A Nomadic Classroom by Callie

A Nomadic Classroom by Callie - July 2020 Scholarship Essay

My dream classroom is one in which I can see what I'm studying, hands-on. I dream of feeling the wind from the Great Lakes as I study the War of 1812, seeing the Liberty Bell with my own eyes as I study the American Revolution. Can you imagine being in the Anne Frank House after having just spent the morning reading about her? Or standing in awe of a Native American mound in the middle of a field as you learn about their religion and culture?

I dream of being able to travel as I learn. I don't want to stay stuck in a single room, constantly being confined a singular longitude and latitude as I learn of sailors rounding the Cape of Good Hope or the spice trade in India. I want to see with my own eyes the Galapagos finches and turtles when I do my science lessons, smell the incense in a cathedral in my world religions classes. To crane my neck to see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as I study art and smell the dew at Stone Henge--this is how I want to learn.

I cannot imagine only ever discovering the world through letters on a page or images on a screen. I want to watch a ballet in Moscow and see the Northern Lights and visit the research center on Antartica. I want to feel the winds on my face as I cross the ocean like all the explorers and immigrants who came before me, to fly across the Atlantic as I remember the works of the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh. To see the African kingdoms and the hidden cellars and attics of the Underground Railroad. I want to see Ankor Wat and Machu Picchu and other nods to a former world.

That is how generations before me learned: Marco Polo traveled from Italy to the Far East and met different cultures in person. Darwin and Twain hopped on a ship and sailed to see what they were curious about first-hand. That is how they discovered new places and ideas and expanded the world. That is how we will move forward into making the world a better, fairer, and freer place: by understanding where we came from, how we got here, and how we messed up along the way.

I believe funding students to see the world will show them that education isn't about achieving a number on a test; it's about learning how we got here and how to go forward without making the same mistakes as our ancestors. To understand different cultures and perspectives, we must empathize, and how can we empathize if we have not experienced? If we don't know what the spices smell like and the trees look like and the music sounds like and the people smile and cry like?