THE PRIDE OF MISS McCOMAS -111 Years of Preparatory Education at Geelong Grammar Glamorgan by Adrew Lemon (Second Hand Book)

SECOND HAND BOOK – EX LIBRARY

There is Mr McWilliam at his study beckoning at last with a rap on the pane to the bad boys who stand with their backs to his window. There is Miss Whitey, vigorously punishing ‘English Country Garden’ on the old piano as the children march into class. There is the Old Gym Hall which always smells of bananas and oranges past their prime. There is Mr Butler as he spins about from his blackboard and picks off with his duster unruly boys at the back of the classroom. It started as a tiny school, ” to train boys for the Public School Life” and in 1919 took over the premises in Douglas Street vacated by Toorak College. In 1947 -after sixty years under Miss McComas – it came into the orbit of Geelong Grammar. Within two decades it had become the late 1970s it had moderated, had moved on to co-education, but was still a place where children didn’t want to go home and where we “hose them out at five o’clock”. Glamorgan has always been different.

Here is a warm, affectionate yet independent history of Geelong Grammar’s preparatory school in Toorak, in all the phases of its existence, from 1887 right through to the end of the twentieth century. In the process it takes a considered look at an important part of Australia’s social history at an important part of Australia’s social history. Memorable teachers – Miss Alley, Dora Gipson, Brac Coulter, Bruce wicking, Ivan Sutherland, Richard Weigall, Joan Johns to name just a few and a formidable variety of students create a unique story in primary education.

The word ‘pride’ is sometimes applied to a family of lions. Miss McComas took a pride in her young lions, and this attitude was reflected by each of her successors. They knew you; they remembered you. What you became in the world, how you behaved, how you lived your life seemed to matter to them.

Specification:

Condition: Good. Ex- Library, Side of the spine and the front page have the library stickers, inside front page has the water marks, front and the back has library stamps.

Publisher: Geelong Grammar School

Year: 1999

Format: Hard Cover

Pages: 346 pages

ISBN: 0003000009474

$30.00

1 in stock