Jack Peake

Technical education in some form existed in South Australia before the colony celebrated its fiftieth birthday. This is commented on in Grains of Mustard Seed by Colin Thiele.

In line with the general pressures for technical education which had been growing since the 1880s the Board of Inspectors was also happy to report the establishment of the Domestic Economy School in Grote Street in 1900, where students could take ‘such subjects as are needful for girls to know, to make them expert in household matters.⁵

I have in my possession a certificate issued to a student on the completion of the fifth class. Part of the border ornamentation are illustrations of carpentry, agriculture and sewing which would infer that these activities were part of the school curriculum. This may have been so but I doubt whether it went beyond very elementary activities such as chip carving – although I imagine purists might criticise the boy’s grip on the plane – vegetable gardening and simple needlework. It was certainly not technical education as is now generally accepted.

Technical education became a real factor in South Australian education with the advent of the Victorian, Dr Charles Fenner. He had been principal of the Ballarat School of Mines and in 1916 ‘was appointed as Superintendent of Technical Education in South Australia and was charged with the responsibility of developing Technical Education within South Australia. His initial work was to establish Apprentice Training, consolidate the Art School and develop special schools concerned with technical subjects’.⁶

Dr Fenner seems to have attacked his job with enthusiasm. Following the passing of the Technical Education of Apprentices Act and the arrangements for accommodation made, classes opened in 1919. The South Australian School of Arts, which had long been established and taken over by the Education Department in 1909, suffered from poor teaching facilities. This was made worse by the fact that the Exhibition Building had been taken over as a temporary hospital to cope with the influenza epidemic. The situation did not return to normal until September 1920. Fenner stressed the need for a permanent and more suitable building, a dream which did not eventuate until the late 1950s.

Action to develop special schools was initiated on February 16th 1917 when Mr M.M. Maughan called for ‘men teachers’ to apply for the position of teachers of manual training (woodwork) in metropolitan centres. As a result of this call, six teachers assembled at Cowandilla School on Monday 19 March 1917. The assembled group was M.V. Daly, M.J. Hansberry, A.L. Keen, E.L. McEllister, A.T.L. Peake and E. O’Sullivan and the instructor for the course was S.W. Jackman. He was a short tubby man with a George Vth-like beard. He had had a venturous life having been a merchant seaman who jumped ship and took up teaching in South Australia. In the early days of his career he produced a number of small text books on such subjects as arithmetic and geography. These were published by E.S. Wigg and Son and sold for four pence each. He was also interested in teaching woodwork and set up several benches on a verandah at Mt Barker and gave instruction on Saturday mornings.

He later transferred to Cowandilla School where he again took up his interest in craft teaching. It was his workshop at Cowandilla that was used for the training of this first group of teachers. The course commenced on 19 March and involved ‘Theoretical lessons and demonstrations’, ‘Drawing at the Art School’ and ‘Practical benchwork’. The benchwork involved making the same project that future students would be doing when the classes commenced. Mr Jackman demanded a high standard. I have in my possession a number of the projects produced and can vouch that the work was excellent. By the end of the year six teachers had been trained and were ready to take over the schools that had been prepared during the year. Those schools were situated at Norwood, Adelaide, Glanville, Prospect and Port Adelaide.

Following the training of the first manual training instructors the ‘A’ Course was set up at the Adelaide Teachers College with a small intake of men and women to become teachers of technical subjects in the primary schools and the central schools which were being established. Early metalwork teachers were recruited from the ‘Trade’. These men brought technical skills to the profession which offset their lack, in some cases, of teaching skills. Many of the young men trained in the 1920s were still teaching when I joined the Education Department and must have been responsible for passing on technical skills to thousands of boys.

I recall such men as French George, George Gosden, Albert Lamshed, Fred Hawkes, Jasper Golley, Jack Hanley, William Beare, Frank Dunn, Clarry Staude, Bill Jolly, Percival Bradshaw and Eric Sigmont. I also knew Con Carey, Frank Middleton, Ted Matthews and ‘General’ Gordon who were early metalwork teachers.

Adelaide Woodwork Centre, although not a technical or central school, played an important role in the development of technical education in South Australia and is therefore worthy of special mention. In addition to instructing primary school boys, the Adelaide Woodwork School instructed all college students training to become woodwork teachers. From 1923 all men from the Teachers College were required to spend half a day at the centre. This continued to my knowledge to the war years or perhaps the 1950s when the number of students training to become craft teachers demanded new accommodation. Woodwork I and II became subjects which could be used by primary teachers for classification.

To cope with their requirements Saturday morning classes were instituted and also classes were made available during the Christmas vacations. The Saturday morning class extended beyond its original intention and developed, for some, into a hobby class. I knew of some teachers who attended the class for 15 years. Many women attended these classes. A photograph in the early 1920s shows nine women in a class.

With the establishment of Western Teachers College, Adelaide still continued to train the craft teachers. With increased numbers and the extension of the course to three years the centre was wholly given over to teacher training and eventually the staff was appointed as lecturers. When, in 1976, Western Teachers College extended to a property on Holbrooks Road, it incorporated special accommodation for home economics, art and technology and industrial arts in its plans. This meant that the Adelaide Woodwork Centre was no longer required for the training of teachers. It was decided to close the school.

A formal gathering was held to close the centre and the college was fortunate enough to assemble all the head teachers from the beginning in 1918. The group consisted of Arch Peake, Bert Lamshed, Ken Gale, Bob Hoare, Stan Philp and Jeff Read. After a series of speeches, including comments by all the past heads, a symbolic set of tools was crated up to be sent to the new site. Afternoon tea followed with much reminiscing amongst staff and guests. One interesting visitor was Eric Thrum who had been a student of S.W. Jackman at Mt Barker. My father, who had taught at the school for 30 years, was now in his nineties but was still able to enjoy the gathering and the meeting of past acquaintances.⁷ The school has now become a child-minding centre but fortunately the old name ‘Adelaide Woodwork School’ still remains on the front of the building.

I started my teaching career as a junior teacher in 1936. The appointment was from the second week of term although I commenced on the opening day of term. This saved the Education Department four times 17s 3d. During this year I was used as a relieving teacher and taught in about 10 schools, some of which were not under the control of a headmaster which meant the Education Department was prepared to break its own regulations. I had no complaints as this was an excellent learning experience. During the year I was in charge of the Department’s display at the Centenary Exhibition at the Wayville Centennial Hall. The display was in two parts, firstly a general display and secondly a competitive display of work. This display gave an excellent insight to the practical work being done in the technical schools and no doubt did much to raise the standard of work produced in the schools. The exhibition was opened from 10 am to 10 pm each day except Sunday. I recall that Dr Fenner paid me £1 for working over Easter, which gain I lost when my travel claim was reduced by the same amount.

I entered the Adelaide Teachers College in 1937 as a primary teacher student and transferred to the manual training course in my second year. I was the only student training as a manual training instructor and had to fend for myself. I had no lectures in manual teaching methodology nor any opportunity to observe or teach in technical schools. My teaching practice was done at Gilles and Flinders Street schools teaching grades six and seven, one two and three and also in a model teaching class which helped teachers to work in one teacher schools. I recall that one of my reports was critical of the fact that I did not take copious notes on infant grade work. [Many of the art and craft teachers straight out of College did a few ‘clinic’ years – rather like the idea of an internship – at Thebby before moving into the central and technical schools but I did not have this opportunity.]

My group lecturers were Alva Penrose and Dr Frank Mitchell,⁸ both experts in their own fields, but they were unable to give me any help or encouragement. The practical work I undertook was in fact the same as I would teach when I left College and was the same as I had undertaken when I was a primary student. In fact the course of work had not changed in 20 years.

Technical teachers of art, home economics and manual training studied for classification certificates which ranged from IIIB to IA which included a number of examinable units to be undertaken. Only a few of these units were covered during one’s time in College and therefore teachers were faced with years of study. In my own case I did some form of study for 20 years after leaving school. The regulations concerning classification appeared regularly in the Education Gazetter and were changed from time to time and because of this some teachers were caught with extra work to do. Present day students who successfully complete the University course and receive a degree are not faced with a comparable pattern of study.

Promotion was also tied to skill marks awarded after inspection reports. This promotion was granted when a skill mark of 31, 41, 51, 61, 71 was reached and held for a year. The granting of skill marks always seemed to be a mystery and teachers generally doubted their relationship with teaching skill. It was generally agreed that the economic situation had some bearing on their allocation. This may or may not have been so but my father received nine skill marks in the four years 1924 – 1927 but, in the eight depression years, 1929 – 1936 received six!

Promotion to senior master was a very slow process for manual training instructors. For many years there were only three or four. A classification known as senior teacher was introduced in the 1950s which gave a number of technical teachers a little more status and small salary rise. I held this appointment for seven years before a senior mastership became vacant which I received after having taught for 22 years.⁹ There were other technical men who would have served even a longer period. There was a time when craft teachers were unable to get secondary status and were paid at a lower rate. The justification for this was the fact that a number of teachers only taught primary students!

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