Mackie, Alexander

Alexander Mackie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 25 May 1876, son of William Mackie, master grocer, and Margaret (nee Davidson). His early schooling took place at Daniel Stewart's College, and in 1893 he entered the Cannonmills Public School as a pupil-teacher. In 1897 Mackie entered the Edinburgh Training College, Moray House, with a two year scholarship and, at the same time, began studying at the University of Edinburgh. He graduated M.A. with first class honours in philosophy in 1890, and taught for the following two years. In 1902 he was appointed to the position of assistant lecturer in education at University College of North Wales in Bangor.

In 1906 Mackie successfully applied for the position of Principal of the newly established Sydney Teachers' College, arriving in Australia on 22 November 1906. He began his principalship of the college with an inaugural address on 2 February 1907. In 1910 Mackie was appointed Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, while remaining as the Principal of the Teachers' College. Over the next 14 years Mackie achieved a noticeable improvement in the training of teachers in New South Wales. He forged close links between the University and the Teachers' College, was instrumental in replacing the pupil-teacher system with a proper academic training programme, and was successful in working for the construction of purpose-built accomodation for the College. In 1917 Mackie started a journal for teachers, Schooling, which was issued until 1933 when he was forced to stop publishing it for financial reasons. During this period Mackie worked with Peter Board, the Director of Education, with whom he developed a strong friendship.

In 1922 Peter Board retired and his successor, S. H. Smith, imposed on the Department a much more conservative educational philosophy. Mackie and Smith clashed a number of times, and in November 1927 Mackie was suspended by Smith for 7 days, until he withdrew a letter Smith found objectionable. Mackie complained frequently about Smith to the Minister for education. In 1927 the State Superannuation Board refused to allow Mackie to participate in the State Superannuation scheme, on a technicality which could easily have been overcome, and it is likely that this was a result of Smith's antagonism. Mackie did not let this detract him from his aim of professionalising teacher training in New South Wales, and he worked hard to rectify the conservativeness of the department's policies, even criticising the government and department publicly. In 1928 Mackie, together with Professor Tasman Lovell and Frank Tate, Director of Education for Victoria, founded the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), and served on its executive until his retirement from teaching in 1940. He was a founding member of the Board of Examiners and its successor, the Board of Secondary School Studies, and in 1933 he was appointed to a committee inquiring into the system of examinations and secondary school courses.

During a trip to England in 1939 with Annie and Margaret, Mackie became ill, probably suffering a mild stroke, but his condition did not improve and on his return to Australia he resigned from both his posts. The next 5 years were a period of illness and depression, and Mackie seldom visited the College on which he had spent so much of his life. He did, however, recover much of his previous interest in life after the end of the war, and remained in this condition until shortly before his death on 23 October 1955 of a cerebral haemorrhage. He was cremated with Presbyterian forms.

Alexander Mackie's published output was not great, although he did contribute about 100 pieces of writing to the journal Schooling, but his influence on educational practice and theory has been lasting and significant. His major publications were 'Groundwork of teaching' (1919), 'Studies in the theory of education' with P. R. Cole (1925), and 'Studies in education' (1932), a collection of his articles from the journal Schooling. As well, he will be remembered always for his unstinting and visionary efforts to establish teaching as a professional academic discipline. Mackie was noted, among other things for his swift and rigourously logical mind, his ability to inspire deep and lasting affection and loyalty in his staff and students, and his dapper mode of dress. Sir Harold Wyndham, Director-General of Education in NSW during the 1950s and '60s, remembers Mackie as a man with a "keen and questing mind" who "lives on without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives".

On 4 June 1913 at North Sydney Mackie married Annie Burnett Duncan, a young teacher who had been trained at the Teachers' College, and had then taught for a year at Fort Street Girls High School. At the time of their marriage Annie was 24 and Alexander 37. The Mackies lived for a time in rented accommodation at Mosman, where their first child Margaret Davidson Mackie, named after Alexander's sister, was born. In 1914 construction was begun on a house on land at Wahroonga, and the Mackies moved to their new home, Drumgrain, in 1916. In 1917 their second child, John Leslie Mackie, was born. Margaret and John both had distinguished academic careers, Margaret in education, John in Philosophy.

After secondary education at Abbotsleigh Girls School, Margaret studied for a BA and Diploma of Education at Sydney University, graduating in 1937, and then undertook an MA at Somerville College, Oxford. After some years teaching in State schools she was appointed to the Armidale Teacher's College as a lecturer, and had a long and significant teaching career there, influencing many of the state's teachers during the 1950s, '60s, and 70s. Like her father she seems to have been able to inspire lasting affection in her students, many of whom continued to correspond with her all their lives.

John was educated at Knox Grammar School, and then attended Sydney University, graduating in 1938 with a first-class honours degree in Latin and Greek, and a Wentworth Travelling scholarship which he used to study at Oriel College, Oxford. He was awarded a first in Literae Humaniores in 1940 and then joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, serving in the Middle East and Italy. He attained the rank of Captain and was mentioned in despatches. In 1946 John was appointed lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of Sydney. From 1955 to 1959 he held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Otage, New Zealand, resigning on his appointment as Challis Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University. In 1963 John returned to the UK being appointed to the Chair of Philosophy at York University. Four years later, in 1967, he was appointed Fellow and Praelector in Philosophy at University College, Oxford. The British Academy elected him as Fellow in 1974, and in 1978 Oxford University appointed him to a personal Readership in philosophy. John Mackie's first book, 'Truth, Probability and Paradox' was published in 1973, followed in 1974 by 'The cement of the Universe'. More monographs followed: 'Problems from Locke' in 1976; 'Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong' in 1977; and his final book, 'Hume's Moral Theory' in 1980. John died in 1981, leaving his wife Joan (nee Meredith) whom he had married in 1947, and 5 children: Alexander, Penelope, Nicola, Hilary and David.

SOURCES:
1.Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 10, Melbourne 1986.
2.Cohen, S. W., "Sydney Teachers' College 1906-1956. A brief historical survey", Sydney 1956.
3.Mackie, Margaret D., Personal Reminiscences 1985.
4.The London Times, 15 December 1981, Tribute to J. L. Mackie, p. 12.
5.Turner, I. S., "Professor Alexander Mackie. An Appreciation", Sydney 1955.
6.Wyndham, H., "Retrospect: Professor Alexander Mackie", The Forum of Education, vol. 43 no. 2 (1984), pp. 3-11