Journey!!

Nobody can under-estimate the educational value of travelling. Travelling is a better teacher than books. It confirms one’s bookish and theoretical knowledge. It helps us to learn things in an easier, more lasting and more lucid manner. Think of a student who has actually seen the Taj. Is he not much better placed to write about the Taj than any of his class-fellows who has never been to Agra? Travelling gives first- hand information about things places, persons and events. IT provides an opportunity for acquiring practical knowledge of men and matters and enables a person to fight the battle of life in a more successful way. Travelling is essential for the healthy growth of the mind. Tagore write : “The health of the mind cannot be maintained on the ration of books served up in motionless classes within the prison walls of a static school.”

 Travelling converts a student into a awakened scholar in the open university of the world. He is able to have a close look at life, grapple with its varied problems and have a first- hand knowledge of the affairs of the world. Knowledge obtained through books is incomplete, imperfect and short-lived. Knowledge obtained through travelling is perfect and permanent.

One who has not travelled, remains like a frog in a well. He is a self-centered. He thinks that his view-point is the only correct view-point. He cannot appreciate the view point of others. He is a prisoner of his set ideas. A widely travelled person, on the other hand, comes in contact with numerous persons. Thus he gets a new vision of life. His outlook become broad; his sympathies widen. He comes to realize that the view-point of others may also be correct.

During educational tours, the students come across different people with different customs and different habits. This is such a knowledge as cannot be attained otherwise or through books. A student of science who is told about atomic reaction outside the laboratory will not learn as much as a student who is taken to the laboratory and actually shown each and everything in practical condition. The latter will not nurse any doubts about it because the impression which is formed in his brain’s sensitive plate through real observation is permanent and perfect.Tours have a great educational value. Students can learn much through these tours. They will not have to bother about books and their knowledge will be more adequate and more lasting. Tours play a great role in the general growth of a student’s mind and heart. A student who never goes on tour is circumscribed in his knowledge about the world. Real wisdom can be attained through the educational tours only.

So educational tours should be made a necessary part of our education if we want to produce real and genuine scholars. There are certain students who have not seen a single place other than their own. This creates inhibitions and inferiority complex in such students. They cannot be successful in their lives. It is through educational tours that their general out look can be broadened and general standard raised.Travelling in the younger sort is a part of education ; in the older, a part of experience.