Schools of old

I’m so old I served on a coaster that still carried sail when aged 16. An important period for me educationally. Early ’50s saw me at training college and a couple of years later, sole teacher at a very remote school with 28 pupils, several of whom spoke Maori with little English. I won’t describe the toilets and school set-up as it would upset your more delicate readers. The road in was more suited to tractors and timber trucks, and wound through beautiful bush lands with frightening drop-offs.

The head office of the controlling Education Board was away in a distant city along with its inadequate fundings. When it was a dry period and the phones worked, I got through to the Education Board office and gave them a broadside on the condition of the school. They sent out their building supervisor. Splendid chap who looked and poked everywhere