Ed Brumby

We were the last
Of the primary teacher cohorts
A bunch as mixed as any other
Naive out-of-schoolers
Refugees from banks and cloisters and the public service
Missionaries, atheists and agnostics
Absteemers and imbibers
Eccentrics and egotists
Performers and reflectors
Athletes and couch recliners
Drawn together at Middle Head
Motivated by
That idealism
Redolent of the post-Kennedy pre-Peacenik 60s
That adventurism of eternal force
That secular missionary call
Escape from the suffocation of country living
In Wagga, Narrandera, Gunnedah and Townsville
The lure of being paid in full to learn.

And learn we did or didn't
Directly and by example from:
Norm Donnison
That sage ballet-loving father-figure
Dispensing kindly authentic and lasting advice
Athol Berglund
Inspiring with his mini-lessons with an immigrant child
Implanting the wonder and the power of words
Psycho Ross
With his Cronbach bible
Ruffling his hair in constant annoyance
With a recalcitrant class
Les Peterkin
In tight short shorts choreographing
Mock sports days and revue routines
Jean Newcomb
Buxom purveyor of biological badinage
The yin to the Donnison yang
Ruth Fink
Exposing us to the mysteries of other world views
And order and culture clash: an extended metaphor
For our own impending culture shock
Edgar Ford
Illuminating the mystery and the majesty
Of what awaited us with his 35mm slides
Anne Prendergast
Establishing the background and context of history
In prim and learned fashion
And all those other teacher lecturers bent
On preparing us for the Big Adventure

Extract from ‘The last of the primaries’ by Ed Brumby. Included in the historical compilation 'ASOPA Years' (Henry Bodman, ed)