April 27, 2025 • 26 mins
What do these following three jokes have in common?
The doctor told me I broke all my fingers... it was hard to grasp!
Q. What do you find in a clean nose?
A. Fingerprints!
Q. What nails do carpenters hate to hit?
A. Fingernails!
Hmm. Could it be something to do with - fingers?!
In this week's episode Geraldine and Rebecca have found giant foam pointing fingers in their pockets. Rather than start pointing them around and blaming each other for things, I think they'll take us on an adventure of discovery into the history of what's known as a scapegoat. With plenty of fun music and stories along the way! Hooray!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:04):
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:21):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show especially
for kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine.
S3 (00:29):
And my name is Rebecca. And together we are happy
pants team for today.
S2 (00:36):
Today my happy pants are green. This kind of green
reminds me of the taste of celery and how it
crunches when I bite it.
S3 (00:46):
Mine are green too, and it's the kind of green
that makes me think of the smell of gum leaves
after it has rained fresh and cool.
S2 (00:56):
I wonder what happy pants are stashed in our pockets today.
S3 (01:00):
Whatever is in there will be clues, and it's our
job to put the clues together. If we fit them
together properly, we will be able to work out what
Happy Pants wants us to talk about today. Here we go.
My pocket just produced a a a hand with a
(01:21):
pointing finger.
S2 (01:23):
Well, not not a real one, I hope.
S3 (01:25):
Of course not. It's a fake one, but it does
look quite real.
S2 (01:30):
Good heavens, Rebecca, I have a fake hand with a
pointing finger too.
S3 (01:37):
Oh, look, I can put my hand inside mine now.
I can point the finger at you.
S2 (01:45):
Well, that's okay, because I'm pointing right back at you. Oh.
That's interesting. If I point the finger at you, there
are three others pointing back at me.
S3 (01:57):
Oh, I'll try it. Oh you're right. If you point
the finger at someone, the rest are pointing Back. I
guess that means we should be careful about pointing fingers.
What else do we have in our pockets?
S2 (02:13):
There's nothing else in mine.
S3 (02:16):
Oh, so just these pointy fingered hands, then?
S2 (02:20):
I think I need some cogitation time.
S3 (02:24):
Ooh. Big word alert. To cogitate means to think deeply. Mhm.
And I need some cogitation time too.
S2 (02:37):
And some wake up music for my brain might help.
S3 (02:40):
Sounds good. How about if you find a nice clear
space and let the music tell you what to do?
There might be some waking up and stretching. There might
be some stamping and marching. And maybe some skipping and twirling.
So you'll probably need a bit of room in which
(03:01):
to move around.
S2 (05:45):
Oh, I certainly feel woken up after that. You had
some funky dance moves there, Rebecca.
S3 (05:52):
It was fun. And I think I know what those
fake hands mean.
S2 (05:58):
Well, tell me what you think. Because I thought, too.
Let's see if we think the same thought.
S3 (06:04):
Okay, I think we need to talk about pointing the
finger like I'm pointing the finger at you right now.
S2 (06:13):
Aha! That's the think I thought to pointing the finger
at someone means blaming them for something.
S3 (06:22):
For instance, if someone said it's hot in here, and
I said that's because Geraldine hasn't turned on the fan,
I would be pointing the finger and putting the blame
on you.
S2 (06:36):
In this case, the room is hot because I didn't
turn on the fan. So pointing the finger at me
would be fair. I should take the blame. But what
if there was no fan or the power was off?
S3 (06:51):
Well, that's the problem about pointing the finger. Blaming someone
is easy, but you need to know all the facts
before you do.
S2 (07:40):
I see. Who would you blame for a hole in
the road? The road department? Well, they have to fix
the hole. But did they make it?
S3 (07:49):
Mhm. And was it caused by a burst water pipe.
S2 (07:53):
Did we have a small earthquake?
S3 (07:55):
Did lightning strike it and burn a hole.
S2 (07:58):
Was it dug by a rabbit with superpowers?
S3 (08:02):
Who would you point the finger at somebody must be
to blame. Or would you gather a bit more information first?
S4 (09:12):
I love wearing my happy pants while I'm listening to
Happy Pants.
S2 (09:18):
Think about a football game. Say blues against Reds. Joe, Jack, Bill,
Bob and Sam all play for the Blues in the
first half. Joe and Jack both miss goals in the
second half. Bill and Bob both miss goals at full time.
The Blues need just one goal to win the match.
(09:41):
Sam kicks and misses. The Blues lose the match. Who
do you think gets the blame for losing the match?
S3 (09:51):
Well, Sam, of course. The finger will be pointed at
him because that was the goal which could have won
the match. No one will think of the goals Joe, Jack,
Bill and Bob could have kicked earlier in the game.
Someone has to be blamed and it is Sam who
will be the scapegoat.
S2 (10:11):
Exactly. That's a very old word, by the way. In really,
really olden times, people believed that if you made a
list of all the bad things that had happened in
the village during the last year, you could get rid
of them and start a new year with only good
fortune by choosing an escape goat. This was a real
(10:33):
live goat, and the list would be whispered in its
ear by the headman. It was then led far out
into the wilderness and left there. It was believed that
the goat carried all the misfortune with it, and everyone
could escape the consequences of whatever bad things they had done,
and start again with a clean slate. Escape goat became
(10:57):
shortened to scapegoat.
S3 (10:59):
In some countries long, long ago. The ruler was supposed
to be in close touch with the gods, and he
was expected to keep on their good side, so there
would be good weather and good harvests for his people.
If there was a drought or a flood or an
earthquake or a sickness, obviously he wasn't doing his job.
(11:23):
So he should be sacrificed and someone else selected to
take his place. Kings and princes don't really like being sacrificed,
so they would choose a scapegoat. This was usually someone
society didn't really care about, like a prisoner or a
slave or a beggar whom nobody would miss.
S2 (11:46):
The scapegoat was bathed in perfumed water, dressed in royal
clothes and jewels, and given the finest foods to eat.
For several days he could live in the palace and
do anything he wanted. The idea was to fool the
gods into thinking the scapegoat was indeed the ruler. You
(12:07):
can imagine what happened to him at the end of
those days. Let's just say that the ruler got his
job back and the scapegoat was never seen again.
S3 (12:18):
Well, nobody does that anymore. But we do have scapegoats.
Anytime someone is blamed for someone else's actions, even when
they have had nothing to do with it, whatever it
was that is being made a scapegoat.
S2 (12:34):
Sometimes a whole group of people are made scapegoats. Imagine this.
The town's ice cream goes missing. Really? It's because the
ice cream factory manager forgot to turn on the freezers,
and all the ice cream melted and ran down the drain.
The manager doesn't want anyone to know what an idiot
(12:56):
he is, so he looks around for someone to blame.
He tells everyone that the ice cream was stolen and
Joe Bloggs is the culprit. Now Joe Bloggs has purple
hair and everybody in the town knows that purple haired
people are different and therefore not to be trusted. Some
(13:17):
of the townspeople are workers in the ice cream factory
and they know the truth. But they're scared of losing
their jobs, so they don't say anything. The story spreads,
and pretty soon every person with purple hair is regarded
as an ice cream thief, and people who should know
(13:37):
better are yelling at them in the street and telling
them to get out of town. Purple haired people were
being made scapegoats to cover up someone else's mistake. That
was not a true story, of course, but if it was,
what would you do?
S3 (13:54):
Hundreds of years ago, when people believed in spells and
curses and something went wrong, instead of looking for the
real person, people blamed witches. If it was an old,
poor woman with no family to protect her and forced
to live in a hut in the woods, it was
easy for someone to claim she was a witch and
(14:16):
use her as a scapegoat. My best hen died. It
wasn't because she was old or because I forgot to
feed her. It must have been a curse. The witch
did it.
S2 (14:28):
My husband fell into a ditch on his way home
from the inn and broke his leg. It wasn't because
he was drunk. It was a spell. And the witch
made it happen.
S3 (14:39):
My cottage caught fire. It wasn't because I left a
candle burning and it fell into the straw on the floor.
It was a curse. And the witch did it.
S2 (14:50):
A scapegoat was needed so that people could escape the
consequences of their own actions. And it was easy to
point the finger at someone who had no one to
defend her.
S3 (15:02):
Of course, we know that the only witches around live
in fairy stories. But until a couple of hundred years ago,
people really believed in them.
S2 (15:12):
Another kind of scapegoat is the fall guy. Fall guys
worked in the early film industry. They were usually trained
acrobats and took the place of an actor. If there
was a dangerous stunt to be done. Actors were too
valuable to risk harm if they had to fall off
a cliff or be swept down the rapids. So a
(15:33):
fall guy would take his or her place. Fall guys
are usually called stunt artists these days. The only difference
between a true scapegoat and a fall guy is that
a fall guy chooses to do it for a job.
A scapegoat is someone who doesn't get asked. They just
(15:54):
get blamed.
S3 (15:56):
There is one other kind of scapegoat, which was particularly
cruel and nasty back a couple of hundred years ago.
It was believed that if kids misbehaved, they should be whipped.
Of course, no one would dare to whip a prince
no matter what he did. So he was given a
boy of lesser rank who was expected to take the
(16:16):
punishment for him. He was known as a whipping boy.
The boy was brought up in the palace alongside the prince.
He was his constant companion. It was thought that if
the prince did something wrong, he would have to watch
his companion, the whipping boy who was innocent, being whipped
in his place. It was supposed to cause the prince
(16:39):
to mend his ways.
S2 (16:41):
Did it work?
S3 (16:42):
Well probably not. People had some very strange ideas about
how to look after kids in those days.
S2 (16:49):
So someone who gets blamed for something they had nothing
to do with can be called a whipping boy.
S3 (16:56):
Or a scapegoat. Our story today is about a real scapegoat,
a scapegoat by Ann Patchett and Robin Preiss Glasser. Once
there was a goat who lived in a pen on
a farm. He played hide and seek with the chickens
(17:16):
on the other side of the fence. He ran in
circles until he got dizzy and watched the clouds spinning overhead.
He slept in a soft bed of hay, which made
a great snack if he got hungry late at night.
Every morning the children called good morning, goat as they
(17:36):
went to play. It was a perfectly nice life, but
he was curious about the greater world and so he
decided to escape. Goat jumped the fence. The goat went
to the horses and cows. He ate a cabbage from
(17:58):
the garden. He scratched an itch on a pig's back
because the pig couldn't reach it himself. Missus farmer was
looking at the trampled petunias in her flowerbed when she
noticed the goat was missing. The goats escaped. She called Mr.
(18:20):
Farmer Uncle Nathan and the three farmer children came running. Mr.
farmer found the goat, led him back to the pen
with a carrot and shut the gate. Mrs. farmer said
the goat had ruined her petunias. In fact, Andrew and
(18:40):
Archer Farmer had been playing catch right over the flowerbed.
The boys let the goat take the blame. The next
day the goat went swimming with some ducks in the pond,
napped in the sun and ate four potatoes before Uncle
(19:00):
Nathan noticed he was gone. Go to escape. Uncle Nathan
called when they found him. Andrew said the goat had
eaten his homework, even though he'd been looking for frogs
all afternoon and hadn't done it. Mr. farmer raised the fence,
(19:23):
but not high enough. Every day the goat escaped, and
every day Mr. Farmer brought him back. The goat didn't
mind going back to his pen, and Mr. Farmer didn't
mind making the fence higher. What Mr. Farmer did mind
was all the mischief the goat caused when he was loose.
(19:47):
The goat kicked over a bucket of paint that Mrs.
Farmer was using to paint the barn. The goat ate
all the cupcakes that had been made, especially for Archie's
birthday party, and the goat stuck a wad of chewing
gum to Mr. Farmer's chair. Oh, wait a minute, Mr.
(20:09):
Farmer said. Goats don't chew gum. A scapegoat does, Andrew said.
Excuse me. Nicolette called, but no one stopped to listen
to her. Mr. farmer made the fence even higher. When
(20:32):
finally the fence was too high to jump over, the
goat lay down in the dirt. Out of breath. That's
when he realized it would be easy to scoot under
the fence. From there, he rolled down the grassy hill
and into the meadow. Then he ran back to the
(20:53):
top and rolled down again and again. It was an
incredible day. Back at home, Uncle Nathan was making a
pie and forgot to set the timer on the oven.
He burnt the pie, and it was so awful that
he had to feed it to the pigs. Uncle Nathan
felt bad that there wasn't any pie for supper, so
(21:15):
he said a scapegoat had eaten it. Mr. farmer shook
his head. Well, he said, we're just going to have
to keep that goat tied up all day. He can't
keep running around making a mess out of everything. Mr.
farmer loved the goat, but he also loved pie and
peace and quiet. Excuse me. Shouted Nicolette. You're punishing the
(21:43):
goat for things he didn't do. She said. But he
stole the pie, said Uncle Nathan, and spilt the paint,
said Mrs. Farmer, and put gum on the chair. Said Andrew,
and ate the cupcakes, said Archer. Mr. farmer patted his
daughter on the head. It was nice that she was
(22:05):
sticking up for the goat, but the facts were the facts.
That was when Archer and Andrew started to wrestle over
a ball, and Andrew accidentally stepped back on Archer's toe.
Archer screamed. The goat stepped on Archer's foot, said Andrew. Ah, see,
(22:27):
said Nicolette. The goat didn't do anything. The goat was
outside with a mouthful of alfalfa. I burnt the pie,
admitted Uncle Nathan. Ah! I left gum on the chair.
Confessed Andrew. I spilt the paint, said Mrs. Farmer. I
ate all the cupcakes, said Archer. They were really good.
(22:52):
Everyone could agree that those things weren't the goat's fault.
That night, when Mr. Farmer tucked the goat into his
bed of hay, He didn't shut the gate behind him
because in the end, the goat always came home.
S2 (23:10):
That was a reading of A scapegoat, written by Ann
Patchett and Robin Priest Glass. The reader was Rebecca.
S3 (23:19):
So what have we done today?
S2 (23:22):
We learned that it's best to check all the facts
before we point the finger at someone.
S3 (23:28):
We learned that a scapegoat is someone who is blamed
and punished for something, even though they had nothing to
do with it.
S2 (23:35):
We learned that sometimes a whole group of people can
be made into scapegoats to cover up someone else's mistake.
S3 (23:42):
I liked the big word we had cogitate. I'm going
to use it a lot. It means to think hard.
But why use a couple of ordinary words when you
can say cogitate instead?
S2 (25:04):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can contact us on
radio at Vision Australia.
S3 (25:14):
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you.
S2 (25:18):
Next.
S3 (25:19):
Time.
S5 (25:31):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(25:55):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:21):
Good day. And welcome to Happy Pants, a show especially
for kids and especially for you. My name is Geraldine.
S3 (00:29):
And my name is Rebecca. And together we are happy
pants team for today.
S2 (00:36):
Today my happy pants are green. This kind of green
reminds me of the taste of celery and how it
crunches when I bite it.
S3 (00:46):
Mine are green too, and it's the kind of green
that makes me think of the smell of gum leaves
after it has rained fresh and cool.
S2 (00:56):
I wonder what happy pants are stashed in our pockets today.
S3 (01:00):
Whatever is in there will be clues, and it's our
job to put the clues together. If we fit them
together properly, we will be able to work out what
Happy Pants wants us to talk about today. Here we go.
My pocket just produced a a a hand with a
(01:21):
pointing finger.
S2 (01:23):
Well, not not a real one, I hope.
S3 (01:25):
Of course not. It's a fake one, but it does
look quite real.
S2 (01:30):
Good heavens, Rebecca, I have a fake hand with a
pointing finger too.
S3 (01:37):
Oh, look, I can put my hand inside mine now.
I can point the finger at you.
S2 (01:45):
Well, that's okay, because I'm pointing right back at you. Oh.
That's interesting. If I point the finger at you, there
are three others pointing back at me.
S3 (01:57):
Oh, I'll try it. Oh you're right. If you point
the finger at someone, the rest are pointing Back. I
guess that means we should be careful about pointing fingers.
What else do we have in our pockets?
S2 (02:13):
There's nothing else in mine.
S3 (02:16):
Oh, so just these pointy fingered hands, then?
S2 (02:20):
I think I need some cogitation time.
S3 (02:24):
Ooh. Big word alert. To cogitate means to think deeply. Mhm.
And I need some cogitation time too.
S2 (02:37):
And some wake up music for my brain might help.
S3 (02:40):
Sounds good. How about if you find a nice clear
space and let the music tell you what to do?
There might be some waking up and stretching. There might
be some stamping and marching. And maybe some skipping and twirling.
So you'll probably need a bit of room in which
(03:01):
to move around.
S2 (05:45):
Oh, I certainly feel woken up after that. You had
some funky dance moves there, Rebecca.
S3 (05:52):
It was fun. And I think I know what those
fake hands mean.
S2 (05:58):
Well, tell me what you think. Because I thought, too.
Let's see if we think the same thought.
S3 (06:04):
Okay, I think we need to talk about pointing the
finger like I'm pointing the finger at you right now.
S2 (06:13):
Aha! That's the think I thought to pointing the finger
at someone means blaming them for something.
S3 (06:22):
For instance, if someone said it's hot in here, and
I said that's because Geraldine hasn't turned on the fan,
I would be pointing the finger and putting the blame
on you.
S2 (06:36):
In this case, the room is hot because I didn't
turn on the fan. So pointing the finger at me
would be fair. I should take the blame. But what
if there was no fan or the power was off?
S3 (06:51):
Well, that's the problem about pointing the finger. Blaming someone
is easy, but you need to know all the facts
before you do.
S2 (07:40):
I see. Who would you blame for a hole in
the road? The road department? Well, they have to fix
the hole. But did they make it?
S3 (07:49):
Mhm. And was it caused by a burst water pipe.
S2 (07:53):
Did we have a small earthquake?
S3 (07:55):
Did lightning strike it and burn a hole.
S2 (07:58):
Was it dug by a rabbit with superpowers?
S3 (08:02):
Who would you point the finger at somebody must be
to blame. Or would you gather a bit more information first?
S4 (09:12):
I love wearing my happy pants while I'm listening to
Happy Pants.
S2 (09:18):
Think about a football game. Say blues against Reds. Joe, Jack, Bill,
Bob and Sam all play for the Blues in the
first half. Joe and Jack both miss goals in the
second half. Bill and Bob both miss goals at full time.
The Blues need just one goal to win the match.
(09:41):
Sam kicks and misses. The Blues lose the match. Who
do you think gets the blame for losing the match?
S3 (09:51):
Well, Sam, of course. The finger will be pointed at
him because that was the goal which could have won
the match. No one will think of the goals Joe, Jack,
Bill and Bob could have kicked earlier in the game.
Someone has to be blamed and it is Sam who
will be the scapegoat.
S2 (10:11):
Exactly. That's a very old word, by the way. In really,
really olden times, people believed that if you made a
list of all the bad things that had happened in
the village during the last year, you could get rid
of them and start a new year with only good
fortune by choosing an escape goat. This was a real
(10:33):
live goat, and the list would be whispered in its
ear by the headman. It was then led far out
into the wilderness and left there. It was believed that
the goat carried all the misfortune with it, and everyone
could escape the consequences of whatever bad things they had done,
and start again with a clean slate. Escape goat became
(10:57):
shortened to scapegoat.
S3 (10:59):
In some countries long, long ago. The ruler was supposed
to be in close touch with the gods, and he
was expected to keep on their good side, so there
would be good weather and good harvests for his people.
If there was a drought or a flood or an
earthquake or a sickness, obviously he wasn't doing his job.
(11:23):
So he should be sacrificed and someone else selected to
take his place. Kings and princes don't really like being sacrificed,
so they would choose a scapegoat. This was usually someone
society didn't really care about, like a prisoner or a
slave or a beggar whom nobody would miss.
S2 (11:46):
The scapegoat was bathed in perfumed water, dressed in royal
clothes and jewels, and given the finest foods to eat.
For several days he could live in the palace and
do anything he wanted. The idea was to fool the
gods into thinking the scapegoat was indeed the ruler. You
(12:07):
can imagine what happened to him at the end of
those days. Let's just say that the ruler got his
job back and the scapegoat was never seen again.
S3 (12:18):
Well, nobody does that anymore. But we do have scapegoats.
Anytime someone is blamed for someone else's actions, even when
they have had nothing to do with it, whatever it
was that is being made a scapegoat.
S2 (12:34):
Sometimes a whole group of people are made scapegoats. Imagine this.
The town's ice cream goes missing. Really? It's because the
ice cream factory manager forgot to turn on the freezers,
and all the ice cream melted and ran down the drain.
The manager doesn't want anyone to know what an idiot
(12:56):
he is, so he looks around for someone to blame.
He tells everyone that the ice cream was stolen and
Joe Bloggs is the culprit. Now Joe Bloggs has purple
hair and everybody in the town knows that purple haired
people are different and therefore not to be trusted. Some
(13:17):
of the townspeople are workers in the ice cream factory
and they know the truth. But they're scared of losing
their jobs, so they don't say anything. The story spreads,
and pretty soon every person with purple hair is regarded
as an ice cream thief, and people who should know
(13:37):
better are yelling at them in the street and telling
them to get out of town. Purple haired people were
being made scapegoats to cover up someone else's mistake. That
was not a true story, of course, but if it was,
what would you do?
S3 (13:54):
Hundreds of years ago, when people believed in spells and
curses and something went wrong, instead of looking for the
real person, people blamed witches. If it was an old,
poor woman with no family to protect her and forced
to live in a hut in the woods, it was
easy for someone to claim she was a witch and
(14:16):
use her as a scapegoat. My best hen died. It
wasn't because she was old or because I forgot to
feed her. It must have been a curse. The witch
did it.
S2 (14:28):
My husband fell into a ditch on his way home
from the inn and broke his leg. It wasn't because
he was drunk. It was a spell. And the witch
made it happen.
S3 (14:39):
My cottage caught fire. It wasn't because I left a
candle burning and it fell into the straw on the floor.
It was a curse. And the witch did it.
S2 (14:50):
A scapegoat was needed so that people could escape the
consequences of their own actions. And it was easy to
point the finger at someone who had no one to
defend her.
S3 (15:02):
Of course, we know that the only witches around live
in fairy stories. But until a couple of hundred years ago,
people really believed in them.
S2 (15:12):
Another kind of scapegoat is the fall guy. Fall guys
worked in the early film industry. They were usually trained
acrobats and took the place of an actor. If there
was a dangerous stunt to be done. Actors were too
valuable to risk harm if they had to fall off
a cliff or be swept down the rapids. So a
(15:33):
fall guy would take his or her place. Fall guys
are usually called stunt artists these days. The only difference
between a true scapegoat and a fall guy is that
a fall guy chooses to do it for a job.
A scapegoat is someone who doesn't get asked. They just
(15:54):
get blamed.
S3 (15:56):
There is one other kind of scapegoat, which was particularly
cruel and nasty back a couple of hundred years ago.
It was believed that if kids misbehaved, they should be whipped.
Of course, no one would dare to whip a prince
no matter what he did. So he was given a
boy of lesser rank who was expected to take the
(16:16):
punishment for him. He was known as a whipping boy.
The boy was brought up in the palace alongside the prince.
He was his constant companion. It was thought that if
the prince did something wrong, he would have to watch
his companion, the whipping boy who was innocent, being whipped
in his place. It was supposed to cause the prince
(16:39):
to mend his ways.
S2 (16:41):
Did it work?
S3 (16:42):
Well probably not. People had some very strange ideas about
how to look after kids in those days.
S2 (16:49):
So someone who gets blamed for something they had nothing
to do with can be called a whipping boy.
S3 (16:56):
Or a scapegoat. Our story today is about a real scapegoat,
a scapegoat by Ann Patchett and Robin Preiss Glasser. Once
there was a goat who lived in a pen on
a farm. He played hide and seek with the chickens
(17:16):
on the other side of the fence. He ran in
circles until he got dizzy and watched the clouds spinning overhead.
He slept in a soft bed of hay, which made
a great snack if he got hungry late at night.
Every morning the children called good morning, goat as they
(17:36):
went to play. It was a perfectly nice life, but
he was curious about the greater world and so he
decided to escape. Goat jumped the fence. The goat went
to the horses and cows. He ate a cabbage from
(17:58):
the garden. He scratched an itch on a pig's back
because the pig couldn't reach it himself. Missus farmer was
looking at the trampled petunias in her flowerbed when she
noticed the goat was missing. The goats escaped. She called Mr.
(18:20):
Farmer Uncle Nathan and the three farmer children came running. Mr.
farmer found the goat, led him back to the pen
with a carrot and shut the gate. Mrs. farmer said
the goat had ruined her petunias. In fact, Andrew and
(18:40):
Archer Farmer had been playing catch right over the flowerbed.
The boys let the goat take the blame. The next
day the goat went swimming with some ducks in the pond,
napped in the sun and ate four potatoes before Uncle
(19:00):
Nathan noticed he was gone. Go to escape. Uncle Nathan
called when they found him. Andrew said the goat had
eaten his homework, even though he'd been looking for frogs
all afternoon and hadn't done it. Mr. farmer raised the fence,
(19:23):
but not high enough. Every day the goat escaped, and
every day Mr. Farmer brought him back. The goat didn't
mind going back to his pen, and Mr. Farmer didn't
mind making the fence higher. What Mr. Farmer did mind
was all the mischief the goat caused when he was loose.
(19:47):
The goat kicked over a bucket of paint that Mrs.
Farmer was using to paint the barn. The goat ate
all the cupcakes that had been made, especially for Archie's
birthday party, and the goat stuck a wad of chewing
gum to Mr. Farmer's chair. Oh, wait a minute, Mr.
(20:09):
Farmer said. Goats don't chew gum. A scapegoat does, Andrew said.
Excuse me. Nicolette called, but no one stopped to listen
to her. Mr. farmer made the fence even higher. When
(20:32):
finally the fence was too high to jump over, the
goat lay down in the dirt. Out of breath. That's
when he realized it would be easy to scoot under
the fence. From there, he rolled down the grassy hill
and into the meadow. Then he ran back to the
(20:53):
top and rolled down again and again. It was an
incredible day. Back at home, Uncle Nathan was making a
pie and forgot to set the timer on the oven.
He burnt the pie, and it was so awful that
he had to feed it to the pigs. Uncle Nathan
felt bad that there wasn't any pie for supper, so
(21:15):
he said a scapegoat had eaten it. Mr. farmer shook
his head. Well, he said, we're just going to have
to keep that goat tied up all day. He can't
keep running around making a mess out of everything. Mr.
farmer loved the goat, but he also loved pie and
peace and quiet. Excuse me. Shouted Nicolette. You're punishing the
(21:43):
goat for things he didn't do. She said. But he
stole the pie, said Uncle Nathan, and spilt the paint,
said Mrs. Farmer, and put gum on the chair. Said Andrew,
and ate the cupcakes, said Archer. Mr. farmer patted his
daughter on the head. It was nice that she was
(22:05):
sticking up for the goat, but the facts were the facts.
That was when Archer and Andrew started to wrestle over
a ball, and Andrew accidentally stepped back on Archer's toe.
Archer screamed. The goat stepped on Archer's foot, said Andrew. Ah, see,
(22:27):
said Nicolette. The goat didn't do anything. The goat was
outside with a mouthful of alfalfa. I burnt the pie,
admitted Uncle Nathan. Ah! I left gum on the chair.
Confessed Andrew. I spilt the paint, said Mrs. Farmer. I
ate all the cupcakes, said Archer. They were really good.
(22:52):
Everyone could agree that those things weren't the goat's fault.
That night, when Mr. Farmer tucked the goat into his
bed of hay, He didn't shut the gate behind him
because in the end, the goat always came home.
S2 (23:10):
That was a reading of A scapegoat, written by Ann
Patchett and Robin Priest Glass. The reader was Rebecca.
S3 (23:19):
So what have we done today?
S2 (23:22):
We learned that it's best to check all the facts
before we point the finger at someone.
S3 (23:28):
We learned that a scapegoat is someone who is blamed
and punished for something, even though they had nothing to
do with it.
S2 (23:35):
We learned that sometimes a whole group of people can
be made into scapegoats to cover up someone else's mistake.
S3 (23:42):
I liked the big word we had cogitate. I'm going
to use it a lot. It means to think hard.
But why use a couple of ordinary words when you
can say cogitate instead?
S2 (25:04):
If there was anything in today's program about which you
would like to know more, you can contact us on
radio at Vision Australia.
S3 (25:14):
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you.
S2 (25:18):
Next.
S3 (25:19):
Time.
S5 (25:31):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area. We pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(25:55):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
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