Education or Travel?

Counting down the last few days before the next expedition!

The living room is filling with stuff sacs and kit again.

And the list of jobs in my diary are gradually getting ticked off!

Its that time again to be heading off on the next expedition.

This time I head to the mountain kingdom of Nepal, the home of the highest mountains on Earth, and some of it friendliest people.

Nearly 20 years ago I led my first overseas expedition, this first expedition leadership job was for a group of 16 young people, it was a development expedition, aimed at building teamwork and leadership, as well as personal and social skills amongst the group.

Since 2000 I have led many expeditions like this, expeditions that I refer to a “Educational Expeditions”, and although I think that every expedition has a developmental purpose, I really feel that leading these style of expeditions for young people have many important outcomes and potential for change.

Young people having an opportunity to travel in this way can achieve so much, they embark on a journey that allows them to recognize their strengths, find out who they want to be, to touch the world, find out first hand what it is about, how it works, and develop their own ideas about a changing and often confusing world.

They develop their confidence, build resilience and motivation through engaging with physical and mental tasks, working in local communities, trekking in remote landscaped or undertaking scientific studies.

Personally, they get to find out who they are, what they like,what their views or values are and to have first hand experiences of the world. This important educational experience can lead to live changing decisions or to confirm the choices that these participants have made. Directing their futures and possibly influencing the future of their communities and the wider world.

This is education not just travel!

In the current world, where a new nationalistic politics is emerging, where neo-liberal policies are seriously impacting on the planet, the ongoing search for corporate profit and weakening governments which lead to environmental degradation, increased poverty and more conflicts , it is more important than ever to introduce Young people to both themselves and the world, these young people will be the future decision makers and voters, and the more they understand about the world and have personal contact with it, I hope will help them become better global citizens with more personal investment in helping create a better future.

So, in my mind my job on these ” Educational Expeditions” is to facilitate this experience, challenge and push the young people to look at themselves and the world differently. It is a crucial role to play and one I feel really privileged to undertake.

Over the next 3 weeks my team of 16 year old will go on a personal and social journey, immersing themselves in the communities they will travel through, but also challenging themselves to find out who they are, their values and their interests, with the hope that they will return home different, having been through a unique experience.

Some of my teams initial thoughts about what they want to see and achieve on their expedition!

We arrive in Kathmandu on Sunday after a pretty long flight, and after a day or so in the City we travel to a village, where we will be based for a while, undertaking vital projects, both construction and educational where we will be actively involved with the school.  We will be delivering purposeful projects that benefit the local community (by improving their educational facilities) as well as the young people on the expedition themselves, through their engagement with the remote community and the projects that they will plan and deliver themselves.

Ill post again about the trip later in July…..