Retired Teacher, 91, Is Still Learning

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29251, 8 July 1960, Page 2

Retired Teacher, 91, Is Still Learning

Sitting in an easy chair at Burwood Hospital yesterday—wearing Hue as she always has done— Miss Nellie Grand, who will be 91 today, turned back the chapters of her long life as a teacher till she came to the 1920’5. There she stopped. “Those were my happiest days,” she said. “That little school I had at St. John’s, Latimer square, was such fun. Learning should always be a joy.”

Some time in the 1020's Miss Grand decided to retire from teaching. For 40 years she bad been at the Normal School as a pupil, pupil-teacher, teacher arid ’teacher-trainer.” She felt like a break. But retirement was not the answer; inactivity*made her ill Doctor’s Idea “Why not start a kindergarten of your own, just as an interest,” her doctor suggested at his consulting room in Latimer square. “Send me your children and any of your friends in the neighbourhood have and I’ll do that,’* she said. So, it was, her cherished school at St John’s Sunday Schoolroom With an invaluable experience behind her, Miss Nellie Grand, the teacher in blue, carried out her own ideas on whetting young appetites for learning. Children of five, six and seven were taught their sums, their spelling and how to write like any other beginners. But everything was infused with an explorer’s curiosity for more, whipped up by the teacher’s own enthusiasm, her bubbling personality. Teaching and learning were not like that in other schools then, as many found out when they were old enough to travel farther afield than Latimer square each day to take their places in bigger classes. Home ties prevented Miss Grand from continuing her own school, but nothing could keep

her out of some kind of teaching for long. She coached students, taught drama, for instance, and basketry to women’s organisations, including the Canterbury Women’s Club for 27 years. Then she took up acting and production again. Views on Education “Modern education is improving,” Miss Grand said yesterday. “We are getting nearer its ideal —learning to live better, richer lives.” There was not so much “cramming” now, more understanding of personal problems, and a clearer idea was emerging of world citizenship, she said. “My theme in teaching children and pupil-teachers has always been ‘no cramming’, more real learning,” she said. Amateur Actress Lessons over for the day and work prepared for the morrow. Miss Grand would spend most of her leisure time in amateur drama. An actress of considerable ability with a clear, expressive voice, she passed on her love of the spoken word, the story and the theatre to her pupils. Countless elderly men and women who went to the old Normal School in childhood, must look back in gratitude to Miss Grand for the way in which she brought Shakespeare’s words to life for them. She could still do the same for their grandchildren. “Education is the preparation for living—for a good life, a fully enriched and satisfying life,” she used to tell her school children and teacher-trainees. 1 That is what learning has always meant to her. “And in my ninety-second year, I’m still learning,” Miss Nellie Grand said yesterday.