Original subtitles

- World in Action enters the struggling,

changing world of the seven-year-old.

- He's a polar bear.

Look at those claws!

- This is no ordinary outing to the zoo,

it's a very special occasion.

We've brought these 20 children together

for the very first time.

They're like any other children, except that they come

from startlingly different backgrounds.

- You mustn't give it. No feeding, it says.

- Stop it at once!

- I know there's no feeding but it doesn't really matter.

- We brought these children together because

we wanted a glimpse of England in the year 2000.

The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000

are now seven years old.

Give me a child until he is seven

and I will give you the man.

Let's get to know these children.

Taking her little sister to school

on a London council estate, Jackie.

From the Yorkshire Dales, Nicholas.

He goes to a one room village school,

four miles away from his home.

From this Liverpool suburb, we chose Neil.

And this is Tony.

His girlfriend calls him a monkey.

He goes to one of the older schools

in the East End of London.

- Would everybody please sit round now,

get on with their work.

I don't want to see any backs to me.

Shouldn't be anybody turning round.

Tony, do you hear as well?

- Next to Tony there

is his girlfriend, Michelle.

- Tony!

Don't turn round again.

- In this classroom, Waltzing Matilda

is being rendered in Latin.

This is an exclusive pre-prep school in Kensington.

- I think the Beatles are mad

because they make too much noise,

and their hairstyle is so bad.

If they composed softer music, I wouldn't mind so much.

- I just loathe the haircut.

- That was John.

- If you loathe the haircut,

you wouldn't have liked Henry V's haircut.

- This is Charles...

and that is Andrew.

This dormitory is in a children's home,

supported by charity.

This is Paul...

and Simon.

- I had one dream when all the world was on top of me

and everything was on it,

and I just about got out,

and everything flew up in the air,

it now all landed on my head.

- Very good.

Going through!

- My heart's desire is to see my Daddy,

who's 6,000 miles away.

- Bruce doesn't live with his parents either,

but for a different reason.

He goes to a private boarding school in Surrey.

Bruce wants to be a missionary.

- I think the most important thing in the world is

for everyone to know about God.

I think we should give most of our money to the poor people.

- In the Headmistress' study

of a fashionable school for girls, we met Susie.

We spoke to her deep in the chintz of the staff room.

- Tell me, do you have any boyfriends, Susie?

- Yeah.

- Tell me about them.

- He lives up in Scotland, and I think he's 13.

And I'm rather lonely up there

because he used to go to school

and we used play until about half past six

when he comes home from school.

Then we go in and then he goes home to do his homework.

- The world of the seven year old

can be primitive, even violent.

What do the children themselves think about fighting?

- Is it important to fight? Yes.

- Well, I feel like bundling when there's already a fight.

I always feel like that.

I always feel like bundling when there's already one.

- Neil from the Liverpool suburb.

- We don't do much fighting in school because

we think it's horrible, and it hurts.

- Sometimes we go out and play nicely with the boys

and sometimes we go out and argue with the boys.

- Susan, Jackie's friend.

- Most of the time we're alright but the other day,

when I remember, we were all coming to school

and at play time, when we got out,

they started hitting us so we started a fight on them.

- So we said we're never gonna play with you again--

- But we always do.

- If they fight me, I think,

I think if someone comes up and starts a fight on them

I think it serves them right.

- We'll play Richard the Lionheart, and William Tell.

- Well we pretend we've got swords,

and we make the noise of the swords fighting

and then when somebody stabs us, we go "Arrgh".

- Nicholas, from Yorkshire, seven this year.

- I have quite a lot of fun when I fight.

I always like to wait 'till someone...

You better watch out for me, 'cause as soon as

you're not looking, I like to dash up

and put my hands in front of them,

and hit them against your back.

- On the grass we play International Wrestling.

- Yeah. That's only in summer time, though.

- Yes, only when we can go on the grass.

- I just like fighting somehow.

- Yeah, tell me about it.

- I just walloped him.

He was in the washroom, my mate, and he threw soap at me,

and I chased him in the class and clunked him one.

- When I was down in the place at Kent,

there was this little boy who was younger than me

and my nanny was having a game with him,

and he was a naughty boy 'cause he slapped me in the tummy.

Some boys can be nice and others can be horrible.

And then he slapped nanny and I don't like that kind of boy.

- Jacqueline, what do you think about boys fighting?

- Well, it's really silly to fight,

'cause if you fight and Miss comes in the classroom,

you only get told off.

- I think discipline is fair enough.

Farmer's the Sergeant, and he's quite a good one.

Last term he wasn't, he had a cold,

and we didn't want to wear his voice out from shouting.

- And that's Farmer, he gives me nightmares.

- To the left, turn!

- The vast majority of seven-year-olds

know little of discipline.

But a few, from the moment they are born,

are trained to accept it.

- Squad steady!

Squad, left foot in one place!

Squad breathing!

- Well I don't like the big boys hittin' us,

and the prefects sending us out for nothing,

and the monitors us up in the washroom,

sendin' us out, when there's no talking,

no I wasn't talking today,

and Brown sent me out for nothing.

- I think the system of having House Captains

is rather good, because when somebody's naughty,

the House Captain asks him,

and has a talk to him.

Once I had a talk to Gregor, he was in my house,

and I asked if he could put him out of my house,

because he was always getting minuses.

- What did Sir say?

- Sir said that we would see about it this term.

- Well, I think it's very good system.

- Have you had to speak to anyone?

- It's just because of the old one, I suppose.

- No, I haven't.

- You're not, are you?

- But I am.

Sean Macanessy got three minuses in a day.

He's a pest.

- Do you think House Captains

should be elected, or appointed by Sir?

- Appointed.

- I think it's more fair if they're elected.

- Yes so do I, but I think it's best to be employed.

- Yes because you didn't--

- It's much easier, because all you have to do

is count out the pluses and there you are.

- At Susie's school,

the exercise is classical ballet.

For Neil and his classmates, it's free movement to music.

Michelle and her friends are left to amuse themselves.

This distinction between freedom and discipline

is the key to their whole future.

What about after school?

What do they do in their spare time?

- When I have go home I have tea,

then I practise my piano,

and then I practise my recorder,

and then I start watching television.

- What time do you go to bed?

- Well I have my bath at six o'clock.

And then go to bed at seven and

read 'till half past seven.

- I usually go to bed 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock.

- When I go home, I go and see my mother,

then I have tea and watch TV,

and then I do my homework and I go see my father.

- And then what time do you go to bed?

- Last night I didn't go to bed 'till seven.

- When I go home I come in

and mummy gives me a cup of tea,

and then I go out and play,

and when it starts to get dark I come in again,

and put on TV.

- I'm the only child in the village except for

my baby brother.

It was one last Friday...

I mean the Friday before last Friday.

- Neil from Liverpool said

he preferred living in town.

- Because in the winter, if you lived in the country,

well it was just all wet,

and there wouldn't be anything for miles around,

and you get soaked if you try to go out,

and there's no shelter anywhere,

except in your own house.

But in the town you can go out on wet wintry days,

'cause you can always find somewhere to shelter,

'cause there's lots of places.

- They'd like to come out for a holiday in the country

when I like to have a holiday in the town.

- In Tony and Michelle's school, unlike others,

boys and girls are brought together in the classroom,

and they meet quite naturally in the picture queue

on Saturday morning.

- Sometimes on Saturday morning I go and see the pictures.

Sometimes with my friends, sometimes with him.

- You don't.

- I do.

- She don't.

I don't ever see ya.

You go to a different pictures.

- Last week I went to the one where you go.

- Yeah but I didn't go.

- Tell me, do you have any girlfriends?

- Well, not many.

- What do you think about girls?

- Not much. I don't think much of girls.

- Catch the boy, kiss the boy.

- Or sometimes we get our own back and say

"catch a girl and kiss a girl."

- Yeah.

- And what happens then?

- Well the girls are all screaming.

- Yeah.

And when we catch them, we kiss them.

- Yes.

- And when it's catch a boy, kiss a boy,

when the girls catch us they kiss us.

- And they say "Aaaagh!"

- Yeah.

- Much, much louder though.

- If we did all love Jeffrey, and we all want to marry him--

- Yeah.

- I think I know the one that he'd like best,

and that's her!

But Susan most of all likes Leslie.

She told me before. - Do I!?

- Yes, you did.

She keeps changin' her mind though.

- Yeah, dunno which one really.

- Well, my girlfriend is in Africa,

and I don't think I'll have another chance

of seeing her again.

And there were two in Switzerland which I like too,

in a hotel, Park Hotel.

- Well I know he is her, and he loves her.

- I don't, I love him.

And these two--

- I don't love you, I love Christopher.

- He loves Susan 'cause Susan loves him,

he loves Lindsay, Lindsay loves him.

- I don't love--

- Well, once Carolyn Setford said she loved me.

- What do you think about--?

- And I'm going to marry her when I grow up.

- I hate her.

She's always getting bad tempered and cross with me.

- Is she?

- Yeah. She said, "Neil Hughes, move your desk forward"

and sometimes...

when she's supposed to have the chairs back on the desk,

and when I put it pack she said,

"Neil Hughes, take your chair forward",

and she just gets into girlie cross with me like that.

- I would like to get married when I grow up.

Well I don't know what sort of boy but I think one that...

that's not got a lot of money,

but he has got some money, not a lot.

- Would you like to get married, Paul?

Tell me why not.

- I don't like...

Say you had a wife,

say you had to eat what they cooked you,

and say I don't like greens, well I don't,

and say she said "you have to eat what you get give",

so I don't like greens, so if she gives me greens,

then that's it.

- When I get married,

I don't want to have any children,

because they're always doing naughty things

and making the whole house untidy.

- When I get married I'd like to have two children.

- Would you like to have a nanny

to look after them or do you want to look after them?

- No, I want a nanny to look after them.

- If I could, I would have two girls and two boys.

- Yeah, so would I.

- And what about you, Jackie?

- My mum, 'cause she got five girls,

she had seven years bad luck,

that's why she's got five girls.

But when my baby was supposed to be born we all wished

it was a boy but we were all waiting in my nan's for my dad,

'cause he visited her.

He came home and said "it's another girl, kids".

We said "awwwh".

- And what do you think about girlfriends

at your age now?

Tell me what you think about girlfriends.

- I've got one but I don't think much of her.

- No but I said that when boys go round with girls,

they don't pay attention to what they're doing.

Yes, since my grandmother had an accident,

because a boyfriend was kissing his girlfriend

in the street.

- And the girls never, never, never do

what the boys want them.

They always start playing with dolls when the boys want to

play rough and tumble with them.

- It's quite true.

- They are rather boring.

You never get a chance to play with them

and things like that.

- Rough and tumble and that.

And they always start playing with their dolls.

- Yes, yes and as soon as you want to do--

- And silly games like that.

- Only intelligent girls start playing with you.

- And they always take you away

from whatever game you're playing yourself.

- Yes, they say "I don't want to play that game"

or silly things like that.

- Yes and they start crying--

- Yes.

- Do you have a girlfriend?

- I don't want to answer that.

I don't answer those kind of questions.

- They love.

- That's right--

- The verb, to love, "amo"

- Now let's have the present tense of "amo".

Good. What was that last word?

Fill out the gaps on the board, now.

Have a bit of chalk.

In your best writing, please.

What does mean?

- We love.

- No.

Gordon,

- You love.

- You love, second person isn't it?

- Yes, sir.

- Now then, Russel.

Let's have the present tense of

That's right.

Let's have the present tense of

- Yes, speak up.

Now then, what does mean,

you know?

- I...

- All right, let's turn, oh, got it?

- Lay waste.

- to lay waste.

- Alright. Alright, you can talk again.

- Are the children themselves aware of

differences between rich and poor?

Have they learned prejudice?

What do they think about money?

- I think it's not a bad idea to pay for school,

because if we didn't,

schools would be so nasty and crowded.

- Yes

- So do I think so?

- Yes

- And the people in the schools wouldn't--

- And poor people would come rushing in.

- The man in charge of the school would--

- Get very angry.

- Would get very angry because he would--

- And he'd get bankrupt.

- he wouldn't be able to pay all the masters

if he didn't get any money.

- And he'd go bankrupt because paying all the--

- What does bankrupt mean?

- Have no more money and go to prison.

- Oh.

- Why d'you have to go to prison?

- Because that obviously means

you've been spending it too much.

- I've got 23 three penny pieces,

and I dunno how many halfpenny pieces I've got though.

- I read the Financial Times.

- I read the Observer and the Times.

- What do you like about it?

- I usually look at the headlines,

and then read about it.

- I like my newspaper because I've got shares in it,

and I know every day what the shares are.

Yeah, but on Mondays they don't move up,

so I don't look at it.

- What would you do if you had lots of money, about £2.

- Me?

- Lindsay.

- I would help the poor.

- Yeah, 'cause the poor, if you don't help them

they'll sort of die soon won't they?

And every time we have we have a harvest festival

we send 'em food.

Once, Susan and Janet Simpson went round giving it out,

with Mr Floyd.

- What do you think about rich people?

- Well, not much.

- Tell me about them.

- Well they think they can do everything,

without you doing it as well.

They think just because they're rich

and they have people like,

they have to do all their work and stuff.

- I don't think much of the accents.

- Neither do I.

- The accents don't prevent me liking them.

- Poor children don't boast about themselves.

- No, they don't.

- Because rich children boast about themselves

and say "how clever I am" and things like that.

- I don't, no.

- Yes, and rich children always make fun

of poor children, I think.

- Yes, they say "Oh, look at that lovely little sissy

"over there", or something horrible like that.

- Yes. And they throw things at them.

- Yes

- The poor child gets scared to death.

- The posh 'uns

"oh yes, oh yes, oh yes."

They're nuts.

Just have to touch 'em.

- Jacqueline, what do you think about coloured people?

You said to me once that you liked them

but what do you really think about them?

- Well they're nice, they're just the same as us really

but one thing, it's only 'cause their skin's brown,

and we're white.

Sort of pinkish, we are.

Some people from Africa come here but when they go,

they put their clothes on.

- I've only seen them on television and places like that.

- I don't know anybody who's coloured,

and I don't want to know anybody who's coloured,

thank you very much.

- Coloured people? Well I don't like them very much.

- No, it sounds a bit ghostly, "coloured people".

- Hmm.

- You think of a purple person with red eyes--

- Yeah.

- yellow feet and...

You can't really think of what they really look like.

- They're just the same as me, aren't they?

- What do they think about each other?

And how would they act together?

To find out, we invited them all to

one big party, and joined in.

- Tell me, what did you three think about

the other children that you met today, and all that.

There were quite varieties.

- Yes but they were a bit too tough for my liking.

- They hit me right in the back

and I've still got a pain there.

- Well, some of them were rather dirty.

- What do you think about them?

- I played with them quite naturally.

I think they were rather nice really.

- Don't like the boys.

There were three and I don't like all of them, none of them.

- What about the girls?

Yeah, I liked that girl,

but I don't like the boys.

- Why?

- Once I pulled his scarf and he said,

"Don't you pull my scarf", like that, and I hate him.

And when we was at that park,

he went round punching everybody.

- If some of our children didn't get on

with each other, does it really matter?

After all, they're not likely to meet in the same classroom.

At the Kensington school, all the boys are being prepared

for public school places and university.

Whereas of these 30 children, getting their milk from Tony,

only three are likely to win a place at a grammar school.

Indeed, the vast majority will leave school

and start work at 14.

But what plans do the children themselves have?

- When I leave this school I'm going to Colet Court,

and then I will be going to Westminster Boarding School

if I pass their exam.

And then we think I'm going to Cambridge and Trinity Hall.

- What does university mean?

- Well before I'm old enough to get a job,

I'll just walk around and see what I can find.

- When I leave this school,

I go to Broadstairs, St Peter's Court.

And after that I'm going to Charter House.

And after that, Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

- I'd like to be like Cathy Kirby.

- I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

Yeah, I wanna be a jockey when I grow up.

- When I leave school I'm going

to the Dragon School, I might.

And after I might go to Charter House, Marlborough.

I can't remember one place as well,

because mummy's got so many but there's some of them.

- What about university, Charles?

- I might go to Oxford.

- Well, I don't think that I need to go to university

'cause I'm not gonna be a teacher.

- I don't think you want to go to university

if you want to be an astronaut.

- When I grow up I want to be an astronaut,

but if I can't be an astronaut,

I think I'll be a coach driver.

- And tell me about coach driving.

- Well I'm going to take people to the country,

and sometimes take them to the seaside,

and I'll have a big, loud speaker in the motor coach

and tell them whereabouts we are and what we're going to do,

and what the name of the road is and all about that.

- Well, if I can't be an astronaut,

I'd like to be a Bradwell Sergeant in the Police Force,

like my dad is.

- I was gonna be a policeman,

but I thought how hard it would be to join in.

- When I leave this school I'm down for

Heathfield and Southdowns Manor,

and then maybe I may want to go to a university

but I don't know which one yet.

- I will buy myself a new nice house, you know.

- Yeah.

- One that's all nice and comfy.

- I'm going to work in Woolworths.

- When I grow up, I'd like to find out all about the moon

and all that.

- Well I'll go into Africa,

and try and teach people who are not civilised

to be more or less good.

- At the end of their very special day in London,

after their trip to the zoo and the party,

we took our children to an adventure playground,

where they could do just what they liked.

Those from the children's home set about building a house.

There's Nicholas...

And Tony.

Andrew and Bruce.

John.

Susie.

Jackie and her friends.

Give me a child until he is seven,

and I will give you the man.

This has been a glimpse of Britain's future.

If you want to see what happens to these children,

look in at Granada television on Tuesday May 2nd

in the year 2000.