"So I trained [as a teacher] for a year and then I took a risk; and the risk was coming to a school in a small town in the country. Because when you were starting teaching you don't know whether you're going to survive or not with the students and if you don't, in a small school you can fail more spectacularly than somewhere else ... But I took the risk, and I came here. I was 23, and now I'm 69."
Michael came to Taupo in 1968.
"Although it was very hard starting off in terms of every lesson is a new experience and you've got no material to fall back on, it worked out very well; and by the end of two years I thought that I was probably average or above, so I stuck at it," Michael says.
Stick at it he has.
"There are a lot of children I've taught their parents and there are a number of children I've taught their grandparents, it would be half a dozen."
Back to Michael's hypothesis. He says he counts himself as fortunate in the relationships he's developed with his students and his hypothesis proved to be true 99 per cent of the time.
"Students are very responsive to being treated as significant, worthwhile people, but I think I've been fortunate to work with teachers who have also adopted that approach."
He says one of the things he likes about teenagers is their curiosity.
"They're really keen to learn new things, not just in school, but about life. And the second thing is their innate optimism. They're all of them hoping for the best for their futures and planning for their futures and hoping that it's all going to work out.
"I like the positivity and the optimism of New Zealand students. I enjoy the relationships I have with my classes. What I really am is a classroom teacher and that's what I really like doing."
Fifteen years ago Michael decided that the amount of work he was doing was becoming too much. At the same time, parents were suggesting the college offer something specific for its more academic students. So Peter Moyle, then the college's deputy principal (now principal) suggested to Michael that he look at the Future Problem Solving system being taught in America and develop a course based on that.
"It's a good rigorous system of helping people think clearly and more analytically and we called it the Enhanced Learning Programme and the course has gone very well."
So since 2000 Michael has taught social studies and ELP and says the students have gained a lot from it.
Michael weaves other things into the classes, such as discussing with the students about how to stay positive when things are not going well.
"One thing I say to them is 'never think about your problems after six at night'. I say to them 'when you wake at night don't allow yourself to think about your problems. Think of your favourite place or your favourite holiday'. And another thing I emphasise to them is, it's not what happens to you in life, it's how you deal with it ... I endeavour to build a bit of emotional resilience into them because that's what you need when you're a teenager.
"I always say to students 'I can teach you nothing. You have to teach yourselves. I can give you ideas and show you things and I can give you skills and I can show you how you can develop things, but in the end you have to do it yourselves, with my help. It's a partnership between you and me'."
Michael says people have asked him why he's stopping now, and his answer is that it's time to move on to the next stage of his life before he becomes a liability, not an asset. He wants to do more boating, some travel and continue his interest in music (he has played the organ at St Andrew's for 45 years).
"I'm 69 and I've had a very successful year in the classroom this year and as you get older you realise you've got X years left, and it might be 20 or it might be five, and it seems to be time to stop and move on to the next stage of my life. I'll look after the school archives and do a bit of relief teaching but I'm not in the timetable."
It's clear Michael's left with no regrets.
"My career has been far more successful than I would ever have dreamed really."
