Flint Michigan 1962 - The Great Community

To Touch A Child is a fascinating short film from 1962 created by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Flint Michigan was a national leader and innovator in many ways even outside of the automobile industry, the school system being no exception. I grew up in Flint's East Side in the 70's & 80's and can tell you that a positive "can do" attitude permeated the city. I attended Williams Elementary School (built in 1968), which had an Olympic swimming pool with a retractable roof, hockey & ice skating rink, wood shop, tennis court, gymnasium, auditorium, nature preserve, park, football & baseball fields... There was always something to do at the school for anyone who wanted to attend, and I personally benefited from the programs instituted by the great philanthropists of Flint Names like Whaley, Sloan, Longway, Kearsley, Whiting, Mott and Manley among others. Flint has one of the most interesting history's of any city in the United States. While some outsiders today say the city is dead, the people who lived there and knew what a great city looked like long to see that great community system return. A system that has never existed since Flint.

The legacy Frank J. Manley and Charles S. Mott created by funding after school programs using existing Flint public school buildings was the first of its kind and adopted nation wide soon after. Anyone who ever attended an event after school can thank Frank J Manley, who came up with the idea, and Mott, who paid for it.

For those not from the Flint area, it might sound crazy, but you could get an almost free education in just about anything you could imagine. Technical, vocational, academic, or just plain recreational, you could sign up for classes that took place after school and better yourself. Today, you'd have to pay thousands for University quality classes at an "extended campus" program.

Directed by Herk Harvey, an industrial/educational film director, the film focuses on Cook School in Flint, Michigan. The film was instrumental in the spread of the community school idea throughout the nation.

The film begins with children playing in the street, down by the river, while vacant school buildings lie dormant (in the film the newly built Southwestern High School is shown along with Potter Elementary and 2 others).

At almost 50 years old, To Touch A Child is a dated film but a remarkable window into Flint culture and American culture at the time. There are hilarious references to the classic housewife dieting and cake decorating of the period. There are highly melodramatic elements and unnecessary camera movement. However the film, thankfully, isn't totally dismissible. And so very pertinent today as the United States struggles to raise its next generation of kids. The US should look at the history of Flint to see it's own future.

To Touch A Child - 1962

Category:

Education

Tags:

• To Touch A Child
• Charles Stewart Mott
• Frank J Manley
• Flint MI
• Board of Education
• Community School
• Cook Elementary
• Flint Southwestern
• Potter Elementary
• Homedale
• Williams

[gopconservative78]

This was before the Negroes ruined it!

[Maytons]

@gopconservative78 I believe you mean NAFTA and Corporatism ruined Flint. In case you didn't notice there are black people in this video. It's people like you who made me switch from GOP to Libertarian. It's a sickness.

[Maytons]

@gopconservative78 PS- I see you are a Ron Paul supporter as I am. Ron would be ashamed of your statement.

[AmaoNoBolso]

there s no way we can blame it on black people. Blame it on drugs problems, crimes and the ghetto. All blacks dont live in the ghetto.

[Maytons]

@AmaoNoBolso Agreed my friend, very much so!! =)

[ladiefare]

I grew up on the Eastside of Flint from '67 to'86. It's amazing to look back at what we considered normal and realize just how progressive it was.It makes what has happened to Flint all the more saddening. It was such a great community... once upon a time.I'd like to think it could be again but that would take a monumental effort by the community itself.We were so lucky.There needs to be more of this mentality today in school systems and communities everywhere.

[radroofer]

Hey my fellow Flintoid! Did you or will you show this to the Flint School Board? Sometimes the old ideas are still the best. God Bless You!

[bjroberts65]

Thumbs up if the thumbnail reminds you of the bus they used in the movie ''Bustin loose''

[RetroToledo]

@60odeeman I do too (and I wasn't even born yet).

[Tomern121]

@Maytons yea its sad that some people ruined what could of been the greatest city in the U.S.

[Maytons]

@Tomern121 Sadly I must agree with you my friend, though when I grew up there in the 70s & 80s it was the safest place in the world.

[Tomern121]

@Maytons this city is marked the most dangerous city in America