Where Democracy Lives

Mark Twain so pointedly tells us that “travel is fatal to prejudice,bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Twain’s statement can directly relate to why every student needs to discover our country and the world outside their hometown. Understanding different cultures simply changes your life forever for the better. Imagine a 10-year-old who cannot go to school because her job is to bring 10 gallons of water a day to her family. Imagine a society where every family grows its own food and has nothing to supplement their meals. Or, imagine a place where students listen to gunfire on their walk to school.

In recent years, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has hosted Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Elie Wiesel and a plethora of other important world leaders. (Ronald Reagan dedicated the cornerstone in 1990.) While the speakers and the museum’s programs and exhibits are in fact, incredible, the experience always becomes focused at more personal level. A visitor is inundated with rich information about World War II and the Holocaust. Survivors who were mere children during these days tell their stories (some in person but most via media) which are compelling and awe-inspiring. The power of the message helps to ensure that atrocities perpetrated by mankind remain etched in our minds forever so that we do not repeat them.

Sharing history and culture with thousands of young people over many years remains the cornerstone of American education. Today, as technology makes our world smaller, it has simultaneously magnified our political, geographic, and cultural differences. The importance of sharing history has grown exponentially especially as the time required to communicate has diminished to seconds.

There is much evidence of a growing movement: A fourteen-year-old from Philadelphia drags his parents Washington DC to visit the new Museum of African American History, two young college women lead their colleges in creating organizations to make sure the lessons of atrocities are not lost forever, a teacher from Texas raises money and leads a trip to New York City to understand immigration to America, thousands of students from North America travel to 20+ countries to build classrooms, children from every mid-eastern country become friends at a New England summer program, and countless others embark on opportunities to protect their own future.

Be part of this movement. You CAN change the world one mile at a time. Tomorrow’s leaders have chosen their path, and it involves exploring and understanding the history of our country and the cultures of our planet. Explore with your students, immerse them in the breadth of our Nation’s story. You may change lives forever while you watch your students become smarter, happier, and gain an understanding of what lies ahead as our future heroes.