It is drummed into us from a very young age that education is incredibly important and that we need to spend as much time in the classroom that we possibly can. While it is true that education will open many doors of opportunity for us, it is important to understand that education can happen both inside the classroom and outside the classroom. Anyone from the older generation will also tell you that life experience is a great educator and travelling is an exceptional way to learn new things and to see how the world really works.
This is why many schools are incorporating curriculum travel into their syllabus because they know that taking children outside the classroom will help them to put everything that they have learned into practice and to see things happening in the real world. If you are an educator or a parent and you have reservations about this idea then maybe the following benefits of taking the kids out of the classroom might help to convince you.
- Language proficiency – This just won’t be in the English language because they school travel involves travelling outside the country to other destinations then there is a probability that kids can learn another language on their travels. The teacher can teach about the basics of a particular language like Spanish or German for example and then the kids will be immersed in that culture for a period of time on the school trip.
- Learning other cultures – Australia is a fantastic country and our culture is second to none but kids need to learn about other cultures in the world and so this is why learning institutions are adapting a travel and tourism curriculum so that kids get opportunities to learn about how other people live and survive. It is true to say that travel broadens the mind and children should be exposed to this whenever the opportunity arises.
- It’s a history lesson – Getting outside the classroom to actually see historical landmarks helps students to understand the lesson better and exploring a fantastic city like Rome really does bring home everything that has been taught in only textbooks up until now. The children are taught about things that happened in the past but isn’t it more important to teach them about things that are happening right now in the future.
Hopefully these three reasons have helped convince you that getting the kids out of the classroom occasionally can have a very positive effect on their education outcomes.
