Ruth Kloeden

I was seventeen and had been a full-time student at the Girls Central Art School for almost four years. In those days there were very few openings for art trained people and because of the shortage of men due to World War II, there was also a shortage of prospective teachers. Because of the situation an inspector from the Education Department was sent to the Art School to interview fourth year students with a view to signing up possible recruits. Seven of us answered the call and were eventually enrolled.

My first appointment was as a junior teacher at Unley Girls Technical School. They didn’t need another art teacher so I was placed with the dressmaking teacher. I don’t think she wanted me but I had to be placed somewhere in the school. I had to stand around and absorb dressmaking know-how, helping with the drafting of patterns and then the making of Cesarine dresses in plain pink, blue or green. Cesarine was a plain cotton material, the only fabric available due to wartime shortages.

I was not happy but was reconciled to spending twelve months there. My luck changed when Miss Phyllis Stoward, then senior art mistress, felt sorry for me and took me into her department. She was a kind person and a very skilled teacher and it was from her I learned how rewarding and enjoyable teaching could be. I had to observe and act as a kind of teacher’s aide and take a few first year classes.

Weaving was an important part of the art course as the school was allotted khaki-coloured wool to weave scarves for service men. The looms were permanently set up and anyone who had a spare moment added a few inches to a scarf.

This experience as a junior teacher was valuable as a lead up to Teachers College which for us in those days was a two year course. In addition to further training in our art subjects we were required to do the normal teaching subjects. I was paid ten shillings a week living at home allowance. This was to cover tram fares, art materials and other needs! Country students boarding in the city were given extra.

On graduation I was appointed to Nailsworth Girls Technical School. I often rode my bike to school from Malvern, through the city and up the hill past the Children’s Hospital at North Adelaide where the smell of ether from early morning operations always made me sick as I had recently had my appendix out. No kind prick in the back of the hand to send you to sleep in those days.

Delna Spencer was the senior mistress and she wrote the programme from the printed syllabus. She taught the PEB classes and was responsible for sending in the sheets of class work at the time of the external exam which was set by an outside authority.

Craft was a big thing in the girls’ techs and the girls excelled in leatherwork, embroidery, basketry, weaving, papier maché, knitting or any other craft the teacher was capable of teaching. The design taught was tight – much like what is now called Art Nouveau or Art Deco. Symmetrical, multi-symmetrical, all-over and many other types of design were taught and natural pictures of flowers, birds, fish and animals were put through a process called ‘conventionalising’. That is their natural flowing lines were simplified and made to fit a desired shape. I taught first and second years starting them off with ‘the Seven Motifs’ which were considered the base of all good design.

At Nailsworth we also had our share of khaki wool but ours was mostly used to knit socks for servicemen. The girls needed four steel knitting needles and found it quite easy until they got to the heel which had to be ‘turned’. I lost count of the heels I turned as many girls couldn’t or said they couldn’t.

Art teachers seemed inter-changeable between high and tech schools and my next appointment was to Unley High. In the high schools the students who did art were considered not too bright and the classes in PEB were very small. Only the lower streams did art which was a pity.

Vic Adolfsson taught the boys and geometric subjects in the other side of the room we shared. He was another talented teacher I was lucky to teach with. He managed to teach me ‘Projection of Shadows’, an interesting architectural subject which was an alternative subject for art qualifications.

The next move was to Whyalla Technical High School for several years. There were some very bright students and some chose to do art and go on to PEB. The same subjects of plant drawing, history of art, design, geometric subjects were taught but despite the fairly rigid syllabus the students seemed to like it. Many went on to be art teachers and to excel in other branches of art. Craft was taught and, as far as I can remember, all students other than the commercial stream ‘did’ art.

After a move to Strathalbyn High, where art was introduced into the curriculum and many students again became art teachers and others entered the art world in various capacities, I returned to the technical schools which were now Technical High Schools.

Mitcham Girls Technical High School was in the process of taking over the old Unley High School grounds and buildings and a new large block was being built. While this was going on the school was established at Clapham Primary School. There was only a small enrolment but it was quite cosy – no hustle or pressure. I think that was the great virtue of the technical high schools. Having taught in both, you could feel the difference. High schools were geared around the exam system and school was a serious business. Technical schools were important and serious too but somehow they were more relaxed.

It was exciting moving to our new school building and to teach in a room actually designed as an art room with water laid on and plenty of storage space.

At about this time art teaching had become much freer and innovative and exams were held internally. At Mitcham I was asked to plan and introduce to a senior class a subject called environmental studies which was indicative of the freedom available.

In the early days of technical schools art, apart from craft, was fairly regimented but, like anything else worthwhile, the teaching grew and developed and became more lively and exciting. It was a most valuable subject for all students, not only for those who became teachers and artists. They were given an opportunity to appreciate and recognise style, form and composition, art history and design and to enjoy developing a talent which many were mostly unaware that they possessed.

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