REFLECTION: YEAR 7 IN 1970 - PART TWO

Ann Rennie (O’Neill, 1975) | English and Religion Teacher

We have come a long way since 1970. Australia had a population of 12.2 million and Sir Henry Bolte, the cartoonist’s dream, was Premier of Victoria. This was the year Tullamarine Airport opened and the Westgate Bridge collapsed. IBM introduced floppy disks and 3XY was the local hip radio station. Dame Edna was still Mrs Edna Everage, wife of Norm, denizen of Moonee Ponds. She had not yet gone on to conquer the universe with her quick wit, outsize ambition and swaying gladioli, and undertake advertising campaigns for an insurance company with meerkats mistaken for possums. Daddy Cool was a year away from releasing that other national anthem, Eagle Rock, and John Farnham, was a much loved popstar plumber whose Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head is still as fresh as it was on its 45 rpm vinyl record the day it was released. A baby-faced twenty-six-year-old Mick Jagger featured in the title role in the film, Ned Kelly. Melbourne girl, Germaine Greer, published The Female Eunuch and the world for women began to change, s…l…o…w…l…y.

One of the biggest things to happen in 1970 was the arrival of Mr Duncan, the first male teacher in the history of Genazzano. Of course, the school had been used to visiting prelates, monsignors, bishops and archbishops and had chaplains and priests thick on the ground in Kew, with the Redemptorists in Majella Court a fiveminute walk away and the Jesuits at Xavier, but this was ground-breaking. Brave Mr Duncan! I am afraid to say that my later Year 10 Maths class with him was not a success and that was all to do with me and nothing to do with Mr Duncan and his efforts. (I recently met him again and oh, how we laughed about those days. He kindly pretended to remember me and perhaps he did because I sat solidly up the back for the year with my best friend and spent most of the lesson laughing, but he certainly had happy memories of his time teaching at Genazzano).

I digress… back to the first year of living in the seventies!

Monday tuck-shop was heaven with Gen mothers making salad rolls I can still taste. Something to do with the butter slathered on doughy rolls and the fact that it wasn’t from home. Vanilla slices and neenish tarts were my favourites as our orders were put into brown paper bags with correct money, name and class for collection at lunchtime. Before that we recited the Angelus at midday in those days when prayer punctuated much of our young lives. Sometimes, we would stop at the grotto and wonder about Bernadette and Lourdes and all things miraculous. We acknowledged our grubby venality through the frequency of confession for the sins of fibbing, pinching siblings, saying unkind things and thinking mean thoughts, being rude to parents and the usual litany of misdemeanours for which a Hail Mary or three or a Glory Be was the penance. I loved the old chapel with its bees-waxed wooden pews, plaster cast saints, lingering incense and its enveloping gothic gloom.

Riffling through the 1970 yearbook, I am reliably informed by Sr Eymard that the Medium School performed the operetta, The Gypsy Maid. No doubt the mothers spent hours sewing costumes for those with great theatrical and musical talent - and the rest of us. We were taken into town for the cinematic experience of watching Walt Disney’s animation masterpiece, Fantasia on the wide screen and out on excursion to Yan Yean reservoir to understand Melbourne’s water supply. We were also introduced to the Scientific Research Association method of narrative composition. This was probably the neuroscience of the day with the explicit aim of improving our writing. However, after 25 years of teaching, I know that the best thing for writing is reading. Twelveyear-olds then and twelve-year-olds now need the nourishment of words and ideas from both classic and contemporary fiction to expand their own imaginative repertoire. We studied Colin Thiele’s heart-breaking February Dragon. With our recent devastating bushfires, this book is as relevant today as it was then.

As I reminisce I wonder what my Year 7s of 2020 will think about their interrupted school year when they connect at their 45-year school reunion in 2070. I wonder what the school day will look like and how the Genazzano campus might change architecturally to reflect the student population and new educational pedagogies. I hope the grotto is still here reminding us of the Gen girls of 1931 and that the Wardell building is a hive of activity. I hope the old stories and traditions are kept alive. There’s nothing like the changing incarnations of the Grey Lady to add to the school mythology. I hope that this next generation, in their turn, will be encouraged to find and treasure the beauty, truth and goodness of the world around them; to see their lives as graced opportunities to do good; and to be thankful for their fleeting days at the wellloved school upon the hill.

Most of all, I hope that some happy little Year 7 in 2070 reads this for her research on the history of Genazzano and marvels at the olden days and all the great school stories archived for posterity and rediscovery.

Correction: In Part 1 of Gen in 1970, Sr Barbara Reed fcJ was listed as Principal of Genazzano FCJ College however, it was actually Sr Barbara Hume fcJ.

As I reminisce I wonder what my Year 7s of 2020 will think about their interrupted school year when they connect at their 45-year school reunion in 2070. I wonder what the school day will look like and how the Genazzano campus might change architecturally to reflect the student population and new educational pedagogies.

Barbara Hume, Principal 1968 to 1970

Barbara Hume was an FCJ nun who achieved so very much in a relatively short time. She entered the FCJs in their annual intake on 2 February 1950, at just 16 years old.

Her good friend Maryrose Dennehy entered a year later. In 1954 they were both sent to Frieberg in Switzerland to attend university. They lived at the La Chasotte convent and walked 40 minutes each way, twice a day (home for lunch), often through snow. This degree was a real achievement, as nearly all lectures were in French. Barbara did her Dip.Ed. in Manchester and returned to Melbourne in 1960.

On her return, Barbara lived at Genazzano and her only sister had moved in across the road with a growing family. She was, of course at that time, unable to visit them. She loved her time at Genazzano, as a teacher and active member of the FCJ community. She taught English, French and Art over the years, starting with Years 9 and 10, then moving on to Years 11 and 12. She was made Sports Mistress and then went on to become Principal from 1968 to 1970.

Barbara was an exceptional teacher. Her enthusiasm for her subjects made them come alive to her students. She and Sr Maryrose became the Form teachers for the two Year 12 classes, plus Barbara was still the Principal. Nobody would be given all those concurrent responsibilities these days.

Barbara taught English Expression, English Literature, French and Art at Year 12 level. She made Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales understandable, even fun! She gave us plenty of tips to deal with exams, tips I still use to this day. “Read the question carefully, twice”, “underline the key words”, “look what angle the question is asking you to pursue”. She taught us to take care and to stick to the point.

When Pope Paul VI, in Barbara’s words, “threw open the windows on the Catholic Church” in 1971, Barbara left her home at the Convent and leapt out into different fields. At first, she taught at Taylor’s College in Collins Street and then taught Senior Art at Loreto.

In 1974, a great friend, Fr Peter Quin SJ phoned to advise her of a teaching position at the Jesuit College in Sydney, Riverview. Barbara applied and became the first female teacher and thus began a wonderful 20 year teaching tenure at Riverview. She loved it there and the staff, students and parents all loved her.

Barbara returned to Melbourne in the mid 90s and never wanting to be idle, worked at Xavier College in Kew, mostly as a volunteer. She was given ‘the attic’ for their large collection of memorabilia, which she loved sorting. Barbara retired from Xavier at the age of 80 and now resides at Mary McKillop St Vincent’s Aged Care in Hawthorn, as does her sister Pat Reed.

Written by Barbara Smith (Reed, 1970), Barbara Hume’s niece.