“Please Sir! / ‘Eyy Robert!” The Teacher

The book begins with an amusing account of the antics of a small boy who started school in 1939. In later years, when he became a student teacher at the school he himself had attended, his old sports master, with whom he enjoyed a mutual respect, told him that his name had been regarded by all his other teachers as a teacher swear word. Attending a one-teacher school in the bush when he was eight was such a revelation that he decided to be a teacher and, from observation of what he liked and disliked, gradually formulated how he would teach. While student teaching at that same school, he began formalizing those ideas, which he continued to modify over years of teaching. He presents this philosophy in his book, detailing the experiences that originally brought about his decisions, and how he used these teaching principles in many testing teaching situations in farming communities, large towns, and on a Pacific island. Expressed with sincerity and a gentle humor, the book presents, in story form, a philosophy that is sound and provides much food for thought for present-day teachers, teachers in training, and any parents who are interested in their children’s education.