In a society that is transforming with globalization, the conventional notion of education is very much in flux. Digital learning resources, flexible working arrangements, and a growing appetite of families to educate independent, globally-minded learners has catalyzed a new educational philosophy: learning in motion. This mode of education, often thought of as homeschooling or worldschooling, liberates families to educate their children while traveling the globe.
As families place a higher importance on autonomy, individual learning experiences, and global awareness, many families are now choosing to travel the world while still supporting their children's ongoing education. This is not just sightseeing while trying to remember and comprehend the information in a textbook; it is a more holistic approach to how children learn best, by living, engaging, and growing in real life and experience.
Reimagining Education: The Emergence of Mobile Learning
Traditional education has historically operated in a relatively inflexible framework that faced a number of challenges, such as the constraints of time (schedule), place (school), standardized tests, and a single curriculum for everyone. Because of this dissatisfaction, alternative systems of education are moving into a better position for families and kids.Parents are retrofitting their homes, RVs, vessels, and tropical hostels into their own classrooms.Children are doing algebra in the Alps, history in Rome, and marine biology on a beach in Bali.
What is Travelling Homeschooling?
Homeschooling, in essence, is the act of educating children at home or in nontraditional settings, instead of sending them to a school. When you go this route while traveling, it means you're bringing educational material, curriculum, and teaching supplies with you as you travel from location to location.
This version of homeschooling might still utilize a formal curriculum and standardized testing, but it is done in flexible places, a beach in Goa, a cabin in the Himalayas, or a village in Tuscany.
What is Worldschooling?
Worldschooling takes it a step further. It isn't just location-independent schooling— it is using the world as the curriculum! Kids learn their history when they visit historic sites. Kids learn languages when they immerse with locals. Kids learn about biodiversity when they trek through jungles and nature walks.
Worldschooling encompasses curiosity, lived experiences and real interactions with the world and each other. It bridges homeschooling with the principles of unschooling, where learning is self-directed and engaged with lived experiences rather than textbooks.
Why Are Families Choosing Learning on the Move?
- Flexibility and Freedom
Traditional schools often have rigid structures. Travel-based learning allows for families to create their own schedules, decide what and how to learn, and change focus based on their child's interests or the destination. Education becomes organic and fluid in motion.
- Global Citizenship and Cultural Literacy
In an increasingly connected world, it is hard to put a price on real understanding of other cultures, histories, and perspectives. Children who travel experience real knowledge of the geography, customs, food, and language—learning that a textbook cannot recreate.
- Personalized Learning
Standardized systems of education for children typically forget each child's own pace and style of learning. Homeschooling and worldschooling provide opportunities for different types of intelligences, whether linguistic, musical, spatial, kinesthetic or interpersonal, to develop more uniquely.
- Emotional and Social Development
Even critique of homeschoolers being isolated and unsociable, travelling learners are much more likely to be flexible, empathetic and open-minded. Exposure to many people from diverse cultures, with different ages, and walks of life creates competence, communication and tolerance.
Experiential Learning
This is where worldschooling excels. Let's think about some examples of learning moments:
- Learning about World War II while in Normandy or Berlin
- Learning about ancient civilizations in Egypt, Rome, or Varanasi
- Studying marine biology while snorkeling in the Andaman Islands
- Studying ecology in the Amazon or Sunderbans
- Learning a language through everyday conversations in places like France, Spain or Japan
- Day trips, workshops, museums, community volunteering and food experiences become part of a daily, learning experience.
Real Life Examples
The Jain Family from Pune
The Jain family from Pune had been struggling for years with their daughter's desire to learn through conventional schooling. They finally decided to unschool by traveling across India for twelve months. The family has travelled extensively in India, where their 12-year-old learns history, by visiting numerous forts; their daughter, as a part of her learning language acquisition, now maintains travel blogs; their daughter is learning maths by budgeting for their travels and planning.
The Kapoor Family—India and Southeast Asia
The Kapoors were based in Mumbai and decided to travel across Southeast Asia for a year. Their kids, 10 and 13 years old, are engaging with the IGCSE online/curriculum. They visit temples in Thailand, study ecology in the rainforests of Malaysia, and chronicle their adventures! on a family blog.
The Martens—Europe by Caravan
The Martens are a UK based family of five traveling throughout Europe in a Motorhome. Their children learn through project-based learning, blending language immersion with cultural festivals, picnics in the park, and other adventures! The oldest one has even written a self-published e-book as a part of her learning!.
Difficulties and How to Solve Them
- Legal Regulations
There are different rules on homeschooling in different countries. For example, in the U.S., Canada, and India, homeschooling is legal and relatively easy to navigate, but it is either highly regulated, or illegal in some European countries. Families should be informed and compliant with rules and regulations when moving or living somewhere.
Solution: Before moving to a new country for an extended period, join expat forums, homeschooling networks, or consult a legal expert.
- An Academic Focus
It is easy to get wrapped up in traveling and lose the value of academically focused study.
Solutions: Have every family member balance their experiential learning with a structured couple hours of study/ academically focused work. Use online tutoring or virtual classrooms if necessary.
- Financial Sustainability
Travel is very expensive, especially with little people.
Solutions: Many families sustain their travel lifestyle with remote work, freelancing, blogging, or teaching. Budget travel, slow travel (staying longer in one location), and house-sitting can also make traveling more affordable.
Travelling as a part of Education ?
Traveling is no longer a diversion from education; for many families, it is also the journey. Homeschooling and worldschooling through travelling signify and transition from passively receiving knowledge to actively engaging and curiosity-led learning. They are developing global citizens- children who are conscious, adaptive, empathetic and empowered.
Learning while on the go, as Abel (2021) articulates, isn't just an option, with the changes of the world to be conscious of, adaptation and global consciousness are now as vital as reading and numeracy, we are considering education models of all time.
As the saying goes, "Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer." For worldschooling families, richness is not just experiences, but education for life.
A Path of Lifelong Learning
Learning on the go is an audacious, nontraditional, and profoundly enriching decision. It dissolves the fake wall between "learning" and "living" and opens up new learning paths that are filled with possibilities. In truth, given how rapidly the world changes, it is likely that being adaptable, curious, and globally aware will matter more than remembering what happened with history, chemistry, or biology.
Both homeschooling and worldschooling while travelling do more than educate. They create learners that are not only academically competent, but emotionally competent, culturally competent, and globally competent.
As in the words of St. Augustine: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
For families on learning on the go, each day a new page and a new possibility.
ARTICLE BY- ANANYA AWASTHI
