By CASEY NEILL
PETER Brown signed up for a part-time commerce course at university to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
“I was eligible to be called up for National Service,” the Greater Dandenong councillor said.
“If you were at university your deployment overseas would be held over until you finished your degree.
“I took the view that I was going to be the oldest university student in Australia.”
Cr Brown was working at a book publisher warehouse.
“And one beautiful sunny day I was in the delivery truck and drove up the main entrance to Melbourne University to the Melbourne University book room,” he said.
“I looked around me and saw all these good-looking young women. I saw them sitting around with their books talking to guys,” he said.
“I thought ‘how can a person like me get amongst this life?’
“If you got a studentship from the State Government they’d pay you a living allowance. I could resign from work and become a full time student.
“I was rolled over into a full-time course and paid a living allowance.
“So that enabled me to complete my commerce degree and do my teacher training degree.
“But the catch was, if you were on a studentship you had to teach for three years to work it off.
“I took the view, ‘if I don’t like it, I‘ll resign and they can chase me for the money’.”
Last month Cr Brown notched up 45 years in teaching and received a certificate from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development recognising the achievement on 17 May.
A horse he part-owns, Heysen, was first past the post in the Parkes Cup in New South Wales at the same moment he received the award.
“It was certainly a memorable day,” he said.
Cr Brown started his teaching career at North Altona High School in 1972, on one corner of Millers and McArthurs roads.
“On the other corner was the North Altona pub,” he said.
“On a Friday afternoon it was common for the staff to go over to the North Altona pub and be at one table and the VCE students would be at another table.
“I was sitting there with a couple of young teachers and they were asked for their proof of ID.
“A couple of students who weren’t 18 – they were 17 – they weren’t asked for their ID because they looked older than the teachers.
“I thought ‘this teaching is a bit of fun’ – and it has been ever since.”
Cr Brown was among the first to teach the VCE legal studies course when it was introduced about 1973.
He’s also taught accounting and history and spent time in classrooms at Glen Eira College in Caulfield, Heatherhill in Springvale South – now the Keysborough College Banksia Campus – and the now-closed Coomoora College in Springvale South.
“I think I teach the kids well. I enjoy teaching them,” he said.
“The reason I’ve stayed in the classroom for all of these years is the laughter and the happiness that surrounds me.”
Cr Brown still teaches three and a half days a week.
“I’ve been saying for the past few years that my retirement’s fast approaching,” he said.
“I think that part-time teaching, with every Monday off and Wednesday sleep in, does take the pressure off and I think that’s contributed to my longevity.”
