There were many new developments at Marbury in the following year, notable among which was the arrival of two people who were to become very significant teachers in the school.
In late 1971, a young American teacher who was making a honeymoon visit to her husband's parents in Adelaide came to see me. She had a degree in educational psychology and had heard about Marbury. In February 1972 she accepted a position at the school. I stipulated that the position was to be for at least a year . Jan Carson proved to be an excellent teacher and is still at Marbury in charge of the primary school.
Early in the same year a young man visited the school. He was a secondary teacher who wished to find out about Marbury. He came without an appointment and as his manner was somewhat audacious and pushy I suggested that he should come back in three weeks' time. I considered that this would test the interest of any brash young man but he did return exactly three weeks later and I found him to be very intelligent, perceptive and particularly interested in the philosophy of the school.
One of the teachers employed for 1972 was a young woman with idealistic notions about teaching in a "free" school. She was only with us a few days and was last seen running down the street away from the school in a state of near hysteria. I never did find out what had brought on this flight from the reality of a "free" school, nor did we recover the month's salary paid to her in advance. This dramatic event coincided with the young man's visit and I offered him her position.
Leonard Cohen was a twenty-six year old New Zealander of part Maori descent who had trained as a teacher but had later joined country music band with which he had been associated in his university days. The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band became the leading country music band in New Zealand but Leonard eventually found the pace of the professional music scene too stressful and came to Australia. He had taken up teaching again and had brought his wife and young son over to join him but the marriage broke down soon afterwards and the wife and son returned to New Zealand.
With this history, his handsome and flamboyant appearance and his rather overpowering personality, I had every reason to be cautious about my new teacher. He now lived with an attractive young art teacher but their rather 60's hippie image and demeanour struck a slightly discordant note in the community. However, he was very interested in liberal and progressive ideas about education, due mainly to some early unpleasant experiences as a boarder in a leading Auckland school which had been modelled on a traditional English public school.
He was rather taken aback on his first morning when asked to play the guitar for the kindergarten but quickly adapted to the situation and thereafter became a popular performer with the young children of the school.
The school population had increased in 1972 to 140 with the arrival of the first secondary students. The main thrust in this direction had come from my daughter Kirsten who was not happy in her Adelaide girls' college. Burr's son Ian also wanted to move to Marbury and we went on to enrol students up to Leaving Certificate standard.
The school was now a more complex establishment, needing specialist teachers. Joyce Dodd became secretary and an extremely adaptable parent, Ann Callaghan, became a teacher aide and later the school housekeeper at Aldgate. With her indefatigable spirit and loyalty she has continued as a "Jack of all trades" and school chatelaine to this day.
I was concerned that often the children were not having a suitable lunch at school and this combined with the difficulties of sending out for food made it important to introduce an alternative system. We decided on an Oslo-type lunch for children and staff. The school provided wholemeal bread, cheese, Vegemite, peanut butter, fruit and vegetables laid out on a trestle table. There was quite a resistance at first to the notion of wholemeal bread by some students. I decided it was to be wholemeal bread or no bread and the strategy worked. By the end of the week everyone was eating wholemeal and, more interestingly, several mothers reported that their children were demanding the erstwhile detested bread at home. School lunches were finally discontinued in 1974 for all but the very young children because of catering difficulties.
The vexatious question of children who had been in care had to be addressed. As we were not able to provide the special emotional support needed for these children it was agreed that we would not accept children who had spent more than a minimal time in crèches or other child-minding situations except in cases of unavoidable circumstances such as a parent death or serious illness. We were also concerned about the philosophical problem for the school as our attitudes to child-rearing were linked to the notion of continuous and consistent mothering, particularly for children under three years of age. We also wished to take a stand on what we considered was likely to become a serious social problem in the community.
With the increase in the school population it was now apparent that the Wayville premises would soon be inadequate. Burr Dodd proposed the building of a new school somewhere in the foothills below Mount Lofty. While we were considering possible sites I was told about the forthcoming sale of "Wairoa", a large and beautiful property at Aldgate in the heart of the Ranges, about eighteen kilometres from Adelaide.
Ann Callaghan and I drove up to see it. From the big white gates, a tree-lined drive reminiscent of the one leading to "Manderley" in the film "Rebecca" led up to an elegant mansion, glimpses of which we could see through the trees as we rounded each curve of the road.
It was a two storey building of local stone faced with brick of early Victorian style but built in the late Victorian period. Decorative white iron-work adorned the front balcony and verandah. The balcony overlooked the gardens while beyond was a backdrop of massive trees. It was a large estate of thirty-three acres and from the quaint gate-house to the outlying buildings and gardener's cottage it seemed to be the ideal setting for our school.
I thought all my powers of persuasion would be needed to acquire this dream property for Marbury but such concerns were unnecessary. Burr was delighted with it and the purchase was completed within a few days. "Wairoa", the name of the estate, is a Maori word meaning "long water" and this alluded to the vast store of underground water beneath the property. The landed gentry of South Australia had acquired these stretches of valuable land in the last century in the driest state of the driest continent; it had that precious commodity, water, easily accessible to them.
The first owner of the estate, William Horn, had acquired considerable wealth from mining interests in South Australia and had built the house and laid out the gardens. In 1893 the estate was bought by Thomas Barr-Smith as a summer residence for his family and it remained with this family until 1964. When the school acquired "Wairoa" in 1972 there had been few changes made to the buildings or garden.
It was decided to move the older students up to Aldgate in the coming term and have the primary school children follow in 1973. At first it was as if this change had cast a spell over the students and it seemed to many of them that they had entered a wondrous fairyland.
The extensive gardens were wild and rambling with banks of rhododendrons and azaleas, among camellia beds and lily of the valley borders set among sloping lawns. It had the delightful ambience of a secret garden. The gazebo overlooked the steps leading down into the grotto with its dark quiet and mysterious atmosphere. There were ponds set in the rocky outcrops with roughly sculptured heads here and there and a small dark fir forest which separated the gardens from the road. On the other side of the long winding drive was an area of native scrub which contained some beautiful native orchids and other wild flowers. Grassy paddocks of cleared land were available for grazing animals and for future sports areas. Two cows, two goats and some poultry were bought to provide interest for the students and a small paddock was fenced off to hold the horses of students who rode to school.
Marbury, from being a small mainly primary school in an inner suburb now had a lush and sophisticated environment which cast quite a different aura over our school life. Some students responded very strongly to the charm of the gardens and the sense of freedom and spent much of their time either sitting peacefully on garden seats or wandering along the many winding pathways. Others found the spacious acres a source of adventure and a stimulus for imaginative games. When the primary children joined the school they were delighted with the many trees they could climb and the exciting places available for cubby and hut building. The long drive was a suitable bike route for these young children and regular bike days were arranged when young riders were given special instructions in safe riding and bike maintenance.
We were now an established school. The Education Department had inspected and approved our primary section in 1971 and had recently given approval for the secondary school. This approval enabled us to receive government grants and it also allowed us to hold the public "Leaving Certificate" examination at "Wairoa"
By 1973 we had decided to take boarding students. With such good accommodation available this gave more continuity and substance to the school. We also took students to matriculation level and were probably the first progressive school in Australia to do so. Many of the progressive schools which had sprung up in the late 1960's and 1970's were well intentioned but appeared to be more in reaction against traditional educational values than the development of any new philosophical ideas in education.
In 1974 Harry and I and a small group of Marburians attended a conference of progressive and allied schools at Frensham School in Mittagong, NSW I had been asked to give a paper on Marbury but although there was some slight interest it became clear that the conference was composed of quite diverse groups and had very little chance of reaching any unanimity or accord about education. I was disappointed but realized that there was unlikely ever to be many points of agreement.
Marbury took a course of its own to identify what was of value in the traditional system such as a certain concentration on spelling, grammar and arithmetical tables but tempered with a strong emphasis that each child was to be seen as an individual and should be encouraged to develop in its own way and at its own pace. However, it was necessary to follow Education Departmental standards for children who wished to reach the appropriate levels to enable them to be adequately prepared for public examinations.
In 1974 the nearby Keroma estate of forty acres was purchased as a boarding house and we were able to add further agricultural interest for students with more cows, sheep and ducks. Marauding dogs proved to be a problem particularly with the peacocks which had been brought in to enhance the gardens.
A Parents and Friends Association was founded as a support group and fundraising body but it was to have no part in policy making. Policy was to remain with the Principal and the Board. At an early Board meeting I had asked that the power to run the school be delegated to me. It was important to me that if I was going to take on this demanding task I should not be hampered by having to consult the Board at every turn. I was also mindful of what had happened to my father with the Rationalist Association so many years before. There was unanimous agreement for my proposal.
In 1974 the big family kitchen at "Wairoa" was converted into a science laboratory. Music was added to the curriculum. A pottery kiln designed by a parent, Milton Moon, was constructed with the help of some of his students from the School of Arts. A magnificent "Overland" sleeping car, the "Onkaparinga" was purchased from the Railways and set up in the grounds (complete with bogies) as study cubicles for senior students. Two brake vans for younger children's play shelters were also installed. Certain problems with heating were overcome and a new egress road had to be built on the western boundary by order of the local council. Two of our most notable teachers, Ian Sheppard and Adrian Flavell joined the staff.
For the most part the school functioned very well despite some notions in the community that it was a sort of Adelaide "St. Trinian's", with students sitting astride their desks smoking and drinking. I did allow smoking for the smoker students in the early days in the naive belief that they could live out their fascination with this activity. In time as the student population grew the system became self-defeating; there came to be a certain status in the group queuing up to smoke and the project had to be abandoned.
While the population was small it was possible to have a relatively self-governing community of students and teachers. Anyone with the agreement of three other members of the school (students, teachers, or a combination of both) could call a meeting and after discussion or debate of the issue it could be put to the vote. There had to be an 80% consensus of the whole school community before there could be any change in the day-to-day running of the school. However, the idealistic notion of a student-weighted consensus had to be abandoned also. I still believe that children reared with good values and positive handling can be responsible in these situations but a predominantly day-school population with a number of psychologically disturbed students was more in need of wise and careful adult guidance than too much freedom of choice. Swearing, which had been permitted for all students with a therapeutic end in mind similar to the smoking experiment, had to be abandoned for all but the young children when it became a popular pastime for those intent on reacting against authority. A boarding school in the English countryside like "Summerhill" could allow such measures but it was too exotic an experiment for a school close to small conservative city like Adelaide. It became necessary to examine carefully what I was attempting to produce in this school. Progressive education at this time was a relatively popular and even a fashionable notion in some sections of the community but for a number of these enthusiasts it was more of a fanciful idea than a reality. It did, however, attract a section of the public with problem children and was considered a possible placement for patients by some psychiatrists and psychologists. The idea of a psychological clinic to be set up at Keroma (which the school had renamed Girrahween) but separate from the main school and to be overseen by Harry was mooted but it would have been far too expensive of our people and money resources and the idea was soon abandoned.
If, on the other hand, we concentrated on the eradication of punitive methods and moralistic handling while at the same time producing an orderly and disciplined environment for children it would have an excellent chance not only of surviving but also of setting up a model for teachers and parents. Ethical development was the necessary concomitant and this needed to be taught by example and not by precept wherever possible. Children learn best by example and if they feel friendly and secure with adults they will seek to emulate their attitudes and behaviour. So it was that the behaviour of the adults in the school was to be exemplary. No rudeness, no bad language, no sarcasm. Young children could speak rudely or be ill-mannered. They were allowed this license because it was not always desirable for young children to try to comprehend the adult reasons for insistence on such behaviour.
As Bertrand Russell so succinctly put it, "It is useless to obtrude moral ideas at an age at which they can evoke no response, and at which they are not yet required for the control of behaviour. The only effect is boredom and imperviousness to those same ideas at the later age when they might have become potent."
It is also important that teachers should not become "unreal" in their attitudes to children. They should not show anger but they can express reasonable annoyance when it is appropriate. There is a special problem which often appears with the "perfect" parent or teacher who never becomes cross. The child tends to feel that this "paragon of virtue" is someone they will never be able to emulate and as Melanie Klein has pointed, as a result such children often become phobic in some aspect of their personality. The role of the teacher was put into focus by the program of clear thinking and problem-solving which became a significant part of the school routine for both teachers and students. The majority of children responded very well to this method. They were always encouraged to say what they wished and to converse and argue with teachers. It could be said that the most significant method of handling which has developed in the school is the active participation by students in discussion of their problems, whether it be unruly classroom behaviour, problems with their peers or problems with their teachers. This has led not only to the development of their ability to think, discuss and argue but has also led to confidence and trust in the system and to their teachers.
There were meetings for the whole community, meetings with different sections of the school as the occasion arose, and meetings within class groups. Teachers were present sometimes but I encouraged students to elect their own representatives and chair their own meetings. They could come to me for advice and also to discuss the outcome of meetings. One important rule was always to be observed; nothing was to be solved by punitive methods. It was the practice to be followed by students as well as teachers. A.S. Neill in describing meetings at "Summerhill" talked about fines levied on students for misdemeanours and I considered this was an inconsistency in their system. On a visit to "Kilquhanity" in 1979 we were invited to attend a meeting by the headmaster, Mr Aitkenhead. The same system of fines being levied by the student chairing the meeting was followed. It was very different to our method at Marbury.
I have been concerned at Marbury to put the emotional development of children before scholastic attainment (although this as an important aspect of mental development is not ignored). The main emphasis has been placed on the training and personality development of teachers, in order that they would be sufficiently skilled to encourage individual growth in the children and be able to do so in a planned and deliberate manner based on knowledge of the developmental path along which a child was proceeding. Teachers need to increase their understanding of interpersonal relationships, divest themselves of many preconceptions about education and child development and examine any moralistic attitudes which have been passed down to them from their own parents and teachers.
In "Man, Morals and Society", Flugel discusses the situation where teachers so often feel themselves to be "in loco parentis" and "adopt the role of the super ego, including its punishing aspects". In contrast in the non-authoritarian school, a problem frequently arises with the passive teacher who is afraid of becoming unpopular with children or of being interpreted as authoritarian and consequently is resistant to using commonsense directives. The problems of teachers who have difficulty in taking the initiative with children in this way are usually due to repressed reactions to their own rearing experiences and these reactions are often expressed in a desire to teach in a so-called "free school"
When Dr Jeannie Stirrat, my early counsellor and mentor visited Marbury in the early Wayville days she spoke with approval of what was happening in the school and remarked that I obviously was not afraid of children. I had not thought much about this before but I realized then that this was in fact true.
So often teachers and parents were afraid of children in the sense that they wished to avoid the direct confrontation with them that would expose their own lack of interpersonal skills. The authoritarian system did not pose the same problem for the teachers or parents who were armed with an array of corrective and punitive methods.
The training of teachers at Marbury in the handling of children became as significant as the appropriate handling of children.
Just as the Biblical "Physician, heal thyself," carries an implication for the practice of medicine, so "Teacher, know thyself" can be considered a wise directive for the non-authoritarian teacher. It had seemed to me that the progressive movement in education had often foundered because of inadequate understanding of these deeper issues by teachers.
Many children react to their entry into the non-authoritarian school by becoming increasingly uncooperative for a period, during which time their previously submerged aggression and resistance to learning comes to the surface. The time needed for their adjustment to the new system varies with the child. For many children this problem appears to be related to early childhood handling or previous schooling experiences. In some particularly obdurate cases, there is very little or no obvious change and the child continues with the same pattern of behaviour until it becomes clear that it can respond better to authoritarian handling. The solution may lie in a return to that system. Although a school system such as Marbury is therapeutic in the overall environmental sense because of its relatively permissive attitudes and approval of the child it cannot be viewed as a treatment situation for particularly disturbed children. These children need specialized treatment and will tend to view freedom and permissiveness as the license to do what they want. This will not be beneficial for the child or the school where discipline needs to arise out of social cooperation and a community ethos.
As a child develops in the school it learns patterns of behaviour by identification with significant adults. In the non-authoritarian setting the teacher and child relationship is structured more on a friendly "give and take" situation. The use of teachers' Christian names in a relaxed environment increases the child's ability to relate easily. The significance of teachers and their skill with children varies according to their personality and with their ability to interact with children.
Teachers will vary in their emotional responses because of variations in the responsiveness of their own personalities. Some may handle dependency situations well, others may have more skill in dealing with aggression in children.
Instruction and director of teachers needs the same careful and positive handling as it does for the children. The early "Wairoa" period was a time of concentrated learning for the staff. There was no obligation on any teacher or teacher-aide to be present at meetings where motivations or other deeper issues were examined. The T.Group type of approach is not necessary or desirable in this context. If people want to disclose themselves they should feel free to do so but pressure on them to do this was always avoided at Marbury.
Gaining the trust and confidence of teachers had to be developed over time. This was particularly important when I had to introduce new and unfamiliar notions of child handling to new teachers. There were weekly staff meetings and "in depth" meetings regularly, for those interested. A yearly in-service conference known as the "teachers' weekend" was held at the school or elsewhere to which all staff including our office workers were invited. Some former teachers were always welcome. It was a time for questions and discussion about the school philosophy and educational problems as well as being a pleasant social occasion.