Playing School

From a very early age I wanted to be a teacher.  I guess it must have started after I actually went to school, but I know that a lot of my games revolved around teaching my dolls.  I was in 7th Heaven when Maisie and Harold Fullarton moved into Livingstone Street.  Harold was a policeman, and he boarded with us for a few months when he was first stationed at Morwell.  His wife Maisie was a teacher, and she joined him, at the end of the year I suppose and they moved into a house further down our street.  I used to visit Maisie all the time to talk about teaching.  She showed me what a teacher's Work Program looked like, and I used to write up my own programs just the same.
The playhouse was the perfect place to play school.

I only briefly thought about being anything other than a teacher - when John was talking about going into the Navy I thought that sounded rather exciting too.  I was in Form 4 at the time, and seriously investigated the Navy as an option.  But I also applied for a Teaching Bursary and decided that if I got a bursary I would be a teacher, if I didn't I would join the Navy.  Needless to say I got a bursary for Form 5, and another for Form 6 so I went to Teachers' College.

As a bursary recipient I was obliged to apply for each and every course that would lead to a teaching career.  In those days, Primary Teachers went to teachers' College, while those aspiring to be Secondary Teachers went to University.  There was no way I wanted to be a Secondary Teacher, nor got to Uni, so I only applied for a place at Teachers' Colleges.  I figured that if my marks weren't good enough to get me my first preferences then they wouldn't be good enough to get me a Uni place anyway, so why waste time (and money?? can't remember if there was any cost involved) applying for Uni places.

I obtained a place at Geelong Teachers' College - but that is for another post.