Back to School

The first week of September signifies many things, such as the end of summer, the change of seasons (my birthday), and, yes, back-to-school month. For us in Florida, back to school happened in early August, so we already have our routines back. However, September still feels like when the curriculum really gets into gear. In honor of all the parents sending their kids back to school this week or entering a new school this week, this video should put a smile on your face. When thinking of “back-to-school,” we often get caught up framing school in the traditional sense, yet as all of you know, the world is our school, and yes, you can learn the ABCs through travel. In fact, I will restate what I shared in a recent speech.

“We in this travel industry are part mentors, part consultants, part teachers, and yes, part students. Put shortly; we are custodians of dreams, vessels to broaden horizons”.

This classroom is devoid of politics about what to teach and standardized testing. It feeds curiosity; in fact, it embraces it. There is no varnish on these lectures, only interpretation. Most importantly, you get to be a socially responsible global citizen, as that is at the center of this classroom and the center of this lesson plan.

The commonality here, is that this classroom still starts with the alphabet in any language you choose. So we thought we would celebrate back-to-school with the first letter in that alphabet and built a video around a destination that has schools of fish, it has ancient rock art that deserves to be shared in our classroom blackboards, it has nature that is untouched in a manner we could all learn from, and it has a culture that still schools us today on the meaning of life. Here, you don’t have to raise your hand to ask the teacher a question, and you are encouraged to ask millions of questions.  Not only will you get millions of answers, but some of those answers just might be from a million years ago.

Of course, I am talking about the letter A for Australia, which is one of our favorite destinations and a unique classroom for learning. It’s where the World Travel Tourism Council Global Summit will proudly be held in 2024.

Enjoy the video and discover the countless learning opportunities this beautiful country offers. You’ll definitely learn something.