Subjects: Prime Minister’s education; Education Week
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………...
Well thank you very much Alexia. Can everybody hear me? Good. To Mr Kevin Weekes the Principal of Earlwood Public School, to Kevin Moss the State Member for Canterbury, to Dale Sullivan, Mark Watts, to Mrs Gloria Kasiou who is the President of the School Council and Sue Lowe the Acting District Superintendent for St George. And very importantly the students and the parents of Earlwood Public School.
I’ve rather looked forward to this day for the last couple of weeks when I was able to confirm that I could come to the school. I think all of us like the opportunity to remember some of the things from our past and certainly this school had a very great influence on me. And I am very grateful for the education that I received at this school. I attended this school between 1945 through to the end of 1951 when I went on to Canterbury Boys High School along with a number of other students from this school.
I think most of you know the Kentucky Fried Chicken in William Street? I’m sure you do. I used to own that. Well not quite. Our family home used to be there and that was until about 1960… late 1960. My mother sold it. And when I attended this school I used to walk across William Street, through the grounds of the then Methodist, now Uniting Church, out into Homer Street and across here. Because I lived so close I was often very late arriving to school.
But I do remember my days here very well. I remember a lot of my teachers. One that I remember extremely well was a teacher called Jack Doherty. None of you will of course know him or remember him, it was a long time ago. But he taught me in sixth class and I can honestly say that he played quite a role in encouraging and shaping my interest in current affairs because we used to have discussions. We used to have school broadcasts then and I’m sure you still have them in different forms now. And we used to talk about world affairs. And he stimulated me to express my interest in all of those things and I found them tremendously enjoyable.
The first speech I ever made was at an Earlwood Public School function. It was at our speech day which was held in the old Mayfair Theatre which I think has now sort of disappeared into a galaxy of shops up there in Homer Street. But of course in the early 1950’s Earlwood boasted two picture shows as they were called then, the Chelsea and the Mayfair. And both of them have disappeared now. And we had our speech day there and I made my first speech. I’ve got to say Alexia that your speech was better, more detailed and more eloquent than the first speech that I made and I think you’ve got a long future in the profession that I followed. So good luck and I hope you do.
One thing that I did want to say to all of the students here and that is that even though you may not think it all the time that you are at school it is a special part of your life and the people who teach you are very special people. Teachers are in my view a group of people in the community who don’t get enough credit and enough praise for the tremendous work they do. It’s not an easy job being a teacher. It’s even more difficult these days than I think it was thirty or forty years ago because you’ve got to do a lot of talking, a lot more talking to the children about personal issues and what we sort of older people call pastoral care. And all of those things are very important. And I want to say a word for all of your teachers and say what a tremendous job that I think school teachers do.
I’m personally very grateful for the education that I got in the New South Wales government school system both here and at Canterbury Boys High School. I don’t think I could have got a better education anywhere else and I always remember with enormous affection the school days that I had here. I made some very good friends here, one or two of them I still see occasionally. I went on to make some close fiends that I’ve kept in contact with at High School.
I have happy recollections of being at this school. And one of the other things that I remember very well is that whenever I went to speech days if the guest speaker that was asked to come along spoke for too long I used to get a little tired of it too. And one of things that I was reminded of by my wife, and I married a school teacher, was that when you address school gatherings you don’t go on for too long.
And so to all of you girls and boys, you’re in a very nice school. I have very fond recollections of it. It’s great to see so many of your Mums and Dads and people from the local community. Earlwood was always a community that stuck together very well and I look at the faces, I’ve read some of the names, I recognise what a wonderful cross section of modern Australia this school represents. There’s so many different cultural backgrounds which represent very much the modern Australia and it’s a tremendous tribute to the capacity of this country to welcome people in a very warm and affectionate and open way.
I hope all of you go on to realise what you want out of life. Always try very hard. The most important thing about having a career and the most important thing about anything you do is that no matter what you choose to do you do it well because career satisfaction is not so much the job you get, how important it may be, how influential it may be, how well paid it may be. I know a lot of well paid people who are very dissatisfied and very unhappy because they don’t have career satisfaction. I know people who aren’t as well paid or remunerated as others yet because they get tremendous career satisfaction out of what they do and they enjoy doing something very well they enjoy life a lot more than people who are a lot better off.
So it’s not just a question of notoriety and money, it is also a question of job satisfaction. And I hope all of you realise what you want to do and I hope as you do that you’ll always remember the contribution that your school has made particularly your very happy days here at Earlwood. And I say as part of the Education Week how delighted I am in a personal way to contribute to it.
I thank the school very warmly. I thank you Alexia for your letter and I’m so delighted that I was able to fit it into my schedule and come and I’ll look forward to meeting some of you in a few moments and your parents and meeting some of the staff. But you’re at a great school. Always respect the job that your teachers do and I wish all of you in life very good fortune for the years ahead.
Thank you.
[ends]