Lecturer in Engineering subjects,
Acting Principal of
Midland Junction Technical School
In his role as an engineer, then as a lecturer at Midland in engineering subjects in the late 40s to 50s, to a term as Midland’s Acting Principal and later, Superintendent of Technical Education, Jack Gregor has had significant and far-reaching influence. Yet the story he is most proud of is how he was able to inspire interest and commitment from a group of girls that the Secondary School had given up on.
"When they arrived they looked awful and they sounded awful. They couldn’t do any math's and they weren’t interested in learning. We took them right back to basic arithmetic involving spending money. Then we gave them access to art classes and asked them if they would like to act in a play. They were keen so we converted the library to a theatre where they put on a number of plays - it was astonishing how their speech improved.
"We built up their skills from there. One group ended up producing a range of beautiful clothing in Dressmaking and the other went on to complete Commercial Math's. When the Director of Secondary Education was invited to look over their shoulders to see the level they were working on, his only comment was, "I wouldn’t have believed it "
The girls were quite matter-of-fact about their dramatic change in attitude and abilities. "They teach you things here," they said.
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