Travel exposures our children to other cultures and helps them to learn from the world around them.
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As I sit here on the first leg of our journey to South Africa sleepy and excited, I am thinking about life and the opportunities that one can be blessed to experience. What also crosses my mind is that we have to be prepared and positioned to take advantage of them. One of those opportunities involves our children’s exposure to other cultures. Our sons will learn about the world best through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling it, by having cultural exchanges with those that do not share their cultural background. Unfortunately, few youth will come to truly understand the global nature of our society. Many will fail to travel outside of their tri-state area….unless they are prepared and positioned for it.
My first experience with travel did not occur adulthood. In my mid twenties, I experienced my first airplane ride. At twenty six, I took my wanderlust worldwide, touring eleven European countries in 21 days. Every place that I visited provided me with a new experience to learn and grow. I participated in a worldwide yodeling contest in Switzerland on a dare and I won. I visited many historical places and developed a deeper appreciation for life outside of the USA.
My sons did not have to wait that long to travel, thank goodness. At the age of 7, Disneyland and relatives required flight. Annual summer trips to either Myrtle Beach or Colonial Williamsburg took us across the nation via the open road. We created memories, and my sons grew to appreciate the slower pace of life outside of the big city.
My sons’ middle school, Global Leadership Academy Charter School, believes that to be a world leader, you must not only LEARN about the world, you must EXPERIENCE it. This belief in the importance of cultural history and leadership took us to Memphis and Atlanta (civil rights movement ), Canada (slavery and the Underground Railroad) and the Bahamas (debarkation points for the enslaved Africans ). Each voyage marked an important learning experience for them.
Travel builds cultural proficiency and helps to dispel myths and cultural stereotypes in a way that learning about places in books is not able to provide. On my voyage to South Africa, I was blessed to create a partnership with a girls’ boarding school so that the S.T.A.R.S. ( My girls mentoring group) will have an opportunity to discourse and pen pal with them and one day travel to or receive young ladies their age from South Africa.
As adults, we must work harder to ensure that our children learn not only about, but FROM the world around them.
Photo: Aigle_Dore/Flickr