Stop Taking out Kids from School to Travel the World | Worldschooling?
I got this message from a father my son is only eight months old and has already
been to four countries planning to make him the youngest to visit them all that
is not what traveling is about yes I've been to every country and yes I am the
most traveled person under 40 but what I'm most proud about is making friends
and integrating in each culture from the poor villages to the more boring
countries I really discovered and explored what the culture was like and
there is no way as a child you're going to get that experience especially if
you're traveling with your parents that's not what traveling is about
because that is the point of traveling is doing things on your own and
discovering it for yourself and just to clarify we're not talking about going on
vacations we're talking about families that take their kids out of school to
travel full time to basically take a lifetime vacation instead of going to
school
myself at the age of 18 I've been the two countries China and Canada that's it
and when I went to China as a 10 year old with my parents I saw famous sights
the Forbidden City the Great Wall had Chinese food and went shopping in the
Chinese markets it was a whole different experience when I went back to China
and traveled with my girlfriend who is Chinese and her family it was like a
completely different country and integrating in the culture really showed
me there was so much to China that I hadn't seen when I had traveled with my
family the first time what concerns me is the parents especially the YouTube
parents that take their kids out of school to make videos about them
traveling I know it looks great in the videos and you get to see all the
amazing things that they get to see and discover but you don't know what's
happening behind the scenes likely they're only friends are their parents
and the kids are likely very lonely and may even be depressed I mean just look
at what happened to the most famous child actor of all time if you look at
Macaulay Culkin's career it was always an accident waiting to happen
cute little child star lots of family problems people fighting over money it's
the classic Hollywood scenario education is important math science reading
writing and I know some of these things you can learn on the road but you're not
gonna be sitting down and working on grammar as you're taking videos with
giraffes and it's more than just the education it's the social interaction
with others it's learning to share teamwork learning what happens when
someone steals your stuff or bullies you those are life skills that are so
valuable to learn when you're young so you know how to deal with them when
you're older so what I'm trying to say as a child you're building a foundation
a toolbox of a skill set that you can use later in life for whatever you want
maybe it's traveling maybe it's something else just look at America's
biggest travelers myself I got my travel bug when I studied abroad in college
Jude renske who travels around the world making videos he got his travel bug also
in college and Lee who used to be the youngest American to
travel to every country in the world also got his travel bug in college all
three of us gotten good college degrees that we could use to do anything we want
and we chose to do it in travel and so when you're a child work on your skill
set you have your entire life to travel but don't make that be your only option
of what you can do in life
and don't forget what's in your own backyard there's diversity in almost
every city and so you don't have to travel across the world to meet people
that are different than you you can start in your own backyard and then when
you get older you can transform that into a lifestyle of traveling