This Business of Living and Learning

Erica Jolly's current publication, This Business of Living and Learning is a memoir, in free verse form, of her decades-long involvement in education, teaching secondary students, and her simultaneous voyage of learning about life. Raised by their mother after her father's early death, Erica and her brother David chose different directions. She qualified as a secondary teacher, rising to become a Deputy Principal (Curriculum), and a committed campaigner for cross-disciplinary education for all - but especially for young girls whose education was often neglected. She has argued for the connection of the humanities and the sciences, engineering, technology and mathematics as essential for the integration needed for meaningful citizenship. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) - not the current artificial and destructive 'divide'. Erica has published two books of poetry, Pomegranates and Making a Stand, a history of vocational education in South Australia in A Broader Vision, and Challenging the Divide - essays by scientists and poets who know how essential this cross-cultural connection is for the quality of our nation.