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It was the same in every country town I lived in. And so on вЂ¦ Students learnt, well, IвЂ™ll let her tell you: Students in Parkes learnt nothing about William Farrer and his pioneering work with wheat. Students in Broken Hill were taught nothing about that cityвЂ™s origins, nor its geology and botany. Being personally interested in local and contemporary history, sheвЂ™s distressed that students werenвЂ™t taught about their own places.

She does become a bit repetitive, as she moves from school to school, but that simply reinforces her passion for relevant education and humane methods. She criticises educational practice which relied heavily on examinations and argues against dependence on IQ assessment for identifying capable students. She rails, in particular, against the teaching of ancient languages (Latin) and against the focus on British history and English (as in from England) literature (both only to the end of the nineteenth century, whatвЂ™s more). вЂњThe sum total of my years of teaching in Broken Hill and Goulburn was the conviction that the high school curriculum was insaneвЂќД¬usack decided very early in her career that the curriculum she was required to teach was unsuitable for all but the minority who planned to go on to university. However, a number of themes run through the book and IвЂ™m going to frame the rest of this post through some of them.

Certainly, it does have some rough edges, but not enough to spoil the content nor to prevent our getting some sense of Cusack as a person, as a writer, and of course as a teacher.Д¬usack tells the story of her years as a teacher chronologically, starting with university and her decision to accept a bonded Teachers College Scholarship. This version is probably the final draft, but Adelaide believes that Cusack would have done more work on it, had it found a publisher.

It was prepared from the version included with her papers held by the National Library of Australia. The book is well produced with an excellent introduction and explanation of its genesis by Debra Adelaide (though I would have loved an index). It is not, though, a typical writerвЂ™s memoir its focus really is teaching and education. While much has changed since 1975/6 when she wrote it (let alone 1944 where the story ends), A window in the dark вЂ“ вЂњmy job was opening a window in the dark for the minds entrusted meвЂќ вЂ“ is an interesting read. According to Debra AdelaideвЂs comprehensive introduction, Cusack was not interested in writing her autobiography but, in the mid-1970s, three decades after she finished teaching, she decided to write about this part of her life. Posthumously published by the National Library of Australia, A window in the dark is CusackвЂ™s chronicle of her teaching years, spanning 1922 to 1943.ДЇor those who havenвЂ™t heard of her, Dymphna Cusack (1902-1981) is an Australian writer best known for her collaborative novel (with Florence James), Come in spinner (1951), and Caddie, the story of a barmaid (1953), which was made into a successful feature film in 1976. Not being able to stand it any longer, I decided to sneak it in before my next reading group book, Michelle de KretserвЂs Questions of travel.

My original post titled: Dymphna Cusack, A window in the darkДymphna CusackвЂs A window in the dark has been glaring at me from my TBR pile for many years now. Here, in a post from 2013, Sue reviews CusackвЂ™s memoir of her years as a teacher, written in the 1940s but published posthumously. I (Bill) recently reviewed her Say no to death (1951) which with its focus on TB gives us some perspective on the plagues like Covid-19 which regularly sweep around the world. During the latter part of January we will look at some of SueвЂ™s older posts which have relevance to my Australian Women Writers Gen 3 Week, Part II, 17-23 Jan, 2021.Дymphna Cusack was a central writer of the Gen 3 period.

WHISPERINGS RADIO PROGRAM SERIES

BillВ curatesВ is an occasional series where I delve into SueвЂ™s vast archive, stretching back to May 2009, and choose a post for us to revisit.

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