teen heads to Iraq to see things first-hand

[xcriteria]

Whatcha think about this?

Fort Lauderdale teen skips out, drops in for first-hand look at war in Iraq

I think it's an interesting example of cultural differences, how no matter what a person's ethnic background is they are influenced a lot by the environment in which they grow up. It's also an example of the power of concepts, like once you learn a new idea ("immersion journalism" in this case), new possibilities are conceivable that never would have been otherwise. (Of course, that doesn't mean they should all be acted on. )

[Rebelnerd]

you should put this in "news"

[xcriteria]

oh, sorry, right.. SoulRiser, can you move it?

EDIT: wait a minute, how many people look in there?

[Heil_Kaiba8921]

(12-31-2005 06:17 AM)xcriteria Wrote:  oh, sorry, right.. SoulRiser, can you move it?

EDIT: wait a minute, how many people look in there?

Not enough, that's how many.

[Trar]

Suddenly we're all bumping old threads. Cool.

OP is good, Rebelnerd posted here, thread is nice and compact. Probably the best of the old ones.

[Heil_Kaiba8921]

(03-20-2014 05:22 AM)Trar Wrote:  Suddenly we're all bumping old threads. Cool.

OP is good, Rebelnerd posted here, thread is nice and compact. Probably the best of the old ones.

I honestly only bump threads this old when I'm insanely bored, but don't want to go outside at all.

[brainiac3397]

Get a life dawg.
Get a life dawg.
Get a life yo.
Getta life dude.
Getta life homie.
Get a freaking life.
No life.

Wut?

[James Comey]

Dang, this was posted way back when the US actually was full-on in Iraq.

I think xc and I had an interesting conversation on something similar though in IRC. Sending high school students of different backgrounds to foreign countries and making them work together on challenges.... something along those lines.

[xcriteria]

I'm not sure that the words "sending" and "making" are the best to use there...

But, yes, providing the opportunity to experience new people and places, and confront meaningful challenges, in a way that's worth doing by choice, could make for a totally different kind of learning experience than factory model schools, or the experiences people tend to encounter in their householda

Definitely something to further discuss.

[James Comey]

Yeah, I agree, that is something to discuss.

I think sending high school age people to remote foreign countries isn't the best way to go, but yeah, providing some kind of meaningful challenge is worth it.

[xcriteria]

(03-21-2014 09:36 AM)Hansgrohe Wrote:  Yeah, I agree, that is something to discuss.

I think sending high school age people to remote foreign countries isn't the best way to go, but yeah, providing some kind of meaningful challenge is worth it.

I'm just quibbling with the term "sending." It implies someone is making a person go somewhere... as opposed to a person choosing themselves. I think if options for travel and challenge were provided to students, a lot of them would go for it.

Maybe we could build programs like this... and I imagine some already exist (though, like school, they may have their own problems.)

In fact, the whole practice and industry of "voluntourism" comes to mind, which arguably has both good and bad sides.

Article:

Does 'voluntourism' do more harm than good?

Here's a talk from Daniela Papi, who went abroad to start schools:



Watch on YouTube

And an article by her on the same topic: Voluntourism: What Could Go Wrong When Trying To Do Right?

Of course, traveling just to explore, or traveling to do journalism, different from trying to do volunteer work, get a job, or just have fun. But increasingly, travel -- and life -- can involve all kinds of combinations of things. So I think it's worth considering multiple angles, locally remotely.

Travel can definitely help expand worldview, though... as Chris Guillebeau talks about in this Good Life Project interview:



Watch on YouTube

With the benefit of learning from some of these examples from after, with a relatively short time investment, what kinds of ideas might be possible? I've talked to some people about the prospect of building programs that combine travel, something like documentary-reality production, and learning.

There are already a few examples of people building trips that combine learning with travel, like this one... Project Unschool Peru, "Inspiring A Temporary Learning Community".

There are really so many options for ways to build experiences... so far beyond what's apparent within factory-model schools.