Last year I wrote about Diana Beaglehole, who, when I had her as my Standard Four teacher at age 10, was the gorgeous Diana Flower. Today, Diana and I went for lunch together at "Milk and Honey", the university restaurant, and then we visited my lab, as the picture suggests. Over lunch we had a great opportunity to catch up on the subject of Wanganui characters and legends from primary school, as well as the state of the world, a matter on which Diana, an historian, converses fluently.Most remarkably Diana gave me a photograph which I reproduce below. With her box Brownie she had captured a moment in the life of her 1958 Standard Four class. The little boy in the middle left, holding the pencil so carefully in his right hand, is me. O
n the far right, with her hair parted in the middle, is my first love, Dallas Caldwell. But the best part of this photo is not, I think, the children at work. It is the wonderful wall postings, a tribute to Diana's imaginative teaching. Above my head is the obligatory 1950s public health poster with the message "Guard your natural teeth-they are best!"
What a fabulous photo!!!! So much captured here. I love that the children are all doing different things; some reading, some writing, a couple of boys in the back having a conversation. Notice also that the girl in the foreground is permitted to use her left hand. I was 4 years after you and Mum had to have meetings with the teachers before they would let me use my dominant left hand. I had been forced to use my right hand for a few years and to this day can still write with both!
ReplyDeleteVery observant of you Mary-fascinating about the left had use-that would be Diana's influence-way ahead of her time.
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