Moon landings in primary schools

Sourced from: http://www.universetoday.com/20327/pictures-of-the-moon/

Roslyn was just 8 years old when a Mr Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon. The year was 1969 and Roslyn was in year 3 at Miranda Primary School, eagerly awaiting with the other school kids and their teachers for the moon landing to occur live on national television.

Being in the top year 3 class, Roslyn’s class, along with her brother Peter’s top year 4 class, gained the privilege of seeing the moon landing as it was aired on TV. The school had very few television sets – in fact, they possibly only had the one – and this TV was a small black and white set that was wheeled around on a trolley. Due to the logistics of wheeling a TV trolley all the way down the stairs to the year 4 classroom, the year 4 class had to come to Roslyn’s class. From first thing in the morning, the two classes were crammed into one room for the duration of the day.

As it was unknown when the moon landing was going to occur, the school kids kept themselves occupied playing games all day, in what can only be imagined as the kind of lazy day everyone experiences at least once as a primary school student when you have a casual teacher for the day, or you have to stay inside for lunch because of the rain, or it’s an exciting day where you’ve been allowed to wear casual clothes.

The teachers kept a close eye on the TV, placed in the corner of the room, where news reporters would occasionally appear to continue to keep the viewers updated on what was happening. As Roslyn played with her friends in the classroom that day, she recalls the various times where it was asked ‘Is it happening yet? Is it happening?’ only to find out that the moon landing had been delayed. The TV itself had very poor reception, so it was difficult to make out what was occurring regardless.

Eventually the kids all went out to lunch on the day, and once they returned from lunch, there was a great silence that fell over the top year 3 and 4 classes. The reporters on TV had suddenly become more excited and it was heard that transmissions of the moon landing where to be seen shortly. The classes were all hushed, watching this small black box in the corner of the room.

The images were so distorted, it was not easy to tell what was what. The transmissions themselves were already blurry, and this situation was worsened by the terrible signal  – was that a person? Or was that a ladder? Was it a person stepping down off a ladder?

Then the room roared with excitement! Fifty something school kids and their teachers leaping in their chairs and cheering! He had stepped upon the moon! One giant leap for mankind!

And this is a prime example of how in the past the television experience, at least for Roslyn, was directly linked to this sense of excitement and belonging. Her memories of television during this time are very few, as it wasn’t watched as commonly as it was in her teenage years. However, the memories she does have of it involve her sitting around the television set with her family or her friends, as a social event. There was this concept of a shared pleasure that enticed people to sit around the TV together (Butsch, 2000, p.252). It was always separated as an activity – she was never allowed to watch TV during dinner as the dining table was in a separate room to the TV. It was only once dinner was finished that she was allowed to sit in front of it and watch an array of shows.

Roslyn recalls the news being very common, but also watching Hogan’s Heroes, Bewitched, The Addams Family and her favourite, Gilligan’s Island, to name a few. She recalls the group of kids she used to hang out with in the neighbourhood, and how they would play Gilligan’s Island in each other’s backyard. Roslyn said she used to play Mary Anne Summers from the TV show most of the time and that no one wanted to play Mrs Howell.

Television in the 60s and 70s was a fond memory of Roslyn’s, reminding her of time spent socialising with family and friends and the excitement she would feel around it.

REFERENCES

Butsch, R 2000, The Making of American Audiences: From Stage to Television 1750-1990,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 252-267.

O’Gorman, Sean 2013, interview with Roslyn O’Gorman, 24 August 2013, Sydney.

IMAGE: Cain, F 2012, Pictures of the Moon, Universe Today, weblog post, 29 April, viewed 24 August 2013, <http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/529.jpg&gt;