Dorothy Wood (née Giles)

Adelaide Technical High School was on the top floor of the former School of Mines on the corner of North Terrace and Frome Road, now a university. It was different from most technical schools as it only took the top students from the seventh grade.

I attended from 1927 to 1929 inclusive and took the commercial course, mostly for girls. The general course was only for boys. The time taken for the Leaving Certificate was three years. All other schools took four.

Sir Langdon Bonython was responsible for the Brookman Hall which was not to be used for other than education. Besides the necessary subjects we were fortunate to have these extras: first aid lessons with Dr Gartrell, cooking and callisthenics.

The headmaster was Mr S. Moyle and the headmistress Jessie Topperwein,¹¹ later recognised as South Australia’s leading teacher. The following anecdote is an instance of her impositions which she insisted we do in shorthand.

‘Hands up those who go home in the Glenelg train?’

Up went our hands – three of us!

‘Right,’ she said. ‘I will give you five minutes shorthand at 140 wpm.’ (We had already sat for 120 wpm and passed and were practising for a credit at 140 wpm.) ‘You must transcribe three minutes – they were the bad things you said about me. You needn’t do the last two minutes. They were the good things you said about me.’

We never did find out what we had said but we did get a credit! She always insisted we intersperse our longhand notes with shorthand, thus learning two things at once. Should we not pay attention, she’d just glare and say, ‘I’m wasting my sweetness on the desert air’.

For five minutes each morning we used our atlas to find countries, towns, rivers, mountains and lakes and could write articles thereon. Although many places have changed, my visit overseas was the more enjoyable by visualising such.

Each year, on an October Friday, we picnicked at Long Gully followed by a weekend free of homework before settling down to study exams. Preceding the Intermediate and Leaving (held in the Exhibition Building or Brookman Hall, a big advantage for us) we had school exams.

The influences of my school days are still with me. I still feel a great loyalty to my school. I like to be organised. I always write ‘thank you’ notes. I made many friends (not many left now) but I am in contact with several and I enjoy overseas countries.

Return to contents Buy A Broader Vision	© Erica Jolly and individual authors