Family gatherings and dinner table discussion may have a significant impact on the career choices of Rochester Primary schoolers Sid and Bob Watson.
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The Prep and Grade 1 students are the grandchildren of primary school principal Graeme Hodgens and if they choose to follow in the footsteps of their grandfather they will be fourth generation teachers.
“They aren’t yet at the age to decide what they want to do when they grow up,” Mr Hodgens said.
Today, October 5, is World Teachers Day and the Rochester primary boss was able to share the story of his lengthy family connection to the education department.
“My father was a teacher, I followed in his footsteps and two of my children, James and Eliza, are also teachers,” he said.
There is a third child in the mix, Bob, who has regularly been heard to say he would do anything other than teaching.
“He is quite happy not to be a school teacher, he has his own direction,” Mr Hodgens said.
“He barracks for Richmond anyway, the rest go for Collingwood.”
Mr Hodgens is quite accustomed to having family members at his schools; his father, Bob, was among his teachers for most of his primary school education.
“I don’t teach Sid and Bob, I mostly just run around picking up their lost jumpers and drink bottles.”
Mr Hodgens said it had been a particularly difficult year for the Prep and Grade 1 children, with them in and out of the classroom all year.
“We have a bit of direction now and October 26 looks like the date things will get back to some normality,” he said.
Mr Hodgens has been back at Rochester Primary for 16 years, all but two of those as principal.
But next year will be his last year of teaching, the end of a 42-year career.
His son, James, is the principal at Lockington Primary School and daughter Eliza is currently on maternity leave from Echuca 208 Primary School.
Mr Hodgens arrived in Rochester when his father was appointed to a position at the school in 1966.
“I was in Grade 2 at the time. Dad worked his way up to assistant principal by the time he retired in 1980,” he said.
Bendigo Teachers’ College, which was closed in the early 1980s, was where Mr Hodgens earned his stripes, his children attending the university equivalent at Bendigo for their qualifications.
“I wasn’t conscious about becoming a teacher because of Dad, it just evolved,” he said.
After an initial appointment at Wandong, prior to the area becoming a commuter zone, Mr Hodgens had a three-year stint at Rochester before receiving what he explained was “really good advice”.
“A teacher said to me ‘if you don’t leave now you will be here for the rest of your life’. I made the move and ended up teaching in the Sunraysia area,” he said.
Two of the schools he taught at in the ensuing years were casualties of the culling process, at Nangiloc and Normanville.
Stints at Kerang, Elmore and Lockington preceded his arrival back at Rochester, where he now commands an audience of 165 students and 13 staff.
He said kids were essentially the same now as when he started, just a lot more streetwise.
“Technology has been the biggest change, but the relationship is much better between students and teachers,” Mr Hodgens said.
“The amount of welfare work we do at school has escalated.
“We are a stronger part of the community; it’s not just teaching kids, it’s the whole package.”
The 62-year-old said calling time on his career was a decision he had only recently made, his intention being to continue in some capacity with people, maybe even kids.
“I think it’s time for the school to have a change. I will work with kids or people in some capacity,” he said.
“Apart from three years at uni I haven’t done anything else but go to school.
“I have seven grandkids, and the eighth one is nearly here, so there is plenty to do.”
Mr Hodgens said being a principal was a time-consuming job, but he did plan to maintain a connection with a school in a volunteer capacity.
His son James has a 140-strong student population to manage at Lockington, but there are no other teachers in the extended family.
“In the end we all just love working with kids,” Mr Hodgens said.
Mr Hodgens said his teaching style, as you might expect by the generational shift, was much different to that of his father.
“He’d come through a different era, where the strap was still around,” he said
“He was a great teacher, and a mentor in that sense for me. It was very much a different relationship between teacher and student back in those days.”
We will have to wait and see if any of the grandchildren take the lead from their great grandfather and move into the education field in the future.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor