Career moves all add up

By Casey Neill
UPWEY High School’s Robert Morley turned down a lucrative, life changing job for a teaching career in the suburbs.
The 64-year-old doesn’t regret missing his opportunity to make history with an IT giant.
“I knocked back one fledgling company that was only just beginning and was out recruiting very hard in my youth,” he said.
“It goes by three letters – IBM.”
He declined the once in a lifetime offer, which would have seen him relocate to the United States.
“I could have run out of teaching but it didn’t even enter my mind,” he said.
“There’s nothing quite like it.”
The Education Department recently recognised his 45-year commitment to teaching with a service award. He was one of just 28 Victorian teachers and Department staff to reach the milestone.
“There’s not many that are still in the classroom and still loving it,” he said.
“It’s always nice to have that acknowledged.”
Mr Morley was interested in teaching from an early age.
“I either wanted to be a policeman or a school teacher,” he said.
Teaching chemistry was his aim when he enrolled in university in 1963.
“But I then discovered you end up rather smelly from all the laboratories,” he said.
“I decided it was much nicer teaching mathematics. It was just delightful.”
Mr Morley was headhunted and promoted early in his career because of his maths-specific degree.
A stabbing and a hall fire were all in a day’s work during a deputy principal role when he was aged just 30.
“It was quite an interesting experience,” he said.
But despite the drama, Mr Morley said his most memorable career period was at Lyndale Secondary College from 1970.
“It was a pleasure to come to work every day, the staff were always involved in everything,” he said.
Mr Morley retired briefly 10 years ago following a two-decade stint at Wantirna College where he was a founding teacher.
“I was sitting retired and doing nothing and then I saw this advertisement in the paper,” he said.
He applied for the Upwey High School job.
“I ended up getting a three-year contract and within three months the principal converted it into an ongoing contract,” he said.
“And I’ve been here ever since.”
Mr Morley now teaches three days a week and plans to pull the pin again in February.
“For good this time,” he said.
He’s enjoyed his role at Upwey because it has centred on the classroom.
He’d previously had only four years free of co-ordinator or timetabling duties.
“You don’t really do teaching, you run around and you do other things and then fit in the teaching when you can,” he said.
Mr Morley loves interacting with kids.
“When you get in there and start talking to a year eight class, they’re all lively, they’re really in the throws of growing up,” he said.
“And when you’ve developed a relationship with them it’s fabulous.”
“You see them grow in their education and you see them grow as people.” Mr Morley has also watched the maths course grow and evolve during his career – and students’ ability drop.
“The level of year 11 now is much lower,” he said.
He said the primary school maths curriculum was to blame.
“And the kids now carry calculators that do everything for them,” he said.
“The maths itself doesn’t change but what changes perhaps is the way you go about it and your approach to it.”
Building relationships with students is what keeps Mr Morley teaching.
“I thoroughly enjoy this job and that’s why I keep doing it,” he said.
“I grumble as I leave home but I really miss it when I’m away from it.”
“Teaching’s great.”