Don't Tell Me How Educated You Are, Tell Me How Much You Have Traveled

"It liberates the vandal to travel--you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born." --MARK TWAIN, 1868

There are many ways to learn about the world, about others, and about yourself... and everyone seems to learn a little differently... But... if you travel well... then... I think... you can possibly hit all of those different triggers of learning more effectively than most any other form of education...
... First travel takes a person out of their comfort zone... you are already challenged... you've never had to deal with the things you now have to deal with... facing new challenges... and reflecting on how you deal with, or react to the situation, tells you things about yourself you could never have known back on your sofa watching National Geographic...
... Second travel gets around preconceived ideas about life... which can, based on the natural human tendency towards arrogance and pride, stop persons from allowing themselves learn... because you can't have any when you don't know what to expect... which is one of the reasons why I am quite strongly opposed to reading too much about the place you are about to go.... based on it's effect of limiting the things you might let yourself do... spur of the moment...
... Third travel gives you experiential knowledge, which is the greatest and most demanding form of learning anything... This is also the sticking point where it is imperative that a person travels well... For... "It is better to travel well than to arrive"... You will not learn anything from the window of a car, train, or camera... you must do... you must participate... You must take a rest stop in the middle of the mountains beside some stream somewhere just to see what the highway looks like... it is the small difference in your story from anyone else's story that makes it yours... And how you learn... It is even possible to live only the tourist traps life in every place and still learn despite your unoriginal inspontaneous nature...
... Fourth travel makes you learn by teaching... Once you return from any travel... And under the assumption that at least one person cares for you and you are interesting enough that they will sit through your stories... you will have to share the things you experienced, saw, and learned when you were gone... and if there's one thing you hear from teachers is that you never really know something until you have to teach it to somebody else...
... Fifth you can learn by application... when you return you suddenly start to see the things you've always known and are accustomed... now somewhat strange... Like my favorite poet TS Eliot would say... you return to the place where you started an know it for the first time... And possibly you'll know it that even the place around where you live should constantly be mistaken for some place strange and unknown... you may start to realize that with the right set of eyes... you really don't have to go all that far to travel...