The two boys were sent back to Tollcross to be cared for by an aunt, attended the local school, and then Annfield House Academy, Glasgow.
On completing his degree, Mackenzie won the Clarke fellowship and succeeded Jones as Caird's assistant.
[3] For the Shaw fellowship course of lectures he held at Edinburgh, he chose the subject of Socialism, having witnessed the poverty and depravation of the slums of Glasgow.
The book anticipated much of the social legislation that was to follow; the growth of adult education, unemployment insurance, and economic planning with respect to investments and labour.
"[4] Here he met his future wife, the head of women's teacher training, Hettie Millicent Hughes from Bristol, author of the book Hegel's Educational Theory and Practice, and erstwhile Labour Candidate in 1918 for the University of Wales.
They toured India in 1920 and 1922 to lecture and took up contact with George Arundale in Adyar and Bertram Keightley in Benares, both leading theosophists.
On their return to England, Millicent’s friend Edith Maryon, invited them to take part in the Summer Art Course in Dornach, Switzerland, where they were deeply impressed by Rudolf Steiner, with Anthroposophy and his work in education.
On their return to the UK once again, John Mackenzie continued to lecture and engage himself on behalf of the educational work of Rudolf Steiner that was being established in Britain.
He put forward no fundamentally new theses, but he demonstrated the extent to which the position could accommodate itself to new ideas, raising question as to why it ultimately fell out of favour.
"…what I am inclined to claim for philosophy is not that it provides us with any ready made doctrines … but that it enables us to take a general survey of the totality of our experience, and to see clearly … that we have some right to hope and a still more manifest duty to strive.