A LIFE STORY
Shallcrass an education legend who was a true inspiration to many
John James (Jack) Shallcrass, education expert: b Auckland, September 11, 1922; m Aithna (Kate) Cato 1948 (diss); 1s, 2d; partner of Barbara Scelly from 1988; d August 13, 2014, aged 91.
JACK SHALLCRASS was one of New Zealand’s great teachers who spent his life nudging people to seek and learn as they travelled the road of life.
He was a man, while being a vigorous and passionate advocate for civil liberties, who also inspired many in the teaching profession in their endeavours to create better lives for young people.
His start in life was one of being very much on the wrong side of the tracks, growing up in Khandallah as the son of a man who had trouble holding down a job. In 1939, the family was evicted from their house because they were £70 in arrears with the rent.
The Shallcrasses moved to Plimmerton and from there young Jack went off to take on the world as a pupil at Wellington College.
There was no money for a school blazer or overcoat and he turned up on a regular basis wearing his father’s old leather jacket.
The absence of a proper uniform clearly identified him as being from a hard-up family, but the stigma never worried him.
He failed school certificate first time round, but began turning things around academically by later passing it in the same year he gained university entrance.
Recalling those times when the family was down on its luck there was no hint of Shallcrass being prone to unhappiness.
He overcame things to such an extent the school even made him a prefect. He was a talented athlete and represented Wellington College at tennis, cricket and rugby.
On the home front he helped overcome a difficult financial situation by getting out and doing paper rounds, delivering milk and cutting lawns.
He left school in the 6th form at the age of 18 and took up a teaching position in Marlborough.
After war broke out he joined the navy (in 1941) and saw active service with the Royal Navy on North Atlantic runs and in the Mediterranean.
A visit to Cape Town, South Africa left him shocked at the way black men had been forced to kowtow to him when he spoke to them. This experience was the catalyst for his lifetime commitment to the anti-apartheid movement.
Shallcrass was an irreverent, funny, and universally respected man ahead of the times in the early days of his teaching career.
He staunchly opposed the 1960 All Black tour of South Africa.
In 1981 he also proudly took his place among protesters in Wellington who vigorously opposed the Springbok tour.
In 1961 he became the president of the Defence & Aid AntiApartheid Group which raised money to assist the legal expenses of political prisoners and their families in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela.
From 1961 to 1993 he was also a member of the Physicians against Nuclear War, the Peace Foundation and the Pacific Institute of Resource Management.
Earlier, on a personal front, when he returned to Wellington life in 1945 after wartime naval experience he discovered his parents had split up. At this time he also learned the personal savings he had sent home during the war years had all gone on his own family’s household expenses.
Education became the route which saw Shallcrass work his way out of his own impoverished state. As a returned serviceman he attended Wellington Teachers College and Victoria University.
In 1948 he married Kate Cato, who was then a lecturer in physical education at training college.
After living in Bill Sutch’s flat at the the end of The Terrace for four years, the young couple moved into their new home in Pembroke Rd in Northland.
From there Shallcrass continued his 50-year-career as a writer, broadcaster and ‘humanist’ while teaching at schools (including Rongotai College) and lecturing.
While he boxed during his wartime years overseas, Shallcrass had no interest in his secondary school charges becoming pugilists themselves.
He wanted his pupils to use their brains, rather than their fists, in getting ahead in life. As a teacher at all levels he encouraged his students to read widely, think and question.
THAT attitude, coupled with his civil libertarian political views which saw him labelled a ‘pinko’ in some circles, may have resulted in him being unceremoniously passed over when the time came to appoint a new principal of the teachers college in the 1960s.
When he left his lecturing position in 1968 and headed off to Victoria University, one of the students at the time Lesleigh Salinger, remembered the lively, teachers college final farewell assembly.
Shallcrass was never one to take himself too seriously. He dressed himself in sackcloth at the farewell function, was doused with ashes and, with some humour and just a little regret, allowed his fellow staff members and pupils to humorously send him on his way.
At Victoria, Shallcrass became something of a notable. In 1985 the Jack Shallcrass Room was dedicated and a trust in his name was also established. In 1980 he was awarded the Mobil award for broadcasting.
In 1990 this honour was followed up with him being made a commander of the British Empire and in 1994 he was also honoured with the title ‘humanist of the year’.
The coming to power of David Lange’s Labour government in the 1980s saw Shallcrass given a number of prominent educational appointments.
In 1987 he was a member of the Review Committee of Advisory Services, School Development. In the same year he also edited a report which looked into nonformal education entitled He Aha Te Mea Nui I Te Ao? He Tangata.
In 1988 Lange, in his role as education minister, appointed Shallcrass to a Tomorrow’s Schools panel which was given the task of overseeing the reform of education administration.
At 67 years of age he opened up a whole new world when, in the company of the woman who would be his partner for the last 26 years of his life, Barbara Scelly, he learned how to ski at Bear Valley Mountain in California.
In 1996 he suffered a head injury after falling from the roof of his Karori home. In his personal battle to regain full use of his faculties he never lost his goodwill for everyone he came in contact with. A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape their community. If you know of someone whose life story should be told, please email obituaries@dompost.co.nz.