Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Travel as a Part of Education” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Travel as a Part of Education

From times immemorial travelling has been considered a part of one’s education. The Englishmen, in particular, consider their schooling incomplete without a tour of the continent. Travelling is one of the most delightful experiences of mankind. People have always enjoyed going from place to place seeing people and places.

In India, unfortunately, foreign travel has not been much encouraged and in fact, there was a time when crossing the seas was declared to be highly sacrilegious. Men like Mahatma Gandhi were actually ex-communicated for going beyond seas. It was this ostrich-like mentality which brought about the worst type of intellectual stagnation in India and caused its ignominious downfall.

 Travelling, both inside and outside the country, is a powerful aid to education. It provides an experience of the world and calls into action and practical use the various qualities of mind an intellect developed by education. Tact, firmness, engaging personality and lively conversation are some of the products of wide and extensive travelling.

 However, highly educated a person may be, if he has not lived and moved among people with different habits, languages and social customs, and morality, his own outlook remains narrow. He is less accommodating in his views and is often fanatical in outlook. But those, who have travelled widely, are generally liberal in outlook. They have maturity of judgment and are unerring in their understanding of people and their minds.

The advantages of travelling, even in the narrow sense of the word ‘education’, are equally remarkable. Geography is a dull and uninspiring subject if it is studied in the classrooms. The Himalayas are a figment of imagination and the mighty Ganga nothing more than a snaky line running along the map. But if these places are actually seen by the student, the dull subject of geography becomes living and absorbing. The same thing applies to history. History as it is taught in schools at present is nothing but a catalogue of dead kings and the dates of their births and deaths. If, however, history is taught in relation to the achievement of those dead kings and students are given opportunities to visit frequently the scenes of the glories and defeats of the dead monarchs, history will become as interesting a subject as any other.

In Independent India we have become suddenly alive to the need of learning a few more languages. To learn a foreign language through the old method would take a lifetime and even then our mastery of it may be doubtful. But the quickest and the best, if not the cheapest, method of learning a new language is to live and move among the people who speak it. Thus, in order to learn English one must live in England and to learn Chinese in China.

The learning of a foreign language is the first step towards the understanding of that nation. In the present-day world the understanding between the various nations of the world is a great necessity. There can be no peace without international understanding.

Travelling is, no doubt, expensive, and inconvenient. But for broadening the mind, growing out of narrow and parochial views, for development in international culture, travelling inside one’s own land and also beyond it, is absolutely essential. After all we are all living in ‘One World’ and unless the inhabitants of the globe understand one another well, there cannot be any prospect of peace and amity between the nations of the world.