SUMMER SUN TIME STORIES SERIES-2
EDITOR’S MUSINGS
“Travel is the only thing; you buy that makes you richer!” We spend money on travel to be rich! While leading our lives, traveling makes us rich in perception, knowledge, behavior, thought, and attitude.
Summer Vacation is the time to take up traveling around the world to service our mind, body, and soul so that we can be recharged and look towards life refilled with positive energy.
Manav Rachna International Schools is the best school group that fosters the holistic development of students. We understand the importance of Educational Tours and thence we encourage students to participate in the same during summer vacations. This is the time of the year when students are relaxed as Exam Pressure is not generally lurking around the corner. Being the best school of Gurugram, Manav Rachna International School, Sector 51, Gurugram always plans Educational Tours during Summer Vacations resulting in the germination of beautiful stories that intoxicates the hearts and minds of the students’ thought out their lives. Beautiful destinations, new experiences, and hidden places around the world sprinkle elixir of excitement and open leaves of knowledge. We believe, “Not all classrooms have four walls…”
The Management and Mentors of Manav Rachna Educational Institutions, always plan Educational Excursions during summer breaks as they understand the value of traveling, and exploring new zones to enhance knowledge and personality of their students….In this Summer Sun time Series 2, blog post let us bathe in the fountain of rejuvenation. It is aptly said, “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”
RACONTEUR RIGHTLY REVIEWED…
“Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of EDUCATION; in the elder, a part of EXPERIENCE.
The best education you will ever get is through travelling. Nothing teaches you more than exploring the world and accumulating experiences.”
Well that’s really accurate; one can learn more and more and see the world differently by exploring beyond their own imagination and getting experiences. Now that summers have already given a knock on our doors, it’s time to travel around and acquire education and knowledge in this breezy season! The question is what is a Summer Educational Tour? Well, Summer Educational Tours was an unfathomed aspect of studying, even a few years back. Now, the schools, colleges, and universities are giving more importance to it as they provide a rich experience- an experience never felt before and make summers more fun and interesting! Travel is the epitome of experiential learning programs which increases their overall learning experience by taking them to new places.
More values that we learn are teamwork, communication, independent way of living which is some of the very important skills to have. An educational tour garners great fun, but people with little idea about the same, may confuse it with vacation. This is extremely imperative that should be kept in mind. There are proper differences between educational tours and vacation. In summers, Student Educational Tours are organized where the students are treated to a visual experience of what they have been learning so far, which has a deep impact on what they learn. T Generally, led by teachers, they get in touch with unlimited global learning and get a firsthand experience of various cultures. They acquire the capacity to appreciate different cultures of the world and as they socialize and interact with the local people, moreover they have a broader perspective of life.
Traveling is beneficial to students in many more ways, some of which are:
Interacting with locals:
When it is simple classroom teaching, the students see the world through glasses, which their teacher asks them to wear. They are not exposed to the various thoughts and perspectives of the people in other parts of the world or the country. When they interact with people from different cultures, not only will they learn about different views, values, and perspectives but they will also learn to empathize with them. We tend to learn something new from every person we meet.
Connecting different issues:
Whatever is read in the history books, will have no significance, until that place is visited and the flavors are smelled. When the students study various historical issues and form an idea about a certain culture, often they might have a wrong notion regarding a culture. They will learn in a more concrete way and understand how political, socioeconomic and other environmental issues are connected, once they tie their shoelaces for educational field trips. They can be asked to maintain journals and take interesting photos to have a valuable contribution to their knowledge.
Instilling a passion for traveling:
As portrayed beautifully by the legendary Satyajit Ray, in his film Agantuk, learning is incomplete without travelling. During the tours, students are guided not through the pages of the book but by experiences. The learning becomes more enjoyable through travels and the students have a broadened understanding of the world. Some of them might even realize their passion for knowing more about countries and cultures and turn it into a rewarding career.
The summer educational tour that students would like to visit:
One of our students Tanush Ahuja says, “I would like to go to Biological parks as they are unique landscapes that consist of diverse forms of communities and provide ecological, cultural and educational benefits to the urban society. Like one in Karnataka: Bannerghatta.”
For those who enjoy being close to the wild, Bannerghatta is a popular tourist destination located near Bangalore. It is a biological park which is likely considered to be a small paradise for nature lovers. Biological Recreation Center is also located within the premises providing research facilities for students. It is a perfect place to bring children to teach them about the biodiversity and how to conserve it for the future generation. And to make the visit more fun, Bannerghatta Biological Park also has a mini zoo and an animal rescue centre. It is here one can witness the beautifu species of Lions, that are rarely found in India. During wildlife safari, you can witness many animal species like Indian gazelle, spotted deer, barking deer, common langur, bonnet macaqu porcupine, hare etc. It is a place that students with interests in nature will surely learn from and that every child will enjoy the beauty of: –
“As a young student in the 21st century nature is hard to come by, and this may be a difficult reality for avid nature enjoyers like me. Our School understands this dilemma and to solve it they are taking action and organizing an educational trip to the Biological Park in Bannerghatta, Karnataka. This is a great opportunity for people like me to enjoy and learn about the vast wildlife and different and diverse species in India. My favorite of which is the gazelle, a majestic animal along with the lion an uncommon yet beautiful species. This is surely a perfect learning opportunity for both me and all the other students,” opines Tanisha of Grade X. Further she says, “Some more interesting places can be Historical places as well- for example Agra.”
“Whenever thought of visiting Agra pops up, often images of the grand mausoleum, Taj Mahal takes over our mind. Taj’s unparalleled beauty is such that, it baffles and makes one simply admire the work of art. Its brilliant Mughal, Islamic and Persian architecture revolves around its many attractions like Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and Itmad-Ud-Daulah making it an ideal place to come for an educational tour. Inside the richly decorated Red Fort, you can tour amid the Jahangir Palace, marble mosques, Diwan-e-Khas all inside a high fortification wall. A fortified ancient city, Fatehpur Sikri is another best example that displays Mughal architecture. It is a well preserved walled city that houses many palaces, mosque and Panch Mahal, used for relaxation by the kings. Here, as a student, you can learn about the history of the Mughals,” say the students. “Thus, we can say that, Agra is one of the best destinations for educational tours in India,” the students smile and say.To further prove that Agra is the perfect destination for learning and growing students we have it from the perspective of a student: –
While visiting a place a student like me looks for two things leisure and education. The perfect place for this is Agra a rich cultural city and also a city with a lot of history with the Mughals. When a person goes to Agra he/she always thinks of it as the Taj Mahal and sometimes they’ll glance at Fatehpur Sikri. This is not right as Agra is a lot more than just these few places it shows the mixture of a modern Indian city along with a rich heritage. There are countless Mughal, Islamic and Persian architectures present in the walls of Agra. It can teach a student like me about the way people made such beautiful structures back in the 16th to 18th century. Among these architectures are Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Itmad-Ud-Daulah. The first of which contains Jahangir Fort and Diwan-e-Khas among others. This is a great learning opportunity and also a chance to embrace Indian and Mughal culture as students of the new generation.
Most of the students believe that they must visit different libraries to attain more and more of knowledge and information :
The National Library of India is a library located in Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata, India. It is India’s largest library by volume and public record. The National Library is under Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Libraries play an essential role in local communities by providing access to information and resources, supporting literacy and education, promoting lifelong learning, and serving as a community gathering space. Libraries are synonymous with education, providing countless resources, namely books, internet access, printing facilities, and educational and professional training programs that can fuel economic, social and cultural development.
Proper education is not only about reading books and solving questions but also attaining knowledge by experiencing them practically. Practical experience is an integral part of education. Thus, travelling adds to our experience and knowledge and should be considered an important part of education.
Libraries are a dome of knowledge and a great exposure to experiential learning according to our student Nafiah. For teenagers like me, in today’s world, libraries serve as a gateway to education, awareness and fantasy. A library like The National Library would be an excellent opportunity for students to dive into the world of learning, education and understanding. Traveling also provides real-life experience and practical knowledge about the real world. By travelling to a place like Alipor, Kolkata students can get education along with fun and joy. Students can get a wonderful experience by traveling with their peers and teachers to a beautiful place like The National Library in Alipore, Kolkata accompanied by limitless education, learning and experience as well as pleasure, enjoyment and joy.
There is no end or a finishing line to education, you learn something unique and more every time you explore the world!
Field trips provide authentic, hands on, experiential learning opportunities where students can connect what they are learning in classroom, in a real world context.
Last but not least, education without pleasure is always ineffective and prosaic. The process of education in which there are recreational facilities proves to be most effective.
Author: Ms. VINCI GARG, TGT – ENGLISH, MRIS, SECTOR 51MAYFIELD GARDENS, GURUGRAM
EXPRESSED BY: TANUSH AHUJA, NAFIAH AYUB KHAN, TANISHA KITHANIA
