Learning on the Road
Six months in a van taught us more than six years in a classroom.
Physical context is the most underrated aspect of education. It's one thing to read about the Grand Canyon in a textbook; it's another to wake up on its rim and spend three days studying the geology, the ecosystem, and the silence.
Last year, we sold most of our belongings and hit the road. Our kids (ages 10 and 12) have always been unschooled, but the road trip accelerated their learning in ways we didn't expect.
Geography became a series of mountain passes and river valleys. Math became fuel calculations and grocery budgets. Literacy became the logs they kept of every new bird and rock formation we encountered.
When the world is your classroom, you never have to ask "When am I going to use this in real life?" because you are already in real life.
The road trip showed us that education isn't something you do *at* a child. It's something they do *with* the world. Context isn't a distraction; it's the point.