The True Power of Travel

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

~Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

“If you’ve never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame.”

~Counting Crows, Mrs. Potters Lullaby

Last year I was interviewed as a finalist for a teaching award and one of the things that I said was that I believed many of the things that we do in schools are worthless and simply done to pass the time. While the person who won was certainly much more qualified than me to earn the recognition, if the looks that the interview panel gave me are any indication, I’m sure that quote did not help my chances. However, I stand by what I said and would gladly cite the untouchable traditions of standardized testing, grouping of students by age regardless of interest or ability, the unnatural emphasis on some subjects over others, bell schedules, and grades based arbitrarily on obedience and likeability as examples. I value the role of public education as a fundamental component of our society and realize that a massive system needs guiding standards (I am guilty of upholding many outdated traditions myself) but I also believe that we could be doing it better and that we should be offering more opportunities for non-traditional learning experiences to those who are hungry for it.

In that same interview I stated that the most important and powerful thing that I have been involved in as a teacher is student travel. The travel idea was given to me serendipitously (as most of my great opportunities have) as a second year teacher through a group of parents who wanted to plan something outside of the box for their students. They had heard of my own passion for travel and we immediately set to work planning a trip to the west coast. The trip we took in the spring of 2009 was truly a turning point for me and my thoughts about learning as I watched the students experience the national parks for the first time. Many students who were not considered successful in the traditional classroom came alive with questions and the speed brakes came off of the students who were already successful and wanted more. The surge of confidence that comes from the necessity of being self reliant and out of their comfort zones fuels a level of learning that far surpasses anything possible in the classroom.

Our school system has a tendency to objectify the need for learning. Students are told that good grades will allow them opportunities to get into additional school programs, that will get them into law and medical schools, and then eventually they will be able to obtain many material things if they are successful. This coupled with the exchange of real experiences for those obtained voyeuristically through video games and other electronic means results in a population that is generally pacified and detached. However, I have found that interesting people who make a difference collect experiences, not objects.

The true power of travel is that is stamps out the existence of our oversimplified visions of the “other” and renders trite explanations meaningless. Through our textbook based learning it has become easy to blow off ideas as those belonging to faceless people in far off places. We also pass the buck on things such as conservation and charity when we have not been covered in mud on a trail in one of our national parks or experienced a random act of kindness from a stranger far from home. Only through actual experience do we understand that all people are pretty much the same and that some things are worth fighting for.

Anyway, we traveled to the west for a national park tour again this year and it was the best group that I have yet gone with. We will be back out on the road in Puerto Rico in 2014. In the meantime I will be trying to wrap my head around ideas on how to expand these type of experiences.