To Be A Teacher

It is exciting but not easy to go straight from school to Teachers' Training College, not only because you are changing from the receiving end to the giving end of education, but because there is a far greater degree of freedom, in choice of schools, courses and clubs.

I remember on the first day at college being bombarded with books, with forms to fill in, with course-requirements and options, and then on the second day visiting the various ‘areas’ of the college and choosing the one that seemed the most attractive. This was difficult: some of my friends had already decided to do art, which consisted of painting, pottery. carving, printing and sculpture, together with a course of study on the arts in New Zealand—but I was attracted by the Social Sciences area, especially as they were taking the Pacific as a theme, with a special look at ‘New Zealand today’.

I liked the idea that most of the staff in this area had first-hand knowledge of Maori or Pacific peoples, having worked in the field—so I settled for Social Sciences. I could have gone to the English and Language area: but no matter what area I chose for my first year, I would be studying English and three other ‘core’ or compulsory subjects—Education, Physical Education and Music. We all did some art too, so although we were not specialising in art, we weren't missing out entirely.

Our area consisted of about 90 students and six lecturers. A lot of work was done in mass

lectures, followed by small group discussions; this made it lively and we soon got to know everyone in the area fairly well.

At first I think I tended to be very quiet and wary; but the lecturers themselves were quite informal and friendly, so that I found myself discussing quite freely, although all through school I'd kept pretty quiet in class, for fear, I suppose, of making a fool of myself. This is probably the best thing about Teachers' College, especially for a Maori.

It wasn't all lectures—in fact, for about one-third of our first year, we were working in schools, assisting and learning from an associate teacher. Our first ‘section’ or ‘posting’ of three weeks gave us a chance to see the whole school in action. I went to an inner-city school with a roll that was 70% migrant, of whom most were Polynesian.

There was a short talk from the headmaster, and then we were observing what he'd talked about, in the infant department, where teachers had to take children from Greece, Hungary, India, Cook Islands, Samoa and New Zealand for the beginnings of reading and writing. It was a real ‘League of Nations’, but it was wonderful how quickly the infant mistress in this classroom got these children ready to begin reading, first through talking and singing games where they began to use words naturally and freely; second, through painting, drawing and talking about their pictures; third, through word-cards, labelling these pictures: and fourth, through stories and picture-books, so that children were usually ready in their first year at school to begin reading, although this wasn't always true.

There was one little Samoan boy who sat silent for six months; nobody knew any Samoan and he knew very little (if any) English, and everyone seemed to accept the situation! At the other end of the school, in Form II, some of the children were taller than I was, but they were all very friendly and polite.

This is the thing that strikes me most about children in the schools where I have worked. If you are friendly, direct and natural in your approach to them, they respond. There is no great problem with punishment, with not being able to use the strap; in fact, I prefer it this way, as it is easier to get to know and like the children and vice-versa. I have, on my four different school postings, struck only one teacher who used the strap, and he was dreadful, not only a tyrant but a lazy one, who seemed to believe an ounce of punishment was worth a pound of preparation.

My first pay-day (you are paid every fortnight) was a surprise. I did not know that I would be paid a boarding-allowance, and I received a pay-cheque of $32 odd instead of the $28 per fortnight I was expecting. This seemed