Love of teaching undimmed

STAYING POWER: June Paton and Lou King, still passionate about their profession.

This is the time of year when high-achieving children are in the spotlight, but it was two enduring teachers who were feted at Kaitaia's Pompallier Catholic School last week.

June Paton and Lou King are not especially enamoured of the modern obsession with testing and data-collection that is part of today's educational bureaucracy, but 48 years after they graduated from the North Shore Teachers' Training College their passion for their chosen profession remains undimmed.

Neither are about to put their feet up though. Both have permanent relieving positions at Pompallier, while Mrs Paton also spends part of her school week at Paparore.

Neither have fallen particularly far from the tree. Mr King grew up and began his education at Kaeo, Mrs Paton (nee Houghton) at Herekino. And it was her first teachers, whose claims to fame include that they were the grandparents of former All Black Ian (the Kamo Kid) Jones, who got much of the credit for influencing her decision to take up the profession.

Mr King's first teacher was Elizabeth Mary Miller, who inspired equally fond memories. He began his teaching career at Kaeo, Mrs Paton at Ahipara (those being the days of country service), where her first principal was Rewa McConnell and her first class comprised 32 six-year-olds.

She later moved to Kaitaia Primary, and another Year 2 class, before leaving to raise children of her own. She wasn't away for long though, and can now look back on 30 years at Pompallier.

Mr King, who arrived at Pompallier in 2001, began his career at Kaeo with an even bigger class, 38 Standard 1-2 children, before moving to Auckland (after a stint teaching at secondary level at Kaeo and a special class of special class of 26 children), arriving in the city to be greeted by no fewer than 48 primers.

Classes of that size might be a source of some wonder these days, but Mr King didn't find them as challenging as some might imagine.

"They sat and listened," he said.

"There were no discipline problems. They wanted to learn, their parents wanted them to learn, and their grandparents had a lot of influence."

Neither he nor Mrs Paton had ever wielded a strap, although both saw a need for some means of enforcing discipline.

"If one child was strapped it went through the whole school like a wave," Mrs Paton said.

They also agreed that teaching was as enjoyable now as it had been 48 years ago. If it wasn't they wouldn't still be doing it, they said, while Mrs Paton was particularly enjoying her class of new entrants.

"They are the most rewarding children to work with, seeing them learn and grow," she said.

Television had an effect on children, and now computers were having an effect, she added. Computers did offer some advantages and were a fun way of learning, but came with disadvantages too.

The style of teaching the core subjects had also changed over the years, Mrs Paton saying she thought "they" were getting it right now. Certainly some children were prospering; she encountered 6 and 7-year-olds with a reading age of 12, and children's books were much more interesting than they had once been.

One thing had not changed though - the key to a 'good' school was, and always had been, the principal.