Why Student Travel?

Okay, I know. With gas prices at an all-time high and the prices for everything else slowly creeping from yikes to how-in-the-world-can-we-afford-this, everyone is looking for a way to cut costs. We're examining all the extra-basic expenditures and wondering what we can lose. With that in mind, are parents really going to support student travel anymore? Can we even convince the educators to get behind it? As a young adult still anxious to see the world, an ex-student still thirsty to learn, and most importantly - as a parent, I'm convinced that getting outside the limiting atmosphere of a classroom is still a crucial objective for a full education.

Travel teaches compassion. Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan impressed me the most with this idea when she said to Oprah in 2006 that she wanted to teach her children they were "global citizens." She said, "Once you feel that others are like you, you want for others what you want for yourself, and that way you start helping others." Mark Twain shared a similar belief in his book, The Innocents Abroad, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness. . . . Broad, wholesome charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth. . . ."

Travel enhances lessons in history, reading, and ecomony. Not to mention math. All of those formulas and dates and numbers and reading skills we try to instill in our children - they have to actually apply them when they travel. History comes alive for them when they can see where it happened. Reading is the foundation for the answer to every question they could ask - who and when and how. Raising money for educational tours and navigating through an unfamiliar city can drive home economy basics as a textbook never could.

Travel Makes Us Communicators. Have you ever shared a room with someone you didn't know very well or traveled to a city with which you were acutely unfamiliar? If not, then trust me. You learn to communicate. Student travel is an excellent way to turn even the shyest student into someone who can say what needs said. When we travel we observe more, we look with fresher eyes, and we learn to be seen and heard when necessary - all valuable skills in any job or life setting.

I know there are reasons not to. I just switched brands of milk because every little bit helps. And gas is high. I get it. But there are so many ways to get our children out there to experience more than their home and classroom. To show them places and scenery that will grip them with that hunger for discovery we've been trying so desperately to give them in the first place. In the words of former Harvard president, Derek Bok, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."