Do you travel to learn? What is special about learning in a different environment than the one with which you have most familiarity?
Can we understand people by spending our lives in just one place, seeing the same faces every day? Do we learn best by examining what other people have learned over thousands of years?
Before going to university, being the first person in my family to do so, I had been to seven schools and three colleges. I had also had more than a dozen employers, had been self-employed, had founded a community organisation, and had started and edited a small magazine. I had even been a guest university lecturer. I had also travelled extensively around the globe.
When I eventually experienced university life as a student, there were many non-academic challenges to face. These included lack of time, lack of resources and lack of individuality in the formal aspects of training. However, the Dean's List for Academic Achievement included my name and I also received distinctions for my honours studies.
I went to university to study the social sciences because I wanted to understand people better. But did I achieve that there? Do we understand people better by going out into the world and meeting them in their incredible variety?
How do you learn about people? Is it an interesting journey?
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