:: Foothill Christian Schools ::

Rob Macleod
World Traveler

Saint Augustine once wrote, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” How true these words ring for us in our pursuit to read every page the book of the world has to offer. I have been on the move my whole life. I was born in beautiful California, but moved to West Germany at only a few months old. Soon after my family moved again, this time to England. These early years of my life gave me a wonderful opportunity and a love of seeing new places.

Each experience has added depth and dimension to my life. As a history teacher, I have the opportunity to use the summers I have off to add to my adventures. Past travels have found myself in places like Cambodia, The Federated States of Micronesia, Peru, Spain, Morocco, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Egypt. Each new “page,” has shown first-hand how other cultures live, think, and feel. Individually, I am richer for it, but beyond personal benefit, I am able to share these experiences in the classrooms for the benefit of the students.

It’s no secret that students often view history with a yawn, feeling it is dead and irrelevant in their young lives. My experiences in the places where history “lived” has helps me overcome this attitude in the classroom. On the most basic level, traveling provides fun stories to share with our classes and fosters interest in other places around the globe. From hiking the Inca trail, to boating down the Nile, to the descriptions of strange foods we have eaten (not to mention nearly killing one of the camels we rode in the Sahara desert!), they begin to experience the world through our eyes, descriptions and emotions. What’s more, when students see photos of someone they know in historical settings as opposed to viewing stock photos in textbooks, history suddenly comes alive.

Traveling also helps cultivate understanding in students, because I have a better appreciation of what I am teaching. When we cover the medieval church, it is much easier to explain the grandeur of the gothic architecture after having seen it first hand. Having stepped inside a massive cathedral-like St. Paul’s in London, or the Catedral de Santa María in Seville–I can more fully explain what it may have been like for a peasant living 6 centuries ago. Seeing the place it holds, even today, within the city helps me put the power and wealth of the medieval church in perspective for the students.

I love being able to travel and I am grateful for all the visits to remote and exotic places in our world. But it is equally gratifying to ignite, in students, a passion for history and the world around them. Perhaps they too will long to read the “pages of the world.”

Rob is a world traveler and has a passion for teaching students at Foothill Christian School. You can email him at rmacleod@foothillchristian.org

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