An old-school graduate
Achieving a PhD at age 94 proves you are never too old to learn
DAVID Bottomley AM is Australia’s newest and oldest PhD graduate after completing his study of ancient school education methods that he believes have relevance to today’s teachers.
The 94-year-old said his wife, Anne, joked with him that he was a bit slow in getting a PhD, but after seven years of study he finished one year ahead of schedule.
Dr Bottomley finished his first degree in 1948, took up teaching science and maths before working in and studying social and market research.
In 2008, 60 years after his first degree, he completed a Masters in Education.
His love of study and of stretching his mind beyond the norm is in his blood. His father was a minister who welcomed his children to his library.
“I worked my way up from the lowest shelf that I could reach,” he said.
That experience instilled in him an enthusiasm to question everything.
“It’s just a normal process where whatever you are placed in, you want to understand it and question it,” the scholar said.
He cited the Royal Society of London’s motto that a science person should question, never just accept, and look for correlation.
His brother Bob, who has a PhD in enzymatic chemistry, worked with the local flour millers during World War II to transform the protein level of Victorians.
He has a daughter, aged in her 60s, studying for a PhD in music and a granddaughter finishing a degree in medicine.
Dr Bottomley’s Doctor of Philosophy was achieved through Western Australia’s Curtin University, under the guidance of Professor David Treagust. His thesis topic was chosen from his background in education.
“I took five headmasters of equal positions in the 19th century, who were quite well known in the field of history of science, and I looked for the similarities and differences
‘‘ IT’S JUST A NORMAL PROCESS WHERE WHATEVER YOU ARE PLACED IN, YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND IT AND QUESTION IT.
DR DAVID BOTTOMLEY
within these five,” he said.
Each teacher created within the school curriculum situations which Dr Bottomley’s described as “leading to students fitting in and running within a stimulating environment to higher learning for themselves”.
Not surprisingly, about half of his small home in Melbourne is taken up with study materials, which have grown to almost 80 lever-arch files full of research.
“It’s a rather crowded home,” Dr Bottomley said with a chuckle.
“I am now redistributing the files with ideas for the next step.”
The idea of ceasing to exercise his vigorous mind is all but a brief lapse in this exceptional man’s thinking.
He jokes since finishing his PhD, he is feeling “bored stiff”. But that is doubtful. While he might, for a brief moment, have wondered what he would do with himself each day, it’s taken no time for his curiosity to reassert itself.
Dr Bottomley addresses his need to get more active by heading out the door, pushing his walker around and studying his world through dipped eyes, his mind actively considering his next intellectual challenge.
He has already identified the subject of his next area of study as “exploring the concomitance of creativity in schools” and believes research into this topic will provide valuable learnings for the current generation of school teachers.
The learning journey is ongoing for this scholar, who happily describes life as “really exciting”.