The Life & Times of Alan Grihault (Part Two)

Last post we left Alan seemingly jobless in the UK, after 50 years of dedication to teaching and teacher training. What follows next is a story of determination and perseverance that should be an example to us all. Read part 1 of The Life & Times of Alan Grihault).

Having been refused further employment by DfID (Department for International Development) because he was over 60, Alan received a further blow when an Indonesian Educational Project with Cambridge Education ended, due to Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor where he was to be posted.

For the next 6 months Alan and his wife Sara lived in Plymouth, but in 2000 Sara’s mother passed away and they visited Mauritius for the funeral. Being on the island inspired Alan to find out more about the Dodo, but he was surprised to discover that several paragraphs in the Encyclopaedia Britannica was the best information that could be found.

Back in Plymouth, Alan began to research and write about the Dodo himself. Then, with the book almost complete and his wife’s work contract over, they decided to move back to Mauritius for a trial period of 3 years.

Once settled on the island, Alan’s priority was to find a publisher for his book. This was easier said than done. The first publisher took 3 months to decide whether or not they would publish and the second said they would publish, but in black and white. Finally, lucky number three took only 2 days to decide that they would publish.

Did I say lucky? Two Christmases and nineteen months later the book was ready for printing, with Alan having worked at the printers many times and helped with the page layout himself. It was, to say the least, “a terrible and frustrating experience!” Finally, the owner of the company admitted that he could not print the book himself, but that another printer could, on Sundays...

So, one Sunday 1000 copies of the book were printed and 50 were bound. Alan bought all 50 but, upon receiving them, he stopped his cheque as the book was a complete mess. Now, unbeknown to Alan, stopping cheques is illegal in Mauritius. The police were called and Alan paid the cheque.

In the mean time another printer, Mr Michel Coquet of IPC limited, had gone through the book page by page and highlighted all the printing errors. Following an acrimonious meeting with the original printer Alan was offered the other 950 books for Rs150 each, but as they were of such poor quality and unsellable, Alan refused.

Michel came to the rescue. The dodo is an integral part of Mauritian history and he wanted to make his mark by printing and publishing the book himself and leaving something for posterity.

The whole debacle turned out to be something of a blessing, as the delay allowed Alan to conduct further research and he was able to re-write the book including the latest information. It is now a book that he is justly proud of. Alan also wrote two other small books during this period, “How to Get a Job” and “How to Study and Pass Exams”.

Alan has also ventured into the arena of broadcasting. The Mauritian Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) broadcast the Mauritius College of the Air (MCA) which produces children’s programmes for television. With no prior experience, Alan offered his help and they agreed that he could present a series of ten programmes, for radio, in which he would narrate stories such as Aladdin and Dick Wittington.

Although the series was of excellent quality it was, inexplicably, never aired. A pity for, as Alan notes, radio is an excellent format for teaching children as it stimulates the imagination and creativity. In contrast, television has a hypnotic effect and evidence suggests that it may actually retard early brain development.

Despite this unexpected turn of events, Alan continued to work with the MCA and produced ten new stories, this time for television. He also presented a new Maths series called ‘Maths Alive’. Alan felt that children didn’t want to switch on their television sets and see the same sort of mathematics as they had been doing in their classroom. They wanted to see something lively and in real life situations. The series was a tremendous success and Alan has become a mini-celebrity amongst young children. Alan has also presented many science programmes such as “Science is Fun”, and a new venture is a couple of programmes on ‘Pirates’.

The President’s Fund for Creative Writing in English, was another excellent project that Alan has worked on since “retirement”. It consisted of regional workshops with primary school teachers, instructing them how to teach creative writing through storytelling, poetry and drama. The scheme was very successful and participants benefited enormously from the experience. Alan would dearly like to do more!

The success of “Dodo – The bird behind the Legend” prompted Alan to write his next book, “Solitaire – The Dodo of Rodrigues Island”. Published in 2007, it is about the dodo’s cousin, another extinct bird, and is a very interesting read.

Now 72 years old, Alan can be an inspiration for us all. He still runs regularly and is at present Grandmaster of the Mauritian Hash House Harriers. He has spent the last three years researching the pirates and treasures of Mauritius and has recently aired two programmes for the MCA on the subject. He has another children’s book, “Pirates’ Treasure on Dodo Island” in the pipeline... but, as they say, that’s another story.
Alan’s website is: www.dodosite.com

© Islandinfo

The Life & Times of Alan Grihault (Part One)

Born inauspiciously in the Channel Islands on July 10th 1936, Alan left with his mother at the age of 6 months never to look back. Little did he know that over the course of his lifetime he would travel much of the world, help educate thousands of children, become an expert on two extinct birds and eventually settle on another small island, this one in the Indian Ocean some six thousand miles from where he was born – here in Mauritius.
Alan’s mother was a nurse, a valuable profession at the best of times and invaluable during World War Two, which dominated Alan’s early childhood. From the age of two he was boarded out to care facilities while his mother lived and worked in the hospital at Teignmouth, Devon, in Southern England. Some of his earliest memories are of bombs exploding in the distance, but these are tempered by pleasant memories of visiting his grandparents in Derby during the holidays.
From the age of 11 to 17 Alan was a pupil at the Queen Elizabeth’s school in Crediton, Devon. A rare “Democratic” school where the boys governed themselves in a structure not dissimilar to the parliament structure of Britain itself. Alan’s experiences there are worthy of an entire book and a few sentences cannot possibly do it justice. Suffice it to say that as “Under-minister of Agriculture” and later “Minister of Home Affairs” Alan gained valuable experience in responsibility and management that was to stand him in good stead for the rest of his life.
After leaving school Alan did nine months as a Farm Pupil before going to agricultural college to do a two year National Diploma in Poultry Husbandry. During this period he attained a NCR (National Certificate in Rabbit Husbandry) and BBKA (Certificate in Bee Keeping Husbandry) but left before completing the main part of the course, to his mother’s chagrin.
Ten weeks later it was time for National Service which Alan did with the Royal Army Medical Corp. Two years later and Alan found himself cutting nettles in the rain, on a farm in Teignmouth, for a grumpy old pastor, for two pounds fifty per week. Needless to say he quit.
Young Alan still hadn’t found his vocation in life, but fate drew him onwards. A job with the Teignmouth Urban District Council saw him driving tractors on the seafront and beach, putting up huts & working on pedal boats. This brought him into contact with a student teacher called Andy Wood who suggested that Alan also try teaching.
On July 10 1958, precisely twenty two years after his birth, Alan attended an interview at Kesteven Teacher Training College in Lincolnshire. With five O-levels he would be the least qualified student there, but as luck would have it the Principal was keen on rugby and the rugby captain needed a new wing-three-quarter. Alan fitted the bill and graduated two years later with a Distinction in teaching practice. Thus began a career in teaching which was to span for 50 years from the UK and Africa to the South Pacific.
From 1960 to 1966 Alan was a primary school teacher in Derby, England and also achieved a Diploma in Child Drama. He married and had two children and at age 30 began work for the ODA (Overseas Development Administration which later became DfID (Department for International Development) which sparked a wanderlust which was to last much of his life.
His first ODA assignment was in Kenya where he was quickly promoted from primary school teacher to teacher trainer & lecturer in science, maths, physical education and drama. He also had his third child while in Kenya and adopted one cow and a clutch of chickens.
1969 saw Alan return to the land of his forefathers, Derbyshire, where he became headmaster of Clifton Primary School. What became of the cow and chickens? One can only guess.
The travelling itch struck again in 1973 and this time Malawi was the destination. Alan arrived there just as Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda banned New Mathematics, so instead of lecturing in New Mathematics Alan became Officer in Charge of Teacher Upgrading.
By this time Alan was doing jobs reserved for graduates and so was advised by the ODA to do a degree. To this end he became a student at Birmingham University at the tender age of 38, reading a B.Phil degree in Child Psychology.
Next, Alan became lecturer of Educational Psychology and Sociology at St. Luke’s Teacher Training College at the University of Exeter. Following that post, Alan first came to Mauritius lecturing at the College of Higher Education and running educational workshops. It was also in Mauritius that he met and married his wife Sara.
The travelling continued as did Alan’s love for Africa. The next decade saw him working in Botswana, the Seychelles, Zambia, UK, and briefly in Sierra Leone, followed by two years on the beautiful island of Vanuatu, situated in the South Pacific.
But Africa beckoned yet again; in the Kenyan Rift Valley Alan trained school inspectors and advisory teachers, and while in Swaziland he also trained school inspectors in the teaching of primary mathematics and science. Indeed, maths and science has been a consistent theme throughout most of Alan’s life and he has published many textbooks and guides on how the subject should be taught at the primary level.
In 1999, while applying for work in Malawi, Alan was informed by DfID that he was over the age limit, being over 60. Thus began part two of the Life & Times of Alan Grihault and a journey into the as yet unexplored arena of his creativity...

© Islandinfo