Party Days

Book excerpt: This is the autobiography of a working class boy in a cotton-spinning town in Lancashire who became a teacher, headmaster, schools inspector and university lecturer in England, and Australia. He also carried out commissions to enquire into teacher education and social studies curricula in England and New Zealand, and taught after retirement from Flinders University in South Australia for two years in the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. He was a guest lecturer in Canada, the United States and Poland. These are the externals of a career. Geoffrey tells a fascinating story of his childhood and school days. He became a Sunday School teacher and Baptist Lay Preacher in his teens, but at university in Bristol became a member of the Communist Party and was for several years a leading figure in communist teacher politics and in the Peace Movement. Subsequently he repudiated communism and Marxism and in Australia became a severe critic of most of the ideas, policies and practices he had advocated as a young man. This is a valuable social history and gives insights into the main ideological conflicts of the twentieth century. Since emigration to Australia in 1976 Geoffrey has had published twelve books and over a hundred articles. His academic qualifications include BA Hons and MEd from Bristol University, BSc (Soc) (Hons), Teachers Certificate and Academic Diploma of Education, and PhD from the University of Adelaide. . At 83 Geoffrey still engages between hospital bouts in Australian disputes in politics, history and education. The autobiography gains its name from his nickname at school of Geoff Party and because the Party for many years among the British Left meant the Communist Party.