I began enjoying learning when I began wandering the world. No longer was I learning stuff simply to regurgitate it in hot exam halls. School on the road is different: the more you know the more you want to know. The world and knowledge and understanding all begin to fit together a little better. The more I learn the more I learn how little I know. But if I rush I miss it all. If I race through my journeys, one eye on the clock, eager only to tick off miles, or countries or sights, then I’mll accumulate lists but I won’t learn a lot. Truman Capote might dismiss it out of hand as, “that’s not travelling, that’s moving.” It’s yet another reason to slow down.
Spending time amongst lives very different to mine is a remarkable way of learning about my own life. I gain a clearer insight into what is good and what is bad about my own life. It reminds me to be grateful for my own life, though at times it provokes scorn at the frivolity of much in my “real” life.
Is the thirst for learning to better serve me back home in my real life, or is the learning out there sufficient in itself? Is my journey a means to an end? Or is it the whole point? I am not sure. Yet.
This text is an extract from There Are Other Rivers, available as a giant mappazine or a free Kindle sample.
Brilliant. Let us never stop learning, never stop asking how or why, never stop pausing – even if just to notice when we start moving again.
Sign me up for a ‘giant mappazine’ it sounds mega awesome!
Hi Al. This is a well articulated article on the essence of education and the notion that our traditional education is somewhat futile. At least that’s how I’ve interpreted it! I totally agree that in many ways the most important things we learn come from just getting out there and travelling – although I also think you need to have an open mind and sense of adventure for this to be the case. I also think that when travelling you are able to apply the lessons you learn in an altogether more tangible manner than you can in a classroom. Learning languages is the classic example of this – at least it was for me. I would be keen to know your own take on the traditional vrs alternative forms of education if you ever get the time. Given that you do a lot of talks in schools etc I figure you’d have a take on it. For example I have been looking into the Steiner philosphy and in a lot of ways it makes total sense. It is another one of those cases of flying in the face of convention though which I’ve generally been happy to do but when you start making decisions for your kids it is an even harder call to make.