Script: Magic Classroom

Introduction: Sineskwela Theme song

First Scene: Inside a classroom with a group of uninterested students. (Cue playing, braiding
of hair, talking, and shouting)

Child #1: it’s history again

Child #2: That’s no fun, it’s going to be boring again.
Child #3: Ew, I don’t like history.

(Cue teacher coming in)

Teacher: Good morning class, today we will be talking about Prehistoric medicine!

All students: Aw teacher! that’s boring!

Teacher: That’s not a good reaction, how about I show you?

(Theme song - Disney – Magic)

Teacher: LET’S GO!!

(the door of their classroom changes color)

RE-ENACTMENTS

SCENE 1: Medicine Man

Teacher: Here we are!

Children: Teacher, where are we?

Teacher: We’re in the Neolithic times. The time of the Medicine man.

Children: Ooooh

(The medicine man holds a bag of stones, smoke, cloth and wears a headdress, with an
injured person and family member.)

Teacher: Here we see a Medicine Man. The medicine man is respected due to his capability
 of being able to contact spirits and heal with their hands (massages)

(takes an amulet nearby and shows the kids (optional action)

Teacher: He uses supernatural ways by charms and spells, and also foresees if an illness was
caused by enraging a god. From there, he devices a way to solve and cure the illness.

(Medicine man proceeds to drill a hole on the side of the head)

Teacher: This now, is called Trepanning, this is the way the medicine man rids of migraines,
bad spirits, seizures, and mental disorders.

A: The Teacher takes a bone amulet and shows it to the students

Teacher: And if you survive that, you get to keep your bone as a good luck charm!

(Magic back to the classroom)

SCENE 1: QUESTION AND ANSWER

Child #1: But Teacher, how did they become sooo important?

Teacher: Their medical and religious practices were passed down orally, and their so-called
ability to talk to spirits to help their patients made them very important to the tribe, due to
the lack of medicines during those times, people turn themselves to the supernatural and
trusted the medicine man.

Child #2: Treppaning looks bad, and it looks icky, how about their wounds teacher? Don’t
they do anything about the blood and the dirt?

Teacher: Good question, (Child #2), Now to answer your question, I have another place and
time to show you.

(Magic door classroom)

SCENE 2: Hunters, Herbs

(cue hunters with their weapons, meat, stuffed toy animal ganern with wounds)
 Teacher: Now were in the Neolithic Era, Humans needed to hunt to survive, no knowledge
about antiseptic, antibiotics, and dangerous pathogens, humans were easily injured and hurt.
Hygiene practices were didn’t exist either.

(Point and show the environment around the hunters)

Teacher: Environment was harsh too. There was little to no protection, food shortages, and
long cold periods.

(One of the hunters carry a huge load)

Teacher: with the need to survive, the humans also subjected themselves to huge loads, thus,
making them prone to osteoarthritis, micro-fractures, and spondlolysis. There was also the
lack of vitamins C and D redering them defenseless against rickets.

Teacher: and the unequal lifespan differences of males and female. Males have easier access
to the newly hunted meal and maternal mortality have been associated with the short
lifespan of the females

(Pregnant female and male hunters)

(Return to classroom for QA)

SCENE 2: QUESTION AND ANSWERS

Child #3: Teacher, was there really no access to any kind of medicine for the early humans?

Teacher: Technically, many hunters or prehistoric people have natural remedies for natural
disasters. The first of them all were the Earths and Clays, the use of the earth and the clay is
known to be Geophagy, which is to eat the earth and clay for sustenance. This was from
mimicking the animals.

Child #2: How about herbal medicine? I heard about it a lot.

Teacher: Child #2, herbal medicines have been around for thousands of years. And hunters
were known to use Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) for their wounds, because the plant was
known to stop the bleeding, and Mallow (Malva neglecta) for the plants colon-cleanising
properties.

CLOSING
 Teacher: Have you now learned about our ancestors and how they survive?

Children: Yes Teacher!

Teacher: Now you know how far we have come in the development of medicine.

SONG AND SUMMARY

(How to save a life)