My daughter’s passport photos over the years! ❤️

I liked this Super Bowl commercial by Google

As a somewhat frequent traveler this airline's advertisement caught my attention

Getting Children Interested in Traveling Like Babar

Yesterday while my wife was working (incoming first-year students arrived at the University of Chicago yesterday) I took my children to the 57^th Street Book Fair in my neighborhood (Hyde Park, Chicago).  It was a great time and my kids were excited to have me purchase a bunch of new books for them!  While browsing through all of the book stands I came across the book “The Travels of Babar” [affiliate link] and I started thinking about children’s books that take the reader to far away places and instill an excitement and curiosity for travel and meeting others who are different than themselves. 

What books do you recommend for children (say ages 1 to 12) that will hopefully educate and bring about an excitement for travel and adventure in far away lands?  

Perhaps a similar post to IHEC Blog about children's television programs and movies will surface in the future (I wanted to do this over a year ago but alas time got away from me).

Photo credit: http://davidcomp.wordpress.com/

Rick Steves’ Book “Travel as a Political Act” available for only $5 for Teachers and Professors

While I was out on “vacation” last week I received an e-mail from Rick Steves (not a personal message but because I signed up to receive his updates) informing me that his new book Travel as a Political Act is available for teachers and professors for only $5. Below I have copied and pasted a small snippet of the details relating to Travel as a Political Act:

- It's eye-opening: Travel as a Political Act starts with the premise that we can't begin to understand the world without experiencing it. Travel connects people to people, it helps us fit more productively into a shrinking world, and it inspires creative new solutions to persistent problems.

- It's personal: Through his own experiences, Rick explains how anyone can travel more thoughtfully — anywhere. And he shares a series of his field reports from Europe, Central America, and the Middle East to show how travel has shaped his politics and broadened his perspective.

- It's good for you: Americans who approach travel thoughtfully — as a political act — can have the time of their lives and come home with a better understanding of the interconnectedness of today's world and just how our nation fits in.

Rick Steves has also created a special forum for teachers and professors to access to discuss how Travel as a Political Act “can be used to inspire students to develop a global perspective” which you can access here. If you are a teacher or a professor and wish to bring the concept of travel as a political act into your classroom by using this book as a classroom resource, course text book or recommended reading for students then you should visit THIS webpage to get this special offer.
Some time ago I posted to IHEC Blog about Travel as a Political Act which you can read here.
You can read more about Rick Steves social activism including many articles on developing a global perspective through travel here.

"Travel as a Political Act"

My recent research efforts on international education pointed me in a very interesting direction…to an article/interview from September 2007 (updated January 2009) in The Seattle Times with Rick Steves. I’ve been a fan of Rick Steves for many, many years and have enjoyed his shows and admire his support of PBS. In this interview, Rick Steves provides his perspective on the importance of travel as a means to mutual understanding. Here are some quotes from the interview that I found quite interesting:

“When I talk about travel as a political act I'm talking about how travel can change your perspective in a way that when you get home.”

“Establish a fund to pay for Americans all to have a free trip for six weeks, anywhere they wanted around the world upon graduation. It would be the best investment the world could ever make. Because right now an America that is threatened by, fearful of and misunderstands the rest of the world is a costly thing on this planet.”

“I'm saying if everybody traveled before they could vote, we would not be outvoted in the United Nations routinely 130 to 4. We would not go into wars alone. We would work better with the rest of the planet.”

You can read the entire interview with Rick Steves here. I anticipate many more IHEC Blog posts about Rick Steves in the future so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can visit his website here.

Americans Encouraged to Travel to Countries Previously Off Limit

I just read a great article by Mark Dillen entitled "People-to-People People" on the Foreign Policy Association, Public Diplomacy: The World Affairs Blog Network that I thought I would share with IHEC Blog readers. In his article, Dillen argues for Americans to resume travels to countries previously off limits. You can access this article here.

Let’s Go to Roll Out 26 Titles in 2009

Publishers Weekly has an interesting article on the effect the economy is having on travel publishers. According to the article, the U.S. Travel Industry Association anticipates a decrease of 3% in travel expenditures in the United States for 2009. What I found interesting is that Let’s Go plans to publish 26 titles in 2009 and feels that the student travel market, which is tied to the study abroad market, may not be affected by the economy as much as the adult and family travel markets may be affected.