Tom: |
Mr. Whitney, let's move on to the St. Mark's days. How long have you
been teaching in SMS?
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JW: |
1957-63, I think.
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Tom: | What was the motive behind leaving Queen's and join an unproven school?
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JW: |
Erika was already teaching there and said it was a great school.
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Tom: |
You were an instant "hit" with the students, how would you
explain that?
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JW:
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I didn't know I was... If it is true, I suppose I had fairly free and
easy ways that students liked.
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Tom:
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What makes a teacher popular?
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JW: |
It can be because he behaves as if he is one of them but this is
probably not a very good way. Better is if he/she is fair, hard working and has
a good sense of humour and very patient and always willing to give students
academic and personal advice.
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Tom:
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SMS under Rev. Pun was very innovative or even avant garde for those
days, were you part of that policy making?
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JW:
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I think I was. I was the one who suggested the Explorers Club, workcamps
and the international workcamps to Japan
with St. M students.
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Tom:
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Did you think that policy was working well with the students?
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JW:
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Yes, it was. The students really appreciated this and said that the St. M
experience really changed their lives!!
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Tom:
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How was your relationship with Rev. Pun? |
JW:
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Very good, I think.
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Tom:
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How would you describe Rev. Pun the Principal?
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JW: |
Far sighted, students personal development
came before getting good academic results. He could be very stubborn
and opinionated but was always willing to compromise as a result of
reasoned arguments.
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Tom:
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Care to share some teacher and students memories from that period of
time?
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JW:
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Student excursions, workcamps and trips to Japan were highlights of my life there.
One highlight was the time we
climbed the Lion Rock with Explorer Club members and went over to Tolo
Harbour. We missed the last ferry and I was worried that parents
would think something terrible had happened to their kids. There were
no phones in the village (I can't remember the name) but we stayed the
night in the local school and the students managed to find food somewhere
that was quite good and we cooked up a storm in the school house. We
took the Tolo Harbour Ferry the next day back to Tai Po and got back to
school about midday, I think. Rev. Pun had calmed all the
parents' fears so everyone was happy, I think.
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Tom:
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What were some of the funniest moments with teachers or students or both?
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JW:
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There must
have been many but this one took place at a workcamp on Lamma Island with St.
M and St. Stephen college students. We had a small kitchen and led
water from a little spring on the hillside through a bamboo pipe. In
the morning we would fill the large kettle for morning tea from the
pipe. One day the tea had a rather strong but not unpleasant flavour.
When we opened the kettle, we saw that a small bamboo snake and come
down the pipe into the kettle and had been boiled!! Quite harmless for us
but not for the snake!!. No one got sick. |