The Kingdom of Playland
- Embassies wanted for an ESOL micronation |
In 2002 I received an invitation to visit Roughs Tower, a metallic defence fort off the East Coast of England. Abandoned after the war it had sat six miles out, rusting in international waters until the arrival in 1967, of Roy Bates. Bates, a retired Army Major, seized the tower, made it his own little country and declared himself Prince. The Principality of Sealand has since hit the headlines a number of times and has subsequently become perhaps the most famous of all micronations.
Looking up ‘micronation’ in Wikipedia, I found the following definition:
| any entity that resembles independent nations or states but is unrecognized by them, and for the most part exists only on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators. |
What an excellent idea for a project I thought! I was due to start teaching an intensive summer course of English to teenagers at IH Coimbra in Portugal and I wanted to do something a bit different. Founding a class micronation sounded like good fun.
Before the class could start working on a new nation however, I realised it was important to try and decide what one was. Defining ‘nation’ is much more difficult than it might first seem and there will always be exceptions. I paired the learners off and gave them each the name of an English speaking nation to research. I tried to look for opposites i.e. The United States and Pitcairn Island - just to give us a bit of contrast! The class agreed that a nation needed people, a constitution, some symbols, a flag perhaps, most importantly it would be a good idea to have some kind of territory. I’d recently read about nations whose only territorial claim was in cyberspace. This would be the perfect place to present the project – on a website.
ACTIVITIES THAT BUILT A NATION |
To determine some territory I remembered an activity I'd seen back in my early days of teaching: I drew a simple shape on the board and calling on a little bit of my learners’ imaginations, made the shape an island. It was then given geographical features, which were randomly named: the Himalayas, the Amazon River and Loch Ness. The island itself was named Playland¹ and we chose a suitable climate, flora and fauna for it. To make the island a nation we needed to apply some of the attributes we’d agreed on earlier.
The Kings of Playland, like their island, existed only in cyberspace which made it very difficult for them to make any decisions. They were made ‘non-consecutive’ |
The learners decided that it should be a constitutional monarchy. HM William 1 was named Head of State but his reign was a very short one. After just one minute the king was overthrown by HM William II – who, the learners decided - sounded better! The Kings of Playland, like their island, existed only in cyberspace which made it very difficult for them to make any decisions. They were made ‘non-consecutive’.
Playland needed a government so the class held their first political election. In it they all elected one another as cabinet ministers based on what they liked to do. They each adopted pseudonyms (displaying the project on the internet, I was careful to protect learner identities, and subsequently gave myself the title 'Lord Protector' as well as already being Prime Minister). Following an adaptation of ‘find someone who’, passports were made and issued.
The time had come to draft a constitution. A slight change in the wording in Jean Greenwood’s ‘Classroom contract’ from her book Activity Box provided a nice template to work with. Once the ministers had agreed to the terms, each pledged allegiance to the new constitution by promising to be good to all people and animals and otherwise follow the rules of the countries in which they lived. In return they asked for the right to study in school but be able to have a five-day weekend and just do 2 days of work.
Playland was starting to look like a nation but it needed a few more personal characteristics. Giving the Playlanders a gapped version of the lyrics to a well known Men at Work song was an easy step to the creation of the national anthem ‘Land of Playland’. I then asked the ministers what symbols usually represented countries: "an animal… a food…a flower..." We went back to the internet for more research.
The class enthusiasm for building Playland was lovely to see but when the project was mentioned on the BBC the Playlanders were thrilled |
In a google image search, the Playlanders found a nice picture of an orange butterfly and a rose that they liked. They organised a referendum to find their favourite food and spaghetti became the national dish. Choosing the colours of the flag was now easy: orange (the colour of the national butterfly and rose), white (the colour of spaghetti) and blue (the colour of the sea surrounding Playland island). Minister of Football, Telmo Micaelo MP, was appointed vexillographer and given a blank flag template. He went to the Internet to have a look at some flags of other countries then decided what he thought would look best. Telmo's flag has since been unfairly accused of being an ‘upside down Russian flag’!
Being a small group the learners reached agreement easily and as a language learning activity Playland achieved my hopes of it being both fun and memorable. The class enthusiasm for building Playland was lovely to see but when the project was mentioned on the BBC the Playlanders were thrilled.
EXTENDING THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP |
The government had decided to contact leaders and monarchs of other micronations to see if they would diplomatically recognise Playland. When we wrote a class email to King Dom of BBC Radio Kent, he was one of the first to hold out his hand of friendship. Others included the President of Molossia (a nation that pegs its currency to the value of cookie dough), Emperor Eric Lis of the Aerican Empire (which claims the northern half of the planet Pluto) and author and Monarch, HM King Nicholas 1 who wrote from the Copeman Empire (his caravan in Norfolk) to ask our opinion on the banning of turkey twizzlers from some British school dinners – this in turn, sparked off a mini project.
I told my school about Playland, they started to doubt my sanity! I told my friends, they already knew I was insane. A good friend who ran a school in Lithuania was keen to be part of the project and so the second Playland Embassy was opened at ILS in Vilnius. Our classes linked up and using a chat programme on the Playland website (www.playlands.org) the Playlanders started to learn about the countries where their chatmates lived - places they’d only briefly heard about before. Ambassador Flopsy Lukiskiu held an open day and welcomed Playlanders. The Portuguese and Lithuanian embassies have since worked together on such things as online chat sessions, Playland referendums, competitions and interview sessions in which Sealand have also been extremely co-operative.
In 2006, Lonely Planet published a travel guide to Micronations. I started to consider the legal status of Playland and found that most micronations claimed sovereignty on the basis of the Montevideo Convention, a treaty signed by predominant leaders of New World nations (including the US) in 1933. It set out four criteria for statehood:
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"A permanent population" – Despite having 100% emigration, Playland had citizens who had sworn allegiance to the constitution and carried passports.
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"Government" – Playland had a democratically elected one!
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"The capacity to enter into relationships with other Sovereign States" – Playland had been recognised by several famous micronations.
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"A defined territory"…
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Territory was still a major issue. Even the Aerican Empire were only prepared to offer ‘Conditional Diplomatic Recognition’ as Playland territory existed only in cyberspace. Fortunately I knew of this piece of land! In the Lithuanian highlands lay a little farm, surrounded by tranquillity and mostly unused. The owner was unwilling to sell but would be happy to agree to a ‘Hong Kong’ type lease. The Playlanders wrote to the Lithuanian President for approval.
A few weeks later President Valdas Adamkus sent the Playlanders a signed photograph. The answer to our question came from the National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture, It was addressed to The Rt Hon Andreas Teacher MP and said that ‘in the Lithuanian Republic there is no limitation for foreigners, whether physical or juridical persons to rent private land in Lithuania’!
Shortly after this, Prince Michael of Sealand sent a special ‘Declaratio Regius’ to say that Sealand now recognised Playland as ‘an independent and sovereign country’! Again the Playlanders got excited.
It’s now almost a year since Playland was founded and it’s been a while since I saw the founders of our nation. The population grows, however, and Playland continues to involve classes of all levels and ages in different countries. It generates valuable food for lesson ideas, motivates learners into doing something very personal at the same time as being cross-curricular. Contributing to the growth of Playland appeals to a host of learning styles and intelligences, including those which can be difficult to involve in a language learning class - such as the spatial, naturalistic and interpersonal.
For me as teacher, it is a classroom activity that has become a hobby. At the IH Portugal Training Day I delivered a seminar related to long-term projects where Playland was a major feature. The seminar was a lot of fun as well as productive in generating ideas for future long term projects. I’m sure the Playland government would be delighted to arrange for this seminar to be delivered at other schools.
Playland has been noticed. A few ESL writers have been in touch and passed on their wishes and the search is on for ‘Embassies’. I’d love to hear from any schools who would be interested being a part of Playland and linking up on international chats, join in competitions and share other fun Esol activities.
Just this week two Lithuanians arrived in Portugal and visited a class of Playlanders. After being told about the nation, the visitors pledged allegiance to the constitution and were naturalised.
I am often asked if Playland has a political or religious goal. The answer is always no. If however, Playland can be instrumental in perhaps making the voices of younger people heard at the same time as providing a bit of fun then I am more than happy. Playland’s national heroine is Astrid Lindgren, a famous storyteller from Sweden, who fought for children’s rights through the power of fairytales.
The Rt Hon A. Teacher MP
playlandgov@anglobus.com
© 10th March 2007
| ¹ Playland was so named by The Rt Hon Carolina Silva MP, Minister of Shopping |
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Employed as ADOS at IH Coimbra in Portugal, Andreas Grundtvig, has taught English and Swedish for 12 years in Portugal, Lithuania, Spain, Gibraltar and England (as well as the odd lesson in Playland). He has delivered national seminars on
multiple intelligences, motivation and classroom projects and holds a DTESOL.
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Update - News from Playland |
by
Andreas Grundtvig
Senior Teacher
IH Geneva
23rd September 2007
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This summer the Kingdom of Playland Constitution, which among other things asks its citizens to recycle, reuse and reduce rubbish and gives them the right to a five day weekend, celebrated its first anniversary. Surrounded by the Lithuanian Highlands, Prime Minister A. Teacher issued the following statement from the Government Office in the nation's tiny (but very real) enclave:
"It is a delight to see Playland having grown from a fun ESL project into the micronation it is today. During the course of our first year we have gained recognition from other small nations, been praised by ESOL authors and have been mentioned several times by the BBC.
Recently our flag has been sighted in places as far afield as Australia, the Sahara Desert and the Ukraine and we are communicating with the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest to enter a song for the competition.
Citizens in several countries continue to link up and take part in activities such as chat sessions and form lasting friendhips – all good reasons why our nation has been called 'an excellent way to introduce international concepts'.
We hope now that other schools will join us."
As part of the anniversary celebrations Mr Teacher has launched a competition to young ESL students around the world, asking them to design a Playland postage stamp. See: www.playlands.org/competition#stamp
The Kingdom of Playland is a little known and very new nation. Beginning as a classroom activity for a summer intensive it has since grown to include younger learners everywhere – passport applications are welcomed from all IH schools.
The multi-skilled activities enthuse its citizens (whose average age is 12) and provide them with much inspiration while allowing them to see their work displayed in a very original way. For their teachers and schools (dubbed 'Embassies') it continues to be a valuable source of fresh lesson ideas and material.
While its Embassy in Portugal now seeks new premises, the Playland Government looks forward to a new academic year and would like to hear from anyone interested in joining in the fun. To find out more please visit www.playlands.org/teachers
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