Who Is Sylvia

foreign [Music] foreign this is Sylvia a young girl 14 years old half child half woman [Music] she was up too late last night who is Sylvia and what is she a girl full of Dreams fears hopes as she lives the span between child and adult [Music] ordinary looking little girl isn't she rather timid intense she's only recently become a woman and she feels both proud and a little ashamed she's often uneasy and always self-conscious sometimes shrill sometimes shy and Silent always sensitive hypersensitive about face and body both seem so inferior to her yes [Applause] well get a move on you'll be late foreign [Music] I thought she wasn't supposed to sit except on Saturday nights we've been going out on Saturday so she had to be here I don't be here I can stay by myself eat your cereal she's saving money for something so I said she could sit last night well she gets her allowance yeah hold daughter awake I want to get a quarter that's too bad eat your cereal there's so many things at school there's always something she needs money for she needs her sleep more than she needs extra money oh I won't let her sit anymore and during the week then suppose you have to sell tickets at the show and dad's out at work well that's not fitting exactly not like for breakfast these are the main archives of Sylvia's life so far with their bodies minds and hearts they've made her what she is good people not too well off anxious to do the right thing but seldom certain of what it is she's a teenager they're so difficult weird little animals though right hi princess hi who's your best guy oh Dad really on a list shall I wait for you don't bother I have to call for a devil well it's only five minutes walk to school I know how far it is just around the corner can I why are you sure Patty you'll have a ride with the old man foreign do you want an egg no no what no thank you you mind your manner Sylvia Jackson what did I do you know you hurt your father's feelings well honestly mother that silly old Prince's best guy routine every morning well it's so childish that seems to be your favorite word these days you might at least have let him drive you to school in that old Jeep and it looks like I had to be brought to school like some little kid in grade one just don't get too big for your boots anyway I like to walk can I walk if I want to Adele says it's the best exercise there is Adele that's all we ever hear is Adele well I don't care she's my best friend and I don't see why you're always criticizing her I'm not I like Adele I'm very glad she's your friend it's just that hey never mind it's just that Sylvia has started to make a world of her own and there's less room in it for parents and brothers and people like that it's filled now with other youngsters also living the span between child and adult a new world for Sylvia fascinating and challenging with all sorts of codes and manners which must be learned and practiced or you can't be part of things you'd be outside and unwanted and that would be unbearable you must win a place in this new world beside it the world of home and parents seems dull and stifling yeah okay yeah so what else did they say oh let's keep picking at me well it's just like they were jealous or something I'm jealous oh we're jealous of what I don't know oh just because I didn't want to come to school in that old Jeep and I can't sit weeknights anymore not even one night Mrs proud always gives me two whole dollars oh gee that's too bad oh I can't understand that because well it wasn't so you'll be hiding your schoolwork or anything like that well you're almost headed to the class now well it's not that mostly I have to sit with Patty Saturday nights oh y'all never get enough money saved well maybe your mama buys a new dress no I don't want to ask her she'll bawl me out and fret and fuss and wind up buying it for me well she can't afford it she's working to pay for new washer as it is and there's so many bills to pay oh gosh money mother has to work today that means I have to be home right after four or otherwise a little monster will burn the house down oh gee we were going to get together after school somewhere tonight too yeah I know oh he's burning oh hi Bonnie hi Keith gosh I thought it's gonna be late again oh you look nice to sleep I've been doing that before Oh I don't know Sylvia has to go home yeah [Music] keep you company I don't know Bonnie I'd have to fool around we'll play some records and bring our own cooks and your mother won't have to finish anything she won't be there perfect no sorry I don't think we should you know I had not being there and everything she might not like him oh she won't care sure let's make it my prize [Music] [Applause] [Music] home friends in school these make up Sylvia's life School used to be not much more than reading and writing in Capital Cities and how much one-third of one-half is but High School is different foreign I think we've all decided then that the main thing in choosing a vocation is aptitude a liking for a particular thing and a certain ability for that subject now um Sylvia enjoys her art class and her drawings quite good so quite likely she has an aptitude learning is suddenly related to life and living was 2ab plus b squared is equal to zero of course there's still the study of facts and formulas a plus b times a plus b which is equal to zero plenty of these often crammed into Young Minds it is refracted or bent when it strikes at a slant a medium or different density as you can observe by a study of the figures we have placed on the board the light is bent toward a normal that is but there's excitement in learning too with those teachers who can generate it in the country you don't have on Saturday afternoons you don't have to go any to any sporting events lots of things sure there is sure there is in the country most of the sports are commercialized and I don't think you get as much of a thrill out of going to shows in the afternoon as you do in the country I know but in in the country it was only a dance um every Saturday night and in the city there's so many deaths that you can go to one every night if you want I've never stuck for anything to do well in the city you can go to Recreation perhaps the excitement doesn't last that depends on teacher and pupil [Music] [Music] and the excitement isn't the same for all for one youngster High School is a Prelude to more and Higher Learning for another it's a tedious preliminary to the legal right to leave and get a job but for the new arrival it's a great adventure the first step towards the grown-up world of being and doing home Friends School these make up the Adolescent world and of all three one is supreme the gang the kids the crowd they meet after a parting of minutes as though they hadn't met for years foreign this is the male contingent seemingly separate but very much aware of the female members who are equally attuned to the boys however preoccupied they may seem the gang hasn't reached the stage of pairing off though Bonnie and reg are almost going steady yeah come on let's go the gang can be cruel to those who aren't part of it those who do must constantly prove they aren't oddballs more often than not the gang is rude and loud and ludicrous we were all like this once intensely aware of the critical adult eye clowning to conceal our awkwardness and the hot embarrassment of being publicly in the company of the opposite sex unable to hold down a mad exuberance a wonderful surging Vitality that must laugh and Shout or burst [Music] sure we're having a fabulous time oh well we really should have asked you mother oh yeah I suppose so but well she just said no right off the way she always does besides it's my turn to have the kids in yeah okay she's gonna be awfully mad when she finds out well she won't be home till after six and well gosh Adele we've got to get everybody to leave before then yeah okay hey what about Patty well he's skating oh gosh Adele don't get me any more nervous than I am I'm sorry the boys will dance oh maybe red will yeah but only with Bob oh come on [Music] [Music] [Music] oh let's try this one Gene we don't have any decent records radio wasn't working what a house okay I hope these aren't stale doing a dance tanning sure okay yeah let's talk about a cookie oh okay you know we gotta do something about that Kenny nobody can get a word in edgewise yeah no you're not about yourself thanks for nothing you're welcome I thought [Applause] [Music] oh there they go okay no sneaking off YouTube [Music] Sylvia's gang is less sedate than some but much more sedate than many all these fervent groups of youngsters have their private rituals which they describe as fooling around this term covers a wide variety of activities don't break anything fooling around is not always loudness and horseplay shut up anywhere you don't have to stay in the city yeah like where frankly well will you take this guy who lives out in the jungle a big doctor and I mean a real Gasser of a doctor well he lives out there all by himself looking after the natives how can he be by himself if he's with the natives hey is this guy a missionary or something no he's a doctor well gee maybe he's a missionary I forget what's his name gee I forget man what a memory it's Dr Albert Schweitzer that's the guy swipe swiper swipe he runs the hospital in the French Congo in Africa and he's a good organist too what is he a German or something he's now stationed what a Frenchman to you oh hey how do we get in this doctor business anyway well Norman's brother's taking medicine Norman says how much it's gonna cost to set up a practice I say you don't have to stay in the city go anywhere when you're a doctor yeah but my brother doesn't want to go to the Congo group okay so he goes up north where there's a real shortage of doctors up north he says are you gonna make any money treating Eskimos take any money but you like a mission there's not that type oh you don't get the point what are you blow good and I'll dig man but you're too far out hey it's getting dark we better go come on hey we better fix up the carpet and stuff okay we will hey we're the lovebirds hey love birds come on love bird have to be going rich okay puppy love pure physical need whatever it is it's strong and urgent hello oh Mom well well the kids were just leaving oh two of them seemed settled for a long stay well we were just talking Mrs Jackson I think you better all run along now [Applause] come on you guys couch and the others were Clowning Around in here mom you'll go to bed up there I'll come up and tan you good and then what I sent the kids home and gave her talking to talking to great she sneaks her Pals in there when we're gone stages a necking party and you give her a talking tube that's not so was young Bonnie that Hunter kid the rest of them were sitting around talking yes when you got here but what about before I don't think there was anything going on she told me everything that happened she tells you just what she wants to tell you just like she's always done now you can't get a straight answer out of that kid anymore you ask her a question why gosh it's as if she was getting the third degree well I still believe her she's pretty honest and that she's only 14. that's the point 14 and already she's boy crazy oh she's nothing of a Kind well read the paper and see what kids are 14 are up to these days he fights crime some of them run wild but that doesn't mean they all do and are the wild kids of the day any wilder than we were when we were young yes they look and act and talk like Muslims oh you're judging them all by the few look I was considered a pretty wild Kid myself and believe me I was no little saint but my girlfriends weren't easy marks and I didn't spend my time stealing cars and slashing movie seats and beating up on people what's that got to do with this afternoon Sylvia had her friends and without permission two of them were kissing each other out in the hallway did that make them a gang of juvenile delinquents no way no I don't mean that I this thing today it doesn't matter I guess but it makes you wonder is she going to turn out like some of them do that's what worries me and she's all right how perfect I know but she's pretty good why is she so hard to talk to you just can't get close to that kid anymore she's growing up I guess doesn't need us so much anymore yeah remember how she was always following us around asking questions a regular little Chatterbox [Music] starting that Bonnie and ridge they sure got me in hot water [Music] Molly was so worried she thought we'd all been gosh we didn't do anything [Music] as if I was 10 everything I do is wrong I wish everything was different which everybody was different [Music] oh no man hi everybody hi Mom the kids were just leaving oh two of them seemed settled for a long stay I bet you caught some neck and they aren't they silly I mean you think they'd be embarrassed behaving like that almost in public but they are kind of crazy about each other so we just put up with them don't we kids yeah oh so worried Mrs Jackson they're the only love birds in this gang if you say so Norman I mean a lot of kids parents would have blown their top yeah I know she's just wow well it's next time go home I suppose you're right about those too but they do seem a little young for that sort of thing oh like they're kind of but you see they're both good looking well somehow the good looking kids grow off before the rest of us because well most of us aren't pretty and the girls I mean well we don't get much interest in the opposite sex and well you see I'm a slop how about the boys the boys are nice you mean well I guess they're interested in this but in the past kind of way of course they're not like the Rocks they're rocks they're the hard types and they think they're very sophisticated they're always on the make you learn these expressions mother movies TV stories everywhere oh there's no rocks in our gang so you don't have to worry about these boys all right there well I guess you should worry because see they're boys and we're girls and there you are and there you are it's life isn't it it's life I better go check the kids out we've got to get going with supper is everything okay oh we had a fabulous oh and thank you Mrs Jackson oh that's quite all right Adele hey this place looks as good as new yeah if it's okay with the boss come in anytime kids well I better get dinner good night kids come on kid let's go okay and don't be late eh okay I gotta study so bye okay bye bye mom uh I wish you let me say just one weeknight I need the money for a New Dress you can get along without a New Dress can't you dear we don't have much money for clothes you know I know well that's why I want to get it myself oh we'll see oh goodness you're as bad about clothes well as anybody well everybody fusses about clothes for almost everybody who are they fuss about hair for cars or TV sets or something they feel they have to have as far so anyway sitting one weeknight doesn't hurt me at school I have an aptitude you know whatever that is it's liking for something and some ability in that direction mine is for art Miss Templeton said so what did she said I could probably do design or commercial art or even fine art well that's a long way off yet everything is a long way off is it always like that or just when you're young oh mostly when you're young I guess Jima when you become a person and when does that happen everyone has a person no not kids they're just kids and they belong to someone and someone is always telling them what to do well you can't be a person that way and your father and me we don't give orders just because we like giving them but for your own good always yes very nearly always maybe we do nag a little but we love you and we worry about you I know you do but you want me to be just so just the way you think I ought to be never talked like this before I wanted to but it's hard to say what you mean especially when you think nobody's really listening to you sweetie we listen to you I mean really listen and not just call me sweetie like I was Patty a cute little kid I'm not Patty I'm not even Sylvia like I used to be no you're not but you and Dad seem to want me to be and I can't shove you nobody can be just what they want to be and nobody can do exactly as they want to do there have to be rules for kids and for grown-ups I know that but it's different for grown-ups they're persons I want to be a person person [Music] Sylvia don't go to sleep there get in the bed oh why are we stop talking what oh I guess I was dreaming I'll get in the bed you're tired out [Applause] what were you dreaming about nothing good night sweetie who is Sylvia and what is she half child half woman full of dreams and hopes and fears as she lives the span between child and adult [Music] good night Sylvia foreign [Music]