Durban - A Durban High School (DHS) physical science teacher, Tony Human, really is in a class of his own.
Better known as “AJ”, he has been at the school so long that pupils he taught in his first year in 1965 have now retired – while he continues to work.
“I love teaching with a vengeance and plan to carry on as long as possible,” said Human, now in his 52nd year at DHS.
“But I never thought when I came here as a teacher at 20 that I would still be here so many years later. I did not even think of the future,” said Human, 71.
“I have taught boys’ parents and have got to the stage when I taught their grandparents,” he said.
If any schoolboy asks him how his father did in matric, Human can tell him because he has kept all the records.
He has a science laboratory named after him and has seen the school celebrate its 100th anniversary, its 125th milestone and now, this year, its 150th birthday.
Headmaster Leon Erasmus presented him with a commemorative 150th anniversary tie at a special assembly to thank him for his service and commitment to the school.
“He is an absolute legend and the old boys always want to talk to him,” Erasmus said.
“He has a lot of energy and willingness to do things and I can’t see us losing him in the next few years. He’s still got it.”
Many an old boy still addressed Human as “Sir” when they met up with him again, he said.
Human said: “They are standing there with their wife and children and keep calling me Sir. I tell them to forget it as we are out of school now.”
But the first thing they do when they see him is chant the first 20 chemical elements of the periodic table, which he insisted they all learnt by heart.
A former pupil, Sir Gavyn Arthur, who became the Lord Mayor of London, gave him the freedom of the City of London for his contribution to education.
Although Human does not remember the names of all the pupils he has taught, he never forgets a face.
He has attended countless weddings and 21st birthday parties of past pupils and “sadly, I have been to funerals too”.
He has turned down offers of promotion from other schools, because he was “very happy indeed” to stay at DHS.
Human says there is only one person who talks in his class – and that’s him.
Something of a disciplinarian, he was known for his caning during the days of corporal punishment.
“There’s no talking and no messing around,” he said.
He is also a stickler for making boys button-up their blazers and the Daily News witnessed a few do just that as they saw him approaching down the corridors.
We asked pupil Casey Milledge whether “Sir” was one of those scary teachers.
“Not scary, but very commanding,” he said.
Human ran the school’s boarding establishment for 15 years and has been running the matric marking centre for 12 years. He is always at his own desk at 5.30am.
“I am a workaholic,” said the longest serving teacher at the school, and an award-winning Rotarian who also makes the time to do voluntary hospice work.
Daily News