Travelling Constitutes the Best Form of Education

The advantages of traveling | |
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|Robert Louis Stevenson's observation that books though good enough in their own way are a "mighty bloodless substitute for |
|life", has always appeared to me as correct and rich with meaning. Those who live in a narrow. confined society find it |
|difficult to develop an out-going personality: they, at times, are not to tolerant and it is always easy for them to fall |
|into a dull routine. Amongst the aristocratic families of Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries no young man's |
|(or young woman's for that matter) education was considered to be complete without travel. Those who were not lucky enough |
|to have adequate funds found other means of traveling. They either traveled as companions and employees of the rich people.|
|or. if adventurous and daring. joined professions which took them abroad. People have traveled as tramps and stowaways. The|
|whole world of commerce and the colonial system grew out of this urge for travel and adventure. Traveling does not |
|necessarily mean traveling abroad: it means traveling as much as one can - travel to the next town. to the seaside resort, |
|to the small hill station, the next state, or the nearest island. It basically implies getting out of the rut, seeing other|
|people. learning about their way of living and thinking, and thus developing a broader and more tolerant outlook towards |
|life. |
|Traveling is the best kind of education. Of course, it is no substitute for the basic learning of the three R's. But it can|
|be a substitute for most other kinds of learning. For when we travel we get the opportunity of seeing and knowing people at|
|first hand. One sees them as people. but meets them as individuals.