True third-level success
True education should develop people’s ability to think. The particular field in which they choose to specialise is not important. What matters is that they are encouraged to apply their analytical skills to the problems of real life. The real world does not have textbook answers. A university background is useful only insofar as it prepares us for life by developing our inborn problem-solving skills. The true measure of the success of third-level teaching is the extent to which we learn how to break new ground in our searches for the best practical solutions.
Finding an answer is of limited use unless we can then explain it in simple words to everybody else. The search must then go on for an even better answer. I am grateful that I met great teachers in my student years. I owe them a debt that I can only repay by encouraging others.
Michael Mernagh
Raheens
Carrigaline
Co Cork
