This post isn't strictly about teaching or my experiences as a teacher. However, as I sit perched quite literally on a piece of secluded Thai coastline gazing out into thunderous waves and an ominously blue grey horizon I'm inspired at the glorious beauty of the world surrounding me and reminiscing journeys past that have taken me to the most incredible corners of this planet.
A worldly education is SO important for any child. Acts as simple as taking them to an ethnic grocer (food doesn't grow at Coles!! Novelty!!), walking through the city or visiting a museum will do the world of good in expanding your child's horizon.
As a teacher, it's very easy to see which children have these sorts of experiences and which do not. A fairly standard Monday morning practise at any school is to write a journal entry about the weekend. Lots of children write the same thing every Monday - they like to tell me about what food they ate, what video games they played and what tv shows they watched. Other children's journals are punctuated with entries that involve visits to the library, gardening with Grandma, museum visits, trips to the Botanical Gardens and *gasp* playing outside. It is SHOCKING the amount of general knowledge that these kids pick up just from simple activities like those I've mentioned. Their attitude towards life is open to new experiences and their inherent inquisitiveness is heightened.
When I teach the older grades I am often appalled at their lack of global knowledge. I recently had a child in a gifted and talented class write down both France and Nepal as countries with rain forests. It's a regular occurrence to have kids laugh at different cultures simply because it's a shock to see someone in traditional dress or eating different food.
Now I'd just like to share some of my favourite memories with you from around the globe that have contributed to the person I am today.
• Walking through Singapore at 5am after our connecting flight was delayed. An overwhelming and suffocating heat slowly began to enclose us as the sun rose. My first taste of Asian heat.
• Landing in Pattaya army airstrip after said flight had been diverted due to violent riots in Bangkok. Hundreds upon hundreds of Indians were sleeping on the floor and we literally had to step over them to get out.
• The repugnant yet intoxicating smell of dried squid. This smell made my mouth water as I sat on the edge of the Mekong River in Laos eating a woven basket full of sticky rice that was riddled with ants.
• My heart shattering horror at staring at thousands of photos of the children who had been tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
• Meeting two 11 year old orphan girls who understood and respected the importance of their education. They knew that education meant the difference between life and death, poverty and having enough to eat. The most humbling experience and one of the largest contributing factors in my decision to be a teacher.
• Taking five steps into the Amazon jungle, turning around and being unable to tell where I came from.
• Having a sick boyfriend in the Amazon, telling our indigenous guide in terrible Spanish who promptly ran into the jungle wielding a machete and returned half an hour later with flowers, roots, leaves and berries. He brewed them into an electric orange tea. My boyfriend was cured within 2 hours.
• Pure bliss and exultation at seeing an Orca dive up out of the water in the Galapagos islands.
• Tears cascading down my face as a pod of several hundred dolphins frolicked around our boat and fins were the only thing I could see for 360 degrees around me.
• Visiting the slums in Rio de Janeiro and seeing some of the most exquisitely beautiful children I'd ever seen in my life.
• Watching the much larger slums in India stretch into the horizon and then feeling angry and guilty at the pity I felt.
• Learning that in India it is perfectly acceptable for a woman to push and barge her way to the front of any line by loudly shouting "Ladies! Ladies!"
• Feeling the extreme chill of -22 degrees that cannot be adequately expressed in words in the Himalayas and realising that people live there, all year round without heating and in shacks made out of thin wood.
I hope it's clear to all who read how these experiences that I've listed, just a handful out of millions of unforgettable memories, have shaped my perspectives, given me knowledge and understanding and are an integral part of who I am.
To a child, family excursions around their home town have a similar impact as they're exposed to new sights, information, people and ideas.
Children need to have their world expanded beyond that of the lounge room.
I'd love to hear people's feedback and thoughts on this topic because it's very close to my heart.
Do your kids enjoy going outside of the home on trips? Are they inquisitive about different foods? Have your travel experiences shaped who you are?
No comments:
Post a Comment