Table of Contents

My Education

This is part of me writting about my own history. The education part of the documentatikon of my life.

See also my work, business life history

I have an education but next to no qualifications.

See what I wrote about Education in relation to Money

I did poorly, academically at school. In subsequent years I realised that it was because I had a mild learning disability, which I have learnt to overcome.

No doubt another reason I probably didn't do well academically is because I felt the education system with wrong and I was right, and I was stubborn.

Pre Formal

By far the vast majority of my education happened before any formal education. I learnt to walk, talk and whole lot of social attributes before I had any formal education.

I am told this is the time when we learn more than any other time in our life. Our ability to learn decrease from this point onwards. Yet in this time we don't have any teachers.

Perhaps I and everybody else would have learnt more if we have not been molded by the formal education system into obedience, conformity and acceptance of social norms.

Pre school

I can't remember if I went to preschool. As neither of my parents are alive I can't ask them. I remember the preschool/kindergarten location and I have a photo of my sister going ther.

It was the kindergarten in Dunkin Street Fairfield next to the Presbyterian Church.

Based on the above photo it appears to be still a kindergarten. Or at least it's still has playground equipment.

Primary

I went to Westgarth Central school. I'm not sure why, considering that Fairfield primary school was probably closer.

See also teachers I had at school

Prep

Year class Photo

I distinctly remember my first day at primary school. Mum took me there and I remember another student being dragged into the classroom yelling and screaming. I think it was Tony Merabelly. He later became a lawyer. I wonder if that event had any effect on my later education?

My prep grade teacher was Miss Whiteman. I'm not sure but perhaps I started school in June and only spent 6 months in the prep class. Because my birthday was in June I only just scraped in. I know a lot of the rest of my classmates, and friends I made were older than me. Albeit only 6 to 12 months.

I don't actually remember learning anything in prep. Though obviously I did.

My main recollection of the prep class was during one of the parent teacher sessions, whilst my mother was ther, asking Miss Whiteman, where my Glag and other things that Mum had brought on the first day, were. She told me they were all ok and stored in a cupboard. For some reason or other, I had already learnt about possessiveness, and was extremely concerned that I did not get to use my own items. That's my memory of it anyway. Perhaps I did get to use them but I did not know about it or I can't remember it. But I never got those items back.

A person that I met in prep was Neil Brown.

I remember approaching him in the playground and kicking his legs, because he had long legs and was tall. Obviously I had not learnt social interaction in those days. He must have taken it reasonably well because I was friends with him for many years afterwards. He had a brother John, who was in a higher grade than us. Years later I remember going to their place that was in Vaxual Road. They lived in a two story house. That was extra special in our days.

One day John Brown was standing on the balcony on ther upstairs and said he could see a particular building in the city that happened to the tallest building in Melbourne at the time.

Neil and John Brown had older brother's as well. I remember going to their place one day and playing a game where we had pieces of paper with money amounts written on them. Pretend money. And we would go to each other and pretend to buy and sell things. Interesting that helped me now realise that money is created the same way as we did it in the game.

Another person I spoke to, but was not friends with until later years, was Michael McDonell.

He told me he had a Jiminy Cricket as a pet. And the Jiminy cricket used to ride on his electric toy train set. And I believe him 100%

Jiminy Cricket was a cartoon character created by Walt Disney in the film Pinocchio.

According to the class photo I was in grade 1D, and when I was in grade 1, I was in grade 1B. Perhaps they didn't call the prep grades prep those days.

Grade 1

Year class Photo

My grade one teacher was Miss Hope, she was old. I think I remember that she retired after teaching in my year. She was definitely old school.

The thing I remember most about grade one was having to write on a slate chalkboard the answers of simple mathematics. Most likely simple addition. I was sitting beside Neil Brown and he had finished his. So I said, here swap boards and you do mine for me.

Miss hope said Geoffrey Greig, bring your slate to me. Which I did, after swapping with Neil Brown. She asked me to put out my hand out and gave me a slap on the hand. A punishment. However I did not know what I have been punished for. Because she never explained it. She probably thought that I was cheating. See what have subsequent written about Cheating.

I did not realise and obviously Miss Hope did not realise that I was actually an entrepreneur, in those days. One of the attributes about an entrepreneur, is that they don't do things themselves, but get other people to do it for them. In later years I became an entrepreneur.

The other thing she did not realise is that I had not been aware that getting somebody else to do work for me in those days was regarded as cheating. I have a rough recollection of describing the event to my mother, and her explaining what the norms of society were at the time. To this day I still feel I was unfairly treated. It probably had some effect on my subsequent education, that I only realise now,upon reflection.

A similar incident. As I now realize, I am slightly dyslexic. I have trouble learning the way people normally learn. Hence I had a lot of trouble learning how to write and read. One morning I asked my Mother how to spell my name. She wrote it down on a piece of paper, which I put in my pocket. That day at school at the end of some sort of exercise we had to write our names on the slate boards. I was all excited because I knew I could get the piece of paper out to write my name accurately. My exuberance was obviously, So Miss hope once again said Geoff Grieg come out to the front and show me that piece of paper. I got another wack on the hand for copying my name, from that place for paper.

On reflection Miss Hope was a really bad teacher. She must have been old school and thought learning was all only about memory. After the entrepreneur era of my life I actually became a teacher, at TAFE, University and also to businesses. At one stage I did a train the trainer course and where I learn what learning was all about. I would imagine Miss Hope had no formal teacher training at all. I know it was very difficult to get any teachers in that era.

Another distinct memory I have of grade one was seeing the teacher, who may have been the person in charge of the primary school, but not the headmaster, presenting a group of students to the rest of the class, and stating that theses students have done very well in reading and as a consequence would have some elevated progress, in some way. I can't remember the details of what it was. But one of those people with David Bradshaw. Someone who later on became a lifelong friend and was the best man at our wedding.

Grade 2

Year class Photo

According to the Westgarth Central Facebook page a Miss Fitzpatrick was the teacher when I was in grade 2. But I can't specifically remember that myself. Grade 2 was the first class I had that was not in the old red brick building. There were two , no doubt demountable, classrooms in what originally must have been the playground.

For some reason or other we didn't have Miss Fitzpatrick for a period of time and there was a relief teacher. She would have been Mrs Huntly. She was David Huntleys mother. David was in that class. I think he took advantage of his mother being the teacher and didn't behave as he should have.

I think when in that grade l bought a vinal record at the school fete for a Halfpenny. I had haggeled with one of the older boys from an older class who was selling it. The halfpenny was all the money I had. of course when I took the record home, to proudly display to my parents what I had bought, probably the first non food item I ever bought, I discovered that it played so badly that I could not be heard. Having scratches all over it.

It must have put me off records because I have never bought a record since.

It probably also gave me a sense of value for money that I hadn't had up until then.

I got into trouble for something and when the teacher asked me why I did it, I said because someone else told me to. The Teacher said, if they told you to stick your head in an oven would you do that. Of course I said no and had learnt yet another lesson.

As Im writing this Im getting the impression that I've learnt more about how to socialise and fit into society, at school than I ever did about the academic side of things. Perhaps thats what schools are about.

Grade 3

Year class Photo

In grade 3 my teacher was Mr Heinz. He was the first male teacher I had. He was young, dynamic and strict. At least that's the way it came across to me. Perhaps because he was the first male teacher I had had, but that impression I got from him was because of the first day he arrived and he came into the classroom quite dynamically. Abrupt, confident and loud. Something completely different to the previous teachers I had.

I must have been away the day they took the class photo because I'm not in it. Thanks to Ivan Kobiolki, for giving me the photo of that year. That was the first year that I met Ivan because he hadn't been at Westgarth prior to that.

It was also the first-year I got the strap. The whole class was walking from the classroom to the netball courts for sports. I must have said something to one of the other students while were walking along. Being a disciplinalian, as most teachers were in those days we weren't supposed to talk. Mr Heinz saw me talking and asaid I must be the one that's doing all the talking all the time. Which was not true because I was a quiet person when at school. Even though I described that to him, I got the strap anyway. Another lesson for me on injustices within the system.

For sport the boys played a simple form of basketball/netball. The girls played rounders.Because we are all to short to be able to throw the ball through the ring, I remember that all you had to do was hit the Pole to score a point. I think we used to play against the other grade 3 boys. I can't remember which way it went but either our class or the other class never scored. So one day Mr Hines grab the ball in the middle of play and through it at the Pole so at least one point was scored for that class for the whole year.

Grade 4

Year class Photo

Peter Futras is the kid I'm sitting next to in the linked photo above. We used to do silly things. One was grab another person's hand very tight and then slowly let go. Then the person who had let go would get another person to slowly rub their fingers around the hand for about 5 minutes. Then that person's hand would be locked. I thought we could do the same thing with someone's eyes. So I used to rub my fingers together in front of Peters eyes. He would then go into a trance. I reckon I had hypnotising him. I could then tell him to do anything and he would do it. Until I told him to wake up. Weeks later he told me it was only pretending to be hypnotized. But all the other kids in the class thought it was for real.

In 1961 in grade 4 I had My King as a teacher.

According to what I've read on the Westgarth Facebook page he was a student at the school himself many years earlier. He must have taught at the school for quite some time, as his name comes up in multiple years on the Westgarth Facebook page.

He obviously lived very close to the school, because he used to go home for lunch, everyday.

He came across as a reasonably good teacher, to the parents anyway, because for any students that were struggling, he had special remedial classes after the rest of the school went home. Of course I was one of those remedial students. I can't remember if any of that remedial sessions helped me.

One thing I do remember about Mr King. He was sitting beside me and asked me to do a simple arithmetic. I pulled up my hand to help count on my fingers. He put my hand down under the desk so I couldn't see it. I then visualise my fingers and from then on realised I didn't need to look at my fingers I could actually visualise them in my mind. So thanks Mr King for making me realise that.

Years later when I became a computer programmer I have the ability to visualise complex database structures completely in my mind.

That was year that my younger sister Robin was born. I distinctly remember telling Mr King, my mothers had a baby.

At one stage I and a few other students had some remedial reading assistance. I remember it was basically rote-learning.

I had to read out something to another student and read it fluently very quickly. The other student was amazed how good I was. All i have done was memorise that package of text. It didnt help my reading ability

Grade 5

Year class Photo

Mr Godwill was my teacher in grade 5. He was a drunk most likely an alcoholic. Remember him arriving one morning fully drunk. He was going off at the hole class. That morning we were supposed to go down for dancing practice for the school ball. A student from another class arrived and said that the headmaster had asked the Mr Godwill to bring his class down to dance practice. Mr Godwill said to the student, tell the headmaster to go get stuffed.

Can't remember the rest of the details but we did end up going to dance practice in the morning and when we got back Mr Godwill was not there for the rest of the day.

At sometime during grade 5 we had to have a emergency teacher because Mr Godwill had had a car accident and was recovering in Hospital. In those days drunk driving was more common.

In later years My friend, Michael McDonnell, told me that Mr Godwill would often get his ding car damage fixed, by Michael

A distinct recollection I have of grade 5 is my father telling me that he had met Mr Godwill at a pub. Mr Godwill told my father that I would never amount to anything.

Mr Godwill was 100% wrong.

From this I learnt you only take what people say based on your appreciation of the credibility of that person.

Even at that age I must have known that I don't pay any attention to what a drunk sais

My Uncle Norm gave me a Mr Esso man when I was in grade 5. I took it to school to show the other kids. I handed it to Terry Lesberg for him to look at. He then wouldn't give it back to me, even though I ask for it.

I didn't tell the teacher or anyone else that had happened.

Unfortunately that probably made me even more possessive than I had previously been. An extreme reluctance to lend or give anything to anyone else. But it made me appreciate what I had accumulated throughout my life and what I have achieved. Probably one of the things that made me materialistic and now I realise is probably wrong.

Grade 6

I dont have a school photo for grade 6. It would have been 1963.

Mr Ryan was our teacher I think he was the deputy principal. He was supposed to be one of the better teachers.

I remember one event that proved to me he was not a good teacher .

He was trying to teach us sentence construction. Which part were nouns,verbs, adjectives, pro nouns and the like. Most of us simply did not get it. His tact was to give each student that did not understand the strap. Of course that did nothing to help us learn. After he had given the strap to a few students, he gave up. I get impression he was doing what he was doing simply because of his frustration in not being able to teach. Taking our his frustration and anger on us.

To this day I dont understand sentence construction and have absolutely no desire to learn it. I dont feel its importance at all, and I will write and speak any way I want to. Same goes for spelling. See my take on spelng

Milk and Lunches

When at Westgarth we had to drink a half pint of milk every morning. It must have been that some politician thought that milk was good for the growing up young people. The milk was often left our in sun but you had to drink it anyway. I think it put me off milk for the rest on my life. Probably did so for a lot of other people as well.

My Mum would make sandwiches for my lunch. I can't remember what she made in them but I didn't like it so throw them away everyday. I guess I didn't no how to say I didn't like the sandwiches.

Very occasionally Mum would give me some money so I could buy my lunch. You would have to put in a lunch order at the delicatessen across the road. From memory by writing what you wanted on a brown paper bag, putting the money in it and the lunch monitor would take it over to the delicatessen shop. According to the Westgarth Facebook page the name of the people that run the delicatessen were Mr and Mrs Stewart. Mr Stewart must have had a sight problem because he would hold the paper bag very close to his face to read it. I had forgotten about seeing him do that, but thanks to Joy Henderson on the Westgarth Facebook page it prompted my memory.

Again from the Westgarth Facebook page the person that owned the newsagents on the corner was Mr bowley.

Not sure if it was when I was at primary school or when we got to forms 1 and 2 but I would get some money from Mum, actually one shilling and go to the fish and chip shop on the other side of I think Dennis station and bi 6 of chips and 6 of cakes. Thats 6 pence worth of chips and 6 potato cakes. Sometimes we would also asked for scraps. That was all the fish and chip scaps that were filtered out of the cooking fat. The scraps were very crunchey but we're probably not very healthy to eat.

Getting to and from Westgarth School

Obviously when I first started school Mum took me and pick me up. I distinctly remember one day waiting for Mum to pick me up. But you never arrived. So I walked home myself. In later years I recounted that experience to Mum who said she would have never have let me walk home without agreeing to it beforehand. Probably she did tell me she wasn't going to pick me up but I hadn't remembered. I had a great sense of achievement that day that I was able to get home by myself.

I think when I was in grade one, Mum would give me a threepence coin to catch the Red bus home. See Melbourne Private Bus Routes for some history of buses at the time

Because the threepence coin was so small she tyed it into my handkerchief. I think because I had previously lost the threepence.

I had to walk up to the corner of Ellesmere and Bastings Street to catch the Red bus and get off at the corner of Grandview Grove and Bastings Street. I don't ever remember catching the bus to school. We always walked. I remember walking one morning with my sister and the next door neighbour Margaret Marawath and seeing that the water puddles on the footpath had Frozen. I never remember seeing a frozen puddle in the rest of my school days

Secondary

Westgarth Form 1 an 2

I thought it was a real big deal coming from primary school to secondary school. But for Westgarth students it was the same school. It went up to form 1 and 2. What they now call year 7 and 8. Wonder why they called them forms?

Of course the big difference was you didn't have one teacher, you had different teachers for different subjects. I remember getting a book list and having to travel into I think Elizabeth Street in the city to buy the books. I tried to buy as many as I could second hand but had to buy a few new. I don't know where the money came from to bi the books. When I got home I remember browsing through some of the books. My recollection was that was the last time I ever looked at them. It wasn't much use having books when you're a bad reader. In my case the books were complete waste of money.

In first starting in form one I remember a teacher who I don't think was there for long reading us a book about the Australian bush, and that the kookaburras would fly through the valleys indicating the start of the day. She was a very good reader and put a hell of a lot of expression into what what she was reading. That was the first time I ever remember wanting to be able to read a book.

One morning I told Mum I needed a pen. She gave me a pen that required to be dipped in ink. Even though I knew at secondary school, they no longer had ink I didn't want to tell Mum that. That morning our English teacher Miss Kanat, ask everybody to write something. I said I couldn't because ther was no ink for my pen. Miss Kanat said, you should know we only use biro pens in secondary school. I wonder if it was because we couldn't afford to buy Biros and how many other kids familys were in the same situation.

Miss Kanata had her for English in form 1 and 2

For some reason or other, one of the subjects we had was French. The only French word I ever learnt was La finatra, the window, because that's what I spent all my time looking out of. If I had trouble mastering English how did they expect me to learn French.

Assignments seemed to be a big thing at the time. We had a European person I think as a history teacher (according to John huntly on the westgarth Facebook page her name was Mrs Zeides) and I remember all the other kids would get big sheets of paper and write and draw their assignments on them. For some reason or other I cant remember ever doing one myself.

There was a situation where that same teacher gave us some homework to do which I had done but had left at home. I told her this and asked if it was ok to go home to get it. I hopped on my bike rode home, got the homework and came back. She said to me when I got back I know you haven't gone home you actually went downstairs and did the homework. At that stage i didn't have the willfulness to stand up for myself. A few years later i would have.

I have no recollection of ever doing any sort of exams or tests at Westgarth. So I have no idea what was done for assessment. Except for Art.

One day one of my friends was helping the art teacher go through a whole lot of paintings that students had done. He held up one indicating it was mine. It was thown out. Sometime later we were asked to hand in for assessment the paintings we had done. Haveing been thrown out I had nothing to hand in so ended up getting zero for art. As I moved on to the next year I get the impression art was not part of the average that was calculated for your overall assessment.

Northcote High

Form 3

Year Photos

Not long after I started at Northcote high we moved from Northcote to Watsonia. Having all my friends at Northcote high I didn't want to change schools. So I used to ride my bike, The Camel to school and back every school day. That was 18 miles,29 kms Per day. It kept me extremely fit.

Up until the time I failed third form I did not no school was for learning. I thought it was for fun.

I don't remember ever having exams when I was at at Westgarth. I remember having tests but not exams. I was completely unprepared for exams when I got to Northcote High. Having to sit down for 3 hours and write answers to questions was completely foreign to me. In later life I found out that I cannot write for more than about 10 to 15 minutes without getting a severe cramp in my hand. I was always a bad handwriter and having to write for 3 hours, something that was legible was, and still is impossible for me

like most of the kids that came from Westgarth I had to repeat third form. Even though I passed one of the subjects. Commercial principles and practice. Don't know if they do the same thing today but all they did was average the marks for all your subjects and if you got less than 50 you did not progressed to the next year level

Cadets photos

I join the Cadets. As Ray explained to me, one day, the main reason we joined the cadets is so that you could shoot guns, and go away on bivouacs and a camp. All very adventurous for young teenage boys.

Form 3, 2nd Time

Year Photo

We had a maths teacher who also was our caoch for Baseball. Cant remember his name. He was doing some sort of study, at I think Monash Uni, that happened to have a computer, that was used for teaching. Our maths teacher taught us to program in FORTRAN.

I can still remember the first program I wrote.

10 Let A=1

20 Let B=1

30 Let C=A+B

40 Print C

That was in 1967 and I was 15 years old.

We used to write the programs on pre perferate 40 column punch cards by pushing out the perferated holes with a straightener out paper clip. The teacher would take our programs on the punched cards to the Uni and we would get a print out of the results a week later.

Im sure computer programming was not part of the curriculum at the time. But thanks to that teacher, years later I became a self employed computer programer and created a successful business out of it. I most likely wrote 100s of programs over the years and in one year completely development probably over 20 complete systems all on my own.

Will have to write about that in my work and business history

This was my second year in the cadets. At the end of the previous year anybody that wanted to be promoted could put the name down to go on a sergeants course. I did and was amazed that I was selected to go on the course.

Part of the course was learning how to teach. I found it interesting the military way of doing it. Of course most of the teaching was about drill. Standing to attention and at ease. Turning left and turning right. Also interesting was that everything was documented as to how things should be done. The military taught me a lot. Particularly why I would never want to join the military.

Form 4

I can't remember a lot of about 4th Form at Northcote High. By this stage I had got used to the subjects that I was learning and just followed through. I remember there was a professional stream where you did science and physics and I think more elaborate mathematics or you could do the commercial stream were you did commercial principles and practice. I'm not sure if you made that selection in third form or four form. In any case, because I wasn't particularly good academically, I went for the easier one, which was the commercial stream.

In retrospect it was probably a good idea because those that did science ended up getting paid less in the workforce than those that did commercial subjects.

Again at the end of the the previous year they asked who wish to go to a promotion course in the cadets. Having already been to the sergeants course, I applied and went on the Cadet Under Officer (CUO) Course. And I actually passed the course. On looking back, I think most people did.

So I was the CUO in charge of a whole platoon in the Cadets.

Mr McGregor Headmaster

Mr Simpfendorfer Duputy Headmaster

Form 5

I dont remember much about how things went academically in form 5.

But I do remember a particular incident. We had a history teacher, Mr Sutherland, who gave us some work to write up during a class. He was probably bored and started making rhymes about students names. Because of these interjections I had trouble concentrating on what I was doing. So I said to him how can I do the work when you keep on making all these comments. He said something to the effect, how dare you say that to me and ordered me out of the room.

While standing outside the room the assistant principal came along and said I'm going to give you the strap for being kicked out of the room. I told him that was not fair because he did not know why I was kicked out of the room. He said that was irelevant. So I ran downstairs and walked into the Headmaster, Mr McGregor, and told him I was not going to accept the strap because I done nothing wrong. He asked me what happened and I explained it to him. He said what did the rest of the class do when you asked, how can I do the work when you keep on talking all the time. I told him they laughed. The principal said that's the reason you are going to get the strap. I said that is unfair that I am being penalized because of the immaturity for the rest of the class. He said that's correct. I did not get the strap.

I learnt from that, you have to stand up for yourself regardless of the authority involved and stood by that that the rest of my life.

Based on the school photos it appears I did a second year as CUO in the cadets.

Rather than do 6 form matriculation I decided to apply to go to Preston Institute of Technology to do their preliminary year to a diploma in business studies. I applied and was accepted.

Tertiary

Preston Institute of Technology

I started in St George's Rd but at some point they moved to Bundora

One of the subjects I did at Preston Institute of Technology (PIT) was Fundamentals of Data Processing, part of which we were taught how to program in COBOL. Having already learnt a bit about programming when at Northcote High, this was right up my alley. PIT had a computer, ICL 1901A onsite.

That meant you could submit your program to be key punched on to punch cards 1 day get the cards the next day, submit the program for compiling and get the result the next day. Much faster than the week that it used to take when I was at Northcote High.

Failed English

I easily got through the introductory year except for one subject. English. I had to sit for exactly the same exam as the meticulations students. I still had the hand cramping problem so failed English

I was able to moved on to the next year and repeat English in a night class.

There were two streams in the course. Accounting or electronic data processing. Because of my background in the commercial stream at Northcote High I easily got through all the accounting subjects. I really excelled at computer programming.

The downside was the Economic subject. What I was being taught seemed completely illogical. So whenever I was given any assessment I would just write my own opinion about the way economics should work. Hence I failed the subject. I repeated it three times and it wasn't till the fourth time that I actually passed. I eventually started giving them the answers, The teacher, Rob Brady, wanted.

Time has shown me that my logic in relation to economics was right and thers was wrong. Yet they still teach classical economics today.

After failing economics I think the seconds time, I decided to sit in on the second economics subject lectures. The teacher Rob Brady, at the end of one of those lectures, asked to me. Noing I had failed the first economic subject he asked me why I was attending those luctures. I said because I wanted to learn what the second economic subject was about. He said that was ok but I would not be allowed to sit the exam and I would not get a credit for the subject. I said that was ok because I wasn't interested in getting the credit.

That was probably my introduction to getting an education without a qualification. Years later I attended a number of lectures at various universities, without ever being enrolled

Repeated English

When I repeated English the teacher was a published auther. At the first session he asked us to write something about public transport in Melbourne. The next week he said there is something that's been written that is very good but it's a bit hard to read because of the spelling and the handwriting but it's really good stuff. He started reading it. To my absolute amazement it was my material.

This was the first time, ever, anybody had said I am a good writer. Previous to this everybody just said your spellings bad and your handwritings pathetic. No comments were made about the content

He, the English teacher, suggested that I type my work, which I did. As that year there was no need to sit an external exam I passed English based on the typed assignments I submitted.

It would appear that educators have learned something over the years because when my kids went to school they did a thing called process writing. Regardless of how bad ther handwriting or spelling was, they would get somebody else to type up their work. They were judged on ther content rather than the presentation.

I often wonder how many other people would be really, really good writers but where discourged from writing anything because of ther bad handwriting and or “PERCIEVED” incorrect spelling.

See my take on Spelng

Never finished

Whilst still at PIT I met a young lady and we decided to get married. I decided to stop doing the course full-time and switch to part-time, so we could have some money.

Because of the multiple times I have failed economics,also a few law subjects, I never finished what I was doing at PIT. I had to front up a academic progress committee and say why I should be allowed to continue in the course. I can't remember what I said. They decided not to allow me to continue. At the time I was working at James Hardie and applied to go to Footscray Institute of Technology (FIT). They accepted me because I was working at James Hardie. I did a few subjects there and did quite well. I have been working as an Accountant for about 6 years and suddenly realised I never wanted to be an Accountant. One of the other employees ther, Ron Urmstram, told our boss that he was no longer going to continue his part-time studies. I decided to do the same and stop going to FIT.

Not long after this I decided to quit my job and stopped being an accountant and so became a computer sales representative.

Teachers and Subjects

I cant remember the names of all the teachers I had at PIT. Some that I do remember are:

ken?? Greenhill, for the advanced programing subjects. He, supposedly, taught us a number of other programing languages, but without a computer to actually use the language. So it was only taught in theory. He then tested us via a written exam based on that theory. Because we were not allowed to refer to our notes in the exam I failed the subject because I could not remember the instructions of the languages, let alone the correct syntax of ther use. I can only remember thing by using them. This became evident to me later in my programing career when I became the Australian “expert”, able to charge $1.000 per day for courses, in the Magic programing language, but was unable to pass the test to get creditatuon in Magic because they did not allow access to the usage of the languages during the tests.

A bit like having a written test on how to drive a car.

Ron Wollie. Never had him as a teacher. He was relatively young. Streight out of university with no practical experience.

Rob Brady Taught economics

Ken Hopper Taught cost accounting. He partly owned a car dealership in Sunbury

Teacher whos names I can not remember but do remember the subjects they taught and some things about them:

FIXME

Fundamentals of Data Processing: A guy with a goatee beard. Taught me all about cobol programming

Introduction to a modern Government: A young guy was political lefty

English: A young woman who ended up marrying the above guy. I remember her telling me she didn't know if I wrote badly to cover up my bad spelling or use bad spelling the cover up my bad writing

Contract Law: A tall thin guy that used to work in a legal practice and was very good at describing case law to us. If you're going to learn anything that's great when you got stories involved with it I still remember a lot of that lord because it of the case law stories associated with it.

Statics: A guy that was typical of a mathematics types teacher starter with something was relatively simple and just jumped streight to the more complex.

Company Law: Median hight thin guy. Being all based on an act of parliament, it was a completely boring subject. At least you're allowed to take the act of parliament into the exam with you. The heart but was interpreting what it ment. Even judge's can't do that.

Business Management. The guy that taught this end up being the head of the whole of the accounting department. Can you wish stuff pretty well and it was recently interesting subject.

Significant Events

Ther was some significant event.I cant remember what it was for, but they invited Barry Humphreys to open it. I remember passing him being chauffeur driven in an old car along plenty road. Found a old video of it which I have taken these stills off.

Bary Humphrey opens something special:

Got these stills off this video:

https://johnandcathy.com.au/2018/01/01/preston-institute-of-technology-1972/

Informel

By far I have learnt more since leaving formal education the school. I learnt multiple computer languages, to be a salesperson, I even learnt how to teach. Actually picked up a few certificates on the way. A train the trainer certificate and a quality auditors certificate.

Magic Programing

I taught myself to program in Magic completely from the documentation. That was quite some achievement considering it's a completely different programming paradigm to anything else. Not only did I teach myself how to program in it but I wrote my first application in it in about 4 weeks. I didn't understand everything I was doing and eventually it all just clicked together. I ended up knowing so much about magic programming that I wad able to run programming courses on it at $1,000 a day.

Because you were not allowed to use the magic programming language itself during tests I was never able to get accreditation as a magic programmer. Without the program itself I couldn't remember the names of various parts of it yet I was a good programmer in Magic. My old problem of not being able to remember names. But it didn't matter.

In the last 20 years I have taught senior people how to use technology. I've seen heaps of Senior people that went through the same learning difficulties that I had.

Myself and them can probably say the same thing. They may not have qualification but they have an education.

From a money point of view, I don't think that qualifications provide a cost-benefit.

See what I've written about money in relation to education