"The only thing that I was equipped for with my very mediocre college Arts degree was to get a job in teaching"
- Helen Garner
About this Quote
In this quote, author Helen Garner reviews her college education and the minimal chances it offered her. She explains her degree as "average" and recommends that it just prepared her for one career path - mentor. This statement highlights the absence of practical skills and real-world experience that Garner got from her college education. It also talks to the societal pressure to pursue higher education, even if it may not lead to a satisfying career. Garner's words function as a tip to critically evaluate the worth and function of a college degree and to consider alternative courses to success.
"Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn"
"Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the "naturals," the ones who somehow know how to teach"
