Traveling Teens: How Travel Shapes Global Citizens | Episode 52

Discover how travel can transform teens into global citizens by fostering cultural respect and experiential learning. Tune in to the Falling for Learning Podcast!

Summary

Welcome to the final episode of Season One of the Falling for Learning Podcast! In this milestone episode, we explore the transformative power of travel in enhancing the educational experience of teens and tweens. Host, T.D. Flenaugh, shares personal anecdotes and insights from her recent trip to Peru and discusses how travel can enrich children’s learning through hands-on and experiential methods.

 Understanding and Respecting Different Cultures: Traveling exposes children to various cultures, fostering respect and understanding. 

Firsthand Cultural Experience: Traveling to South Africa allowed her daughter to experience African culture directly, which was crucial in breaking down any preconceived notions and fostering a sense of respect for her roots. 

Exposure to Diverse Lifestyles: During their recent visit to the Uros islands in Peru, we saw how the Uros people live on man-made islands, offering a unique perspective on innovative living and community cooperation.

Travel is a potent educational tool that can significantly enhance the learning experiences of teens and tweens. It broadens their perspectives, fosters respect for different cultures, and builds essential life skills. 

As we wrap up Season One of the Falling for Learning Podcast, we encourage you to think creatively about how you can integrate travel into your child’s learning journey.

Thank you for joining us on this journey! Stay tuned for an exciting new look and fresh content in Season Two. Remember to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. For more resources, visit fallingforlearning.com

travel benefits, teen education, cultural awareness, experiential learning, global citizenship

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

When, of course, you you know your children, and maybe even you, if you're not used to traveling, we're just thinking, Well, no, those are the weird people. They're the ones who are different. And instead, it equalizes people thinking, Okay, we're in new places. We're in different places. So we have different ways of being and living and understanding. So it's not about one culture being better than the other or being more important, but just that there's different ways of living and growing and understanding in different places. So that's what's really key. So hey, thank you for joining us for another episode of the Falling for Learning Podcast. Please hit the subscribe button. We're here for you, and you want to stick with this channel. If

Unknown: 0:55

If you have teens and tweens, well, if you're a caregiver, right? Might be a parent, might be a caregiver, and you want to know what to do to keep them on track for learning and to stay on track for success. Hit the subscribe button.

TD Flenaugh: 1:13

Hello. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Falling for Learning Podcast. This is episode 52 which is the last episode in Season One. So I started my podcast on July 1, 2023, and so the next time we have an episode will be June 29 2024, but because, you know, we'll pass a year, this is the final one. You know, 52 weeks in a year. This is our episode 52 and so I'm very excited. I have been a little bit laying low on social media right now because I had the very much privilege of traveling to Peru. So I just came back from Peru on Monday, and I'm still a little jet lagged. This is now Friday. But then I also started doing, you know, getting really heavily in activity with my family too. So a lot going on in the family and all of that. And I will talk about that later on other episodes, but episode of so for season two, we are leveling up the look. I got some help, you know, to help make sure the podcast is, you know, really sparkling. And so I'm very excited to announce our new look when we have our episode number one of season two of our Falling for Learning Podcast. So let's get into the traveling. So what better way to have children learn? There's hands on learning, and then there's experiential learning, and traveling can be both. So my daughter is grown now, but I definitely had her doing travel experiences as a child. Many of the times she went on with me, but she did do some sleep away camps, and those do qualify as some traveling as well. So for my daughter, we, one of her cousins had a charter school that they attended, and their trip was going to South Africa at the end of their middle elementary school years, and we were able to go as well. And so when she was in sixth grade, she traveled to South Africa. And so it was very exciting. What I knew that she learned and was witnessing was to respect culture, right, because she had not been off the continent, but she was learning to respect African culture. If you know, like, I know there have been, you know, some self hatred in the black community. For sure, when it comes to other you know African cultures or foreign black people. You know, they you know, there's some self hatred and all of that going on. But she learned at an early age, you know, that we don't participate in that and that, you know, our roots are originally from the continent of Africa. And of course, we need to learn about respect, travel to, you know, the continent of Africa to learn about it, and so I do want to encourage you as parents to think about ways that you could get your child to be able to travel, depending on your schedule and your budget. You may or may not be able to travel, but there are. Are several ways to get your child to travel if you aren't able to do it, of course, if you have a respected family member or friend, I know that there are grandparents sometimes that take children on trips when they have special milestones, like they graduate from middle school or something like that, or high school, they'll take them on trips. So maybe your family could take them. If you're not able to take them, you could also, as a family, you know, save up for it and go and you know, there are ways. You know, just traveling across the United States will teach children a lot as well. And because different parts of the United States have different ways of living, and they will be able to learn to respect it decenters them, you know, sometimes children, and then we will do the same thing, you know, center ourselves as the most important or the only way, and helping them to travel and get to know people and getting to experience it. Because when you travel and you're in that new place, what happens that's different is that instead of looking at someone that is foreign right to you, you're like, oh, that's someone who speaks a foreign language or different that you that is turned on its head. You're the weird one. You're the one with the accent. You're the one who is doing something new and different when, of course, you you know your children, and maybe even you, if you're not used to traveling, we're just thinking, Well, no, those are the weird people. They're the ones who are different. And instead, it equalizes people thinking, Okay, we're in new places. We're in different places. So we have different ways of being and living and understanding. So it's not about one culture being better than the other or being more important, but just that there's different ways of living and growing and understanding in different places. So that's what's really key, and it just really helps them to be better global citizens. And, you know, understanding of other people and their differences. And for sure, when children haven't traveled that much and families haven't traveled that much, there's a fear of the unknown, the ridiculing of unknown, and you know, obviously that really closes their mind off from opportunities. And you know, when they travel, that gives them new perspectives, and it also helps them to learn to be comfortable wherever they are. So it is something that's really important to think about. How you can make some traveling happen. If you can't do it, how can you help your child to get some travel experiences? And if you don't have anyone that you trust to travel with them, or something like that, you definitely can do some virtual field trips. And I will link some resources in the episode. Resources, as far as you know, how to do some virtual field trips. They're not the same, obviously, but it is a way to open their mind to that possibility. And you know, as you're saving up, or something like that, eventually you'll be able to go to different places, or they will grow up, and, you know, be open to traveling. And you know, some people even live in different places in different countries, or they'll go to college in another country. So it really, you know, there's opportunities throughout the world, and you never know your child or your family might you know like it better, or have better opportunities in another country or place like that. And so you know, a lot of people you know, find value in living another place, or they're able to start a business in another place that they were not able to start here in the United States or in their particular state that they live in. So it's something that you know, it's something to think about. And we on the previous episodes of the podcast and on our weekly lives, which I discontinued, because we have some workshops coming up and webinars coming up. And so being a solopreneur, it's something I have to, you know, just really focus in on, you know, one thing at a time, or a couple of things at a time. If I pick something else up, I have to put something down. And so we have talked about in the past on the well educated one day Wednesdays, for sure, because one of the people from the community had a question about how to get their child to speak a foreign language, right? You know one of the listeners. They had, they have a child who is really progressing in their foreign language at school, but at home, and different places where they try to get their child to speak they were not speaking their language. But of course, when you're traveling and you're the people who are the foreigners who are speaking the different language. It's a perfect time for your child to use their language. They could hear people using it everywhere, and they could get comfortable using the language that they've been in learning in school. And if you're from a monolingual family, monolingual family where you know it's they're thinking it's kind of weird because they speak a different language, or instead of just being a normal part, they will get a better they will get that experience of seeing how it's just normal to speak this other language and how it is something that's used every day, all the time in another country. So another really important part of traveling internationally. We live in the California, in California, so, you know, you could drive down to Mexico, or we've even gone to San Diego and then walked across the border instead of traveling through car, you know. So a lot of people do that too. So there are some low cost options to traveling internationally, if you live near, you know, close to Canada, there's, you know, some ways to just drive over there and get an international experience and then make it a goal to, you know, move past the continent. So as I was saying, I went to Peru. Our family was in Peru for about a week. And some things that I learned that Well, I actually experienced right, because I learned about some things like this in school, you know, and your kids learn about it in school, but when you experience it, so they had a fairly short day. But what I did, what I forgot, right, because I am not using All over the United States, 75% of children don't know how to write well. Add that to the fact that so many people out there... just to living that every day is that actually today is their winter solstice. Now for us, it's our summer solstice, but they are on the southern part of the equator. We're in the northern part of the Equator, and so we're in our summer, and they're in their winter, and their shortest day of the year is today, June 21 and they have lots of festivals during the month of June. And, you know, basically wanting, you know, the ancestors started that so that they would call the sun to come back right the sun when the days were getting shorter are trying to silence the voices of those who have been oppressed and shorter. And, you know, the winter solstice on the shortest day of the year, June, 22 21st sorry. And then, so, yeah, it but it was just interesting how short the days were. And then also to know, since there are, you know, fairly close to the equator, that their days. It doesn't vary that much as we do here in California. So it may be about an hour throughout the year, but the days are fairly short just based on their location on the planet Earth. So so some of those science things that you learn, or kids learn in school, you get to see firsthand. You get to experience it. Now, of course, I grew up in Alaska, so I experienced another extreme, where we had 24 hour daylight, and then we had we in our area, where I grew up, in and trying to prevent them from telling their story. Who's going Fairbanks, we went down to about five hours of daylight during the wintertime. We didn't go 24 hour darkness. It is the largest state geographically. So there are, you know, vastly different climates within that state, and there are some parts of the state that are about half the year. Dark half the year light. But we didn't have that in Fairbanks, which is more central to Alaska central in that state. So, yeah. So again, you get to see people living in different ways. One of the other things that I learned was a group called the Euros. They created man made islands, and they lived on those islands. And our tour was telling our tour guide was telling us that they don't even to tell your story? If your child doesn't know how to write? have to pay for they don't have to pay for taxes. And I was like, That's interesting, because I know for sure there'll be plenty of people in where I live, in California, what when there's a housing crisis here that would be interested in having, like, a free place to live, per se? He said, it's a pretty harsh lifestyle. But you know, there that group of people have really they work together, and they make it work, and it seemed to be very peaceful. We visited them. They let us see their homes, and then they even took us on a boat ride, because that's their transportation. And the one of their children was Well, I have two books to address this issue, The working, and working the boat, and tying up the boat and everything. So they get their children involved, and they have, like, a multi generational family. So the mother was there, like the grandmother, the mother, and then the child, and then the husband was away working. So I thought it was really interesting. They seem to have, like, you know, fairly comfortable lifestyles once they start building up their island. And it was something so unexpected. I have also traveled to Mexico, and I realized, you know, there's some parallels R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method and The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method Workbook there, because Mexico has chiampas, where they actually have created islands to grow food on, and they don't usually live on it the way that the Euros do. But it was interesting that, you know, people are basically making their land out of, you know nothing, you know plants and mud and all of that and and building it up and sustaining themselves. So America has so many I know California does have lots of ordinances and laws and stuff that, you know, really regulate how land is used, and all of that and so. And you know, the bottom line is, they want their money, they want their tax dollars and all of that so, but it's just interesting in another pretend to make sure that parents know what to do, that country that people are able to make, you know, you know, live a subsistence lifestyle, live off the land, or, in this case, off the water. And it is, I think, very innovative. And I was very impressed with with their lifestyle and how they live their lives and and I thought it was very impressive. So these are just some things that you'll learn about as you know and you can discuss with your children as you are traveling now. We talked about a couple of episodes ago, you know, the fourth graders in the family, you know, can get a national educators know what to do to get their children to write better parks pass, and some states extend that to their state parks as well. So that is a way to travel. And of course, it's on a budget, and it's not, you know, far away, but it is a different part. Those are protected areas that have a different type of flora and fauna. You know, the plants and animals and all of that, then would be just in an urban area or even suburban areas. So it's, it's worth it to think about and think outside of the box about how you can get your child traveling, your family traveling during the summer, or, you know, plan a trip for your next break, maybe like winter break or even a Thanksgiving break. Our schools are off for a week, and you and just not write better, but love to write. Make sure that could you may have a trip coming, you know, a break coming up where you could travel, and so planning it out. Of course, getting tickets, or, you know, transportation, renting a car at certain times is cheaper than other times, so traveling ahead of time is a good strategy for making sure you get that done. So it's, it is, especially we have a lot of parents who do homeschooling, you know, thinking about how you can integrate your traveling and your learning lessons with children, of course, in the United States, if you're keeping get within the United States. You can go to museums and National Monuments and Sites where they could learn more your next generation could tell their story and they won't be about whatever you're studying in history. Of course, there's people from the you know, what they call the founding fathers of in the United States, but also learning about slavery, or learning about all the different things, right? We just came out of the Juneteenth holiday, and of course, there's a lot of history there about in Texas, how they were finally freed, and they didn't, you know this, the enslaved people, they didn't know that they were able to, you know, live freely because, you know, the media wasn't like it was today, so it's just really spreading word of mouth. And of course, people had limited reading skills because of the oppression back then. So they silenced. Go to fallingforlearning.com today to can definitely visit historic sites and read about and really see pictures, or even just to be standing in the space where some of these events took place. Is very helpful for children. One of the places I want went to over the winter break was the African American History Museum. And I've got to get the words right for like, what's the name of this, the African American Museum. But it's in Washington, DC, and let me take a moment to look it up. Okay, the African American, the National Museum of purchase your set, African American History and Culture, the National Museum in Washington, DC. So that's where we went, and I just thought that was such a great place that honored African American history. And I did share some pictures online of when I went there, but one of the pictures that really like gutted me that I haven't really, I didn't post or anything like that. Was how they had Trayvon Martin. They had him as a picture of him with an astronaut uniform on, or something like that. He went to Astro camp. And I think his, they said his uncle worked, I think, for NASA, or something like that. And that was something that he was interested in doing. And, you know, it just, I, when I saw the picture, it just gutted me, like, you know, he had so much promise, and there was so much he could have contributed to the world. And you know, his life was cut short. But again, you know getting kids out into exploring and to questioning and finding out and you know just being in a new atmosphere really helps them to be acclimated more quickly to wherever they have to go into the world, or where they're want to go into the world. And so I really encourage you to if you don't have plans to travel, think about some short trips that you could give for your family, low budget trips, and then plan some bigger trips internationally. Or think about how you can position your child to be in, to be able to travel if you're not either willing or able to do that yourself or take them. There are also foreign exchange programs that you know kids can travel as a high schooler or even as a college student, so you could encourage them, and that's also a place they can go to really hone their craft as far as learning a new language and using a new language. So again, keep your minds open about all the things that they could be learning. How could extend, extend their knowledge of science, history and culture, and so think about that. We appreciate you for being there for us during our first year of the falling for learning podcast. This is our final episode of our season one. We appreciate you. I just thought I would go live and talk to you all, and thank you for all your support over our time. And you know, have a great week. You. Music, thanks again for supporting the Falling for Learning Podcast. New episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com/@fallingforlearning or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit, fallinginlovewithlearning.com we really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.