Could the knowledge we learn in travel and expeditions replace the knowledge we normally learn in classrooms?

Often the frustrated student complains about the relevance of the material learned in tedious lessons; how memorizing a math formula for finding the area of a triangle or how researching long dead artists will ever be a skill needed in their intended career. What this knowledge we learn in classrooms can be said to lack is ecological validity. If it is real life problems and knowledge that the student is after, is it not an absurd idea that knowledge that one learns through expeditions and travel could replace and therefore trump that which is taught through textbooks and syllabi? Perhaps the facts and statistics we are made to memorize in a classroom setting and to recite to an exam board is not what will really ready an individual to face the real world. If the real world is in a sense an emersion into an uncontrolled environment, what better way to be accustomed to face this than to travel; to develop skills that only expeditions can give. Often street smart vs. book smart is looked at and asked which is more important. Book smart comes from the schooling system, and street smart comes from facing difficult and uncontrolled situations experienced during travel. Agreeably a balance in the two is necessary, but lets talk about the knowledge we learn through travel replacing the knowledge we learn in classrooms. When I go back home to the United States and converse with my relatives who have not travelled widely out of the states I can tell through the language and lack of sensitivity that they are deficient in a huge pocket of knowledge that travelling opens up. Not only in the case of geography where a difficulty in naming countries in Asia other than China and India occur, but also in the lack of cultural understanding. We think about the world in all the ways we experience it, we think visually, we think in sound we think kinesthetically, we think in abstract terms, we think in movement - Sir Ken Robinson No matter how much time may be spent reading about other cultures, experiencing them first hand brings the understanding to an astonishingly higher level. What Robinson is trying to divulge is this exact point, that to understand the world we need to immerse ourselves within it, just as when a psychiatrist is to understand a patient, they must see and hear the patient rather than just read about their symptoms. Yet arguably, one cannot learn the abundance of knowledge that is learned is school by emotionally connecting with a place. Textbooks teach us more about the world and how it has been lived, the dates of WWII and how it was started, the exact chemical formula in which lactic acid is broken down or the type of erosion that formed Homer Spit, Alaska. What one must be able to have, to accept this knowledge, is faith. Faith that the authors of these textbooks, that the teachers administering this knowledge, is correct. Perhaps it takes more than faith to blindly consent to the knowledge that other people have discovered for you. For me I need to witness the change from one compound in another to fully grasp the concept that is depicted in words to me on a photocopied sheet, and this first hand experience is what travel can so richly provide.

Intelligence is diverse. Perhaps it is the EQ that travelling develops more than IQ. Travelling is a medium in which I feel myself developing independence is learned by exploring night markets in Chiang Mai, Thailand by myself and consequently confidence is boosted, thus allowing more activities to be done without hesitation. Performing in a fire show in a beach side restaurant in Thailand for example, and experiencing a culture so distant from my own and later talking with the performers about how the skill had been something learned from a young age from their parents. Experiences like this could not have been done without confidence, but more importantly the travelling that has actually brought me to the wonders of the world. Experience is, in my opinion, the backbone of knowledge. If travelling is not a necessity, then how come taking a gap year makes you a more appealing applicant to universities? Many universities no longer look only at academic success during the admission process, but look to see extracurriculars and if the student has embraced the knowledge learned in classrooms and further explored this in another environment. Kevin Morley, the gap year head at Dover Campus, heavily emphasizes the significance of learning through a gap year, how to teach children English so they can apply to university, the ins-and-outs of the medical industry in a developing country and other life experience that colleges recognize as making you a more intelligent and worthy applicant. Obviously the college looks at academic grades in higher weighting, but it is that extra oomph coming from travel-gained knowledge that makes the admissions office see you as the more apt candidate. A friend who got full marks (2400 points) on his SATs applied to all the ivy league schools in the States and got declined by all of them, and was only able to attend University of Chicago because his only assets were academic. This clearly shows that no matter how much knowledge you may acquire in a classroom setting, knowledge learned outside of these confines is largely important. However vital I feel that travelling is to education and the bettering of human life, colleges must use reason to take into account that they are a system that thrives on grades and scores directly correlated to IQ, rather than EQ. As to fully replacing the classroom setting with a syllabus of travelling, it may not allow you to be admitted into universities, therefore hindering the possibilities of some careers. However, I think the weighting of the two should be more balanced than it is now. Travelling does not have to mean thousands of dollars spent circling the globe; it can mean taking a field trip to experience the theories you learn about in a real setting, possibly incorporating this ideology into the curriculum. Elizabeth WIDDER 11MTu