John

Upon walking into John Shiels’ home, he directs us to two couches in what he describes as his “favourite room” of the house.
The room is one of two lounge rooms in his Pakenham home.
“We have to have two living rooms, one for myself and the other for Lesley (his wife),” he said.
“Lesley watches every detective TV show you could think of – CSI, Cold Case, Bones, and I don’t watch any of them.
“I enjoy sports shows, football, comedy and documentaries.”
But that’s about where the differences between this couple end.
Both John and Lesley are school teachers and trained librarians, share an avid interest in sports, particularly cycling and hiking, and both love to travel.
John was recently recognised for his service to the Education Department with a 45-years service award.
And while he is currently on well-earned long service leave, he is preparing to fly overseas to do what he loves with his wife – travelling, hiking and cycling.
After 45 years as a teacher, John said he also looked forward to retirement next year.
However, Johns start to life was a far cry from where he is today.
Born in 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland, John spent the first five years of his life living in corporation flats in the Gorbals.
“Gorbals was one of the poorest parts of the city of Glasgow ever,” John said.
“It was mainly made up of corporation flats, which is the equivalent to Housing Commission homes in Melbourne.”
In 1951, John came to Australia by ship on the RMS Cameronia with his Irish parents and older sister.
After arriving in Port Melbourne, John and his family got on a train to the Bonegilla Migration Camp near Wodonga.
After staying there for a few weeks, the family then moved to a migration camp in Yallourn.
When his father got a job with the Victorian Paper mill, the family moved to small farm just outside of Morwell.
In 1969, John graduated as a teacher.
“I became a teacher at the time because I couldn’t think of anything else to do,” he said.
“I originally wanted to join the army but chickened out at doing that. My mother wanted me to be a priest but I said no to that.”
The decision has never been one John has regretted, after having a “wonderful life as a teacher”.
John studied at the Secondary Teachers College at Melbourne University.
He started his career at Traralgon High School.
After two years at Traralgon, John got a job at Bright Elementary School, and eventually Lesley did as well.
The couple spent 15 years living and teaching in Bright.
They even slotted their wedding into their teaching schedule, getting married during the September holidays in 1973.
The couple had their three children, Liam, Sally and Lucy, while living in Bright.
“I call them the three disasters,” he said.
“Liam was born during a snow storm, Lucy was born during a bushfire and Sally was three weeks early.”
During his early years of teaching, John taught subjects including history, geography and economics.
“But being a little school at Bright, I taught a little bit of everything else,” he said.
It was during his time at Bright, in 1984, that John decided to retrain as a teacher librarian.
His training as a librarian led him to his next venture and saw him pack up and leave Bright, with his wife, where he had spent 15 years.
In 1986 John got a promotion to Mildura High School as chief librarian.
After four years at Mildura, it was Lesley who saw the couple pack up and move for the second time.
Lesley got a job at Pakenham Consolidated School in 1990 and has been a primary school teacher there ever since.
John had a short stint at Kooweerup Secondary College as a teacher librarian, before he got the job at Dandenong High School where he has been for the past 17 years.
John is currently on long service leave, and will soon spend about six weeks travelling overseas with Lesley.
“We are going back to the town I was born, Glasgow,” he said.
Then they plan to spend seven days hiking 117 kilometres along the Great Glen of Scotland, then more hiking in Scotland, then will hike along Hadrian’s Wall in Yorkshire.
“After that we are going to be tourist and travel around Spain,” he said.
John said he has had a great life as a teacher.
“Especially living and teaching in Bright, it was just brilliant,” he said.
“It (teaching) has taught me a lot of patience, and to be tolerant of children, students and their parents.
“It’s great when kids come in and say hello, and being in the library lots of kids are always coming in asking for help.”
John said that what kept him in the industry was that every day has been different.
“It’s never really been boring, the only year that I was bored was my second year teaching as I was doing exactly what I was doing the first year,” he said.
In his many years at Dandenong High School, John said he had seen some big changes.
“Dandenong High School was very traditional up until a few years ago, it is now very modern,” he said.
“In the 17 years I’ve been there, that’s been the big change.
“It now has 2100 kids and 35 different languages are spoken at the school.”
John also said he had a strong traditional connection to Dandenong High School.
In 1970, John missed out on the conscription ballot for Vietnam.
“I felt I should do something so I joined the local Army Reserve, the 4/19th Australian Light horse,” he said.
Dandenong High School’s first principal was a member of the 4th Australian Light Horse, and became principal when he returned from war.
The school’s colours, navy and light blue, are also the colours of the 4th Australian Light Horse Regimental Colour Patch.
John said he looked forward to retirement next year and would continue to spend his years travelling and doing what he loves.