Classics teacher exits after 44 years

King's High School deputy principal and classical studies teacher Bryan Frost is retiring after...
King's High School deputy principal and classical studies teacher Bryan Frost is retiring after 44 years at the school. Photo: Gregor Richardson
Ask a teacher why they love teaching so much, and a classic response is: ``It's great when you see a light go on inside a pupil's head.''

Ask a classical studies teacher such as King's High School deputy principal Bryan Frost why he loves teaching, and he will tell you it is nothing as dramatic as that.

``What you actually see is a lifting of the head occasionally as they hear something that piques their interest.

``And there's a lot more of that in classics than most other subjects because everything is new.''

Mr Frost said it was a subtle reaction he had noticed in the pupils he had taught at King's High School over the past 44 years - and one of the many things about the school he would miss when he retired next month.

He started his career at King's in 1973 as an English and social studies teacher, and later went on to coach the school's rugby teams and help run countless school musical productions.

He was also responsible for introducing classical studies to the school when the course was first created by the University of Otago in 1980.

As the years went by, he moved into more managerial roles at the school, but he continued to teach classics.

``It's just so damned interesting.

``Classics is four different topics - philosophy, early Greek science, literature and Roman art and architecture.

``It encourages a great deal of conversation and discussion.

``It makes students more open to critical thinking. Hopefully, it gives them a sense of where they may have come from, where their ideas may have come from, why we think the way we do.''

Despite changes in the shape and size of the school over the past four decades, the pupils had remained the same.

``The school's been rebuilt around me, if you like.

``But the kids don't change. I still think they're full of compassion and friendliness, and they want to do well in a whole variety of things.''

Although he planned to finish at the end of the school year, he had no plans for his retirement yet, he said.

``I may well do some relief teaching here at King's, if they ring up and they're a bit short of teachers.

``I'm looking forward to finding something else that won't dominate my life like school has for literally the last 40 years.

``I'm ready to retire. I'm quite happy not to have all the responsibility.

``It's been a joyous ride - very interesting.''

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