"I admired what my students were writing, but I think their improvement doesn't directly result from me but from being in a class, being with each other"

Thom Gunn's quote speaks with the power of neighborhood and cooperation in learning. He acknowledges that his trainees have actually enhanced, but he does not take credit for their success. Instead, he acknowledges that the improvement is an outcome of remaining in a class and interacting. This recommends that Gunn thinks that knowing is a cumulative effort, and that trainees can gain from each other and take advantage of the assistance of their peers. He likewise suggests that the teacher's function is to facilitate the learning process, rather than to be the sole source of knowledge. Gunn's quote is a suggestion that learning is a collective process, and that the teacher's function is to produce an environment where students can learn from each other and grow together.