Family travel and education go hand in hand, especially extended family travel or a creative ultra-mobile lifestyle design that includes the whole family. When you are a parent, giving your child the best possible education in this new economy, preparing them for the future is foremost on one's mind.
That's why I'm so excited by Seth Grodin's new book, Linchpin, so I just dropped the post I was writing, to make sure that I could share these gems with you. My friend Andrew Warner (who interviewed us last year & we infected him with the digital nomad bug & now he's in Argentina for a long stay) has a great new interview with Seth on Mixergy.
I love this video of Seth talking about education that I found on Lee Stranahan's fantastic site! I found it via Twitter that linked to another fab video he did on Huffington Post that explains that "We all live in Detroit now". As someone who was born in Michigan, not too far from Detroit, I have great empathy for the problems of the mid-west rust belt (as well as those in California, Spain and everywhere).
Huge Macleod (that I know from Dell's Digital Nomads) at the always interesting Gapingvoid also did a fantastic interview with Seth and I particularly loved and agree with this quote:
It's urgent. I don't think most people realize the precarious nature of our current situation, how close we are to the edge, and how little time we have to get our act together.
If you haven't read Seth Godin before, then check out his blog or some of his other books. I can't wait to read this new book because every thing I've read about it lines up with how we think and our lifestyle.
I agree with Mike Elgan that the new economy and digital nomad lifestyle is a fast growing trend.that's on it's way to mainstream. I love how inspiring "GenY" folks & other communities are embracing it, but much of our focus is how this will affect families and education. 60% of all schools will be virtual by 2006 and you can see that trend growing strongly today.
We've been so excited by the opportunities that we have had with education as we travel the world on our small budget, not only through our travels (which alone are stupendous) but also through the local school in Spain which has allowed our daughter to immerse deeply in her second language. culture and literature.
Plus the international web collaboration that she has done with others online like her violin and piano lessons via Skype and John Hopkins University's CTY virtual classes that she does with students and teachers on other continents. We're excited that next year she will start immersing in her third language, Mandarin Chinese. We find our "world school" method has allowed us to get the best of all worlds and want others to know how easy and enjoyable it is.
Food for thought in video form. What's your take?