Have you seen this man?
university-of-waikato
Thu Mar 18 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Have you seen this man?
Thursday, 18 March 2010, 2:24 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
March 17, 2010
Have you seen this man?
The mystery man is second from the right on the back row, “the one with the flat haircut”,
It’s a nigh-on impossible task: naming everyone in a group photo from 50 years ago, but Terry Stowers has nearly done it.
He’s spent the last year studying a photo, taken in 1960, of the first-ever intake of trainee teachers to the University of Waikato’s School of Education – then known as the Hamilton Teachers’ College Department of Education, and he’s managed to identify all 173 people in the picture – bar one.
“It’s a bit of a mystery,” says Stowers, who as a 17-year-old was himself part of the 1960 student intake. “He has been positively identified by several people, but according to college records that person didn’t arrive until a year later in 1961.”
The mystery man is second from the right on the back row, “the one with the flat haircut”, says Stowers. He’s hoping someone will recognise the face and help him fill in the blank.
“If it’s the guy we think it is, he’s a guy who’s lost an arm. He supposedly had an accident either before starting college or early on in the first year. It’s possible he had to leave college and then start again, which might explain why the records don’t match.”
Stowers is also working on identifying people in the student intake photo for 1961, and would like to hear from anyone who was part of either group. “These are the students who all started and completed their training while the Teachers’ College was still based in Melville, before the move up to the current University campus,” he says.
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The time-consuming project is part of preparations for the School’s fiftieth anniversary, to be celebrated later this year.
“We’ve got a lot to celebrate,” says School of Education dean Professor Alister Jones. “From humble beginnings in Melville, we became the first teachers’ college in New Zealand to offer a Bachelor of Education, a four-year teaching qualification which encompassed degree-level study. The first batch of BEd students graduated in 1969, marking a turning point in the training of primary school teachers.”
Since then, he says, the University of Waikato’s School of Education has remained at the forefront of educational innovation. “We’re ranked top in New Zealand for research, and we’ve made significant contributions to educational theory and practice, such as the groundbreaking Te Kotahitanga programme, aimed at improving the educational achievements of Maori students.”
If you think you know who the mystery man is, or if you were part of the student intake at the then Hamilton Teachers’ College in 1960 or 1961, please contact Terry Stowers in New Plymouth at terryst@orcon.net.nz
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