Showing posts with label vernon mullen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vernon mullen. Show all posts

Saturday, September 17, 2011

History Textbook from Primary School

Recently one of our schoolmates, ELAS, mentioned this textbook in a Facebook discussion. I remember it well and wish I had preserved mine for posterity ... especially since I'm quite sure my old textbook was a First Edition (the one shown below is the Second Edition).




A lesson to schoolchildren today ... don't be too hasty to throw away your old textbooks after exams are over. They might be valuable one day.

But have you ever wondered who was Vernon Mullen, whose name we were familiar with for a number of years during our youth? Well, I did some investigation. Apparently he was a Canadian educator who did some teaching of English in different parts of the world, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Sarawak and China. Mullen was in Sarawak from 1957-1963 and again from 1965-1968. Apart from the familiar history book above, he also published his memoirs "Them Lions Will Eat Them Up: Teaching English Around the World" (Voyageur Pub, 1999). I'm still looking for a copy for my collection so if anyone has any ideas where I can find one ...