist, Brewster had virtually unlimited access to film students, teachers and parents at Canterbury Boys High throughout 2002. This unprecedented access to their real, daily lives is what makes this series so compelling.
While Our Boys is very sharply focused on case studies of a small group of selected boys, it has a highly political backdrop. As Brewster put it, reflecting on the politics of the year 2000 when the documentary was filmed: "Nearly every day the media was reporting an apparent crisis in public education — school budgets shrinking, teachers striking, large class sizes, falling enrolments, violence in and out of the schoolyard and teenage gang assaults."
More broadly, it was the year of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the "children overboard" scandal, and the Tampa affair. It was also the year of the re-election of John Howard — a former student at Canterbury Boys High.
At a time when the likes of Howard and his deputy, John Anderson, are publicly bemoaning the supposed lack of "values" in the public school system, this documentary series is a reality check. It provides a very realistic picture of Australia's public education system today — totally under-funded, understaffed and under-resourced. But it also reveals the valiant daily efforts of compassionate and capable teachers doing their best to help prepare the futures of some beautiful, talented and troubled high school students.
[Owen Richards is a high school teacher in Sydney's western suburbs].
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 4, 2004.
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