Walking.

One of the rules imposed on the teachers by the School Board in Etobicoke, Ontario, where I taught for five years, in the 70’s, was that we were never to show any audio visual films, to our students, unless we had previewed them first.

In the Catalogue, under the heading, “General Film-  Levels K. to Yr 12.”, was a title for an animated film called, “WALKING.” The description sounded so innocuous, that I thought, No need to preview. What could possibly be a problem with a little animated film suitable for kids from kindy through to Yr 12. I’ll use it as a Language exercise to motivate writing about their observations of all the different ways walking takes place.

I darkened the room and we settled down to watch.

The animated film began well, with colourful scenes of various people, old and young, rich and poor, walking through all kinds of different places, like parks, beaches and forests .The score was zippy and I could see lots of ways to use the content in discussion afterwards.

But then, nearing the end of the film, a close- up of two naked feet filled the screen, and the camera began to pan up and up the bony legs, showing the nobbly knees, and on up, until, frozen with horror, I realized the male figure, walking so jauntily, was going to be utterly naked. As the camera moved up, his interesting little genitalia seemed to take on a life of its own, with music to match. I froze, but sat, controlled and expressionless as my Year 5 children took a peep at me to see my reaction. Apparently I was quite used to seeing naked males in living colour on the screen, and I valiantly ignored their giggles and nudges .

But there was more.

The next shot showed large sexy feet, with painted toenails. Oh no! A naked female! Up and up, past dozens of dancing little pubic hairs, blowing in the breeze and on up, to the little pink nipples keeping animated time to the music.

The news spread throughout the staff, like a wildfire out of control.” Come and see Meg’s porno  movie……….. private screenings in the library throughout the lunch hour. Adults Only.”

When I was in Canada, 35 years later, at a reunion with a group of those same teachers, one of them reminded me of the incident, and said it had been the highlight of her whole teaching career.