Education, education, education..................

When I started work in 1962 at, only just, fifteen years of age at Cardiff University, I didn't realise how lucky I was until a little time had passed. That's me on the left a few months later in the Physics Department darkroom. (I think we used the hairdryer for the quick drying of glass plates). 

The youth employment officer had sent me along for an interview with the professor of physics. I was shown into a vast, book-lined office by his secretary, the improbably named Miss Muriel Turtle and sitting behind an equally vast desk was someone who looked like the archetypal professor. A quietly spoken Canadian, Fellow of the Royal Society, world leader in his field of X-Ray Crystallography (I knew nothing of this at the time of course) who immediately put me at ease and spoke to me as an equal.

He seemed genuinely interested in my woodwork class at school. (Splott Secondary Modern, I was an 11 plus failure) and that I had made both a pencil box and a clothes horse. (The job I was being interviewed for was junior workshop technician in his department so some skills with tools were relevant). When he also discovered that I was keen on photography and had my own darkroom at home, it seemed to clinch it for me and I was offered the job on the spot. The departmental darkroom serviced the research students work, processed the x-ray films in addition to general photographic duties. 

I seemed to fit in fine and enjoyed the atmosphere of a leading university and the variety of work, especially the opportunity to pursue my photography. A few months later I was called in to see the youth employment officer who had fixed up the interview for me at what was then called the labour exchange. Very quickly it transpired that he had mixed up my record cards and sent me for the wrong job. The job I was doing was supposed to be for a well qualified grammar school leaver with at least several what were then 'O' levels and maybe an 'A' level or two. One left a Sec. Mod. with nothing of course and in any case at fifteen way to young to have taken those exams. 

The university to their total credit had probably already realised an error had been made but stuck with me. They saw that I worked hard, got on well with everyone and was willing to learn. Later they gave me a day off a week to go to technical college to study maths, physics, chemistry and precision machine tool work. The photography I pursued myself, learned on the job and took some evening classes at Cardiff Art School. The generous support I received there may well have influenced me to gravitate towards teaching later in life. All the staff there were kind and supportive, (How many kids got a prof. of physics and an FRS to help him with his homework?)

I think of those times a lot when I'm teaching or giving talks to young people. The generosity shown to me by those very distinguished professors and lecturers all those years ago had a profound effect on my future life. Way beyond anything that they probably imagined at the time. They were also wonderful individual characters with a passion for their subject. Sadly there are too many in education now who are corporate management clones with no passion. Watch this space as this is a topic to which I will be returning..............