In the traditional concept of many Chinese people, raising children is endless worrying and suffering. Although today’s economic conditions are better, many families believe that travel is a necessary part of family life, but many parents are still reluctant to take their children on trips, for reasons such as spending a lot of energy and financial resources to plan a good trip for the whole family, the results of the bear child lying in the street to play muddy, pull can not pull away, parents to where they have to carry a large bag of children’s household goods, covered in sweat. Before talking about why travel with children, let’s talk about why many parents are reluctant to take their children on a trip. According to my observation and understanding, the reason is very straightforward, there are roughly the following kinds: 1, can not remember. Children are too small, see what can not remember, go to also go, a waste of money and energy; 2, dangerous. Children love to go out sick, not safe in unfamiliar places, eat not used to play bad; 3, trouble. Go out with a lot of children’s things, adults have to take care of the child, too tired to play with the child, not enjoyable. Well, let’s see if these reasons are tenable. First of all, the first “go to the white go” statement, the most common. Not only the older generation of parents, but also many of my young friends around me, also have the same idea. But, like the core problem of Chinese homeschooling, these are the thoughts of parents, not the feelings and needs of their children. I am especially afraid of parents’ “usefulness” theory. For example, playing the piano is useful, playing sand is useless, learning hockey is useful, hide-and-seek is useless, tutorial classes are useful, playing house is useless, playing Go is useful, playing blocks is useless …… along the lines of the theory of usefulness, travel, is blind play, not only can not test, nor certificates, not only can not add points, and can not be considered a specialty. Also can not be considered a specialty, of course, is useless, it is not worth spending time and energy. In the process of growing up, the child’s knowledge of language, mathematics and English, piano, art and gymnastics skills, these are hard work; character, sentiment, vision, psychology, etc., is the soft power. Just like a computer, the hardware is important, but the core competitiveness is actually the software. Soft power, is the most important, the most core, the most can affect the development, the most can create a happy life of key factors. I have a high school classmate, good family, good character, after graduating from college, stay in his hometown to work. After a few years, he was eager to go to the south to make a breakthrough, but repeatedly could not make it. Later, I heard that the biggest reason he did not dare to go to the south, it turned out that he had never left his hometown and was afraid to take the train alone. I don’t want to say absolutely that his fate was confined by not traveling as a child. But if he had traveled, at least he would not have been afraid to take the train, not to be afraid of the unfamiliar environment, not to lose the courage to change his life because of the fear. Yes, this is the second reason that bothers parents, the danger. When you travel, there will be accidents and risks. There will be meals you’re not used to eating, shuttles you can’t wait for, bumps and bruises, even illnesses and stitches …… but isn’t that what travel is all about? Don’t we want to make our children stronger, don’t we want them to be able to handle difficulties, don’t we want them to grow up in maturity? Travel, is such an irreplaceable growth course. Almost all parents, after traveling with their children, will find that within a short period of time, the child has changed a lot – this, that is the charm and magic of travel. Finally, for parents who are too much trouble, I would like to say that travel is the best time to strengthen family cohesion. Usually, work is busy, mood is poor, no time for family and children. And how sweet and pleasant it is to have a complete time with your family now, without the ties of work. Of course, if in the middle of the trip, but also constantly check the e-mail back, open a conference call to send a weibo, then indeed will be too much child trouble, too much child annoyance. This shows that the problem with family travel is the adults, not the children. It is the mindset and practices of parents that need to be changed. Three reasons for not wanting to travel with children, analysis here. Next, let’s talk about the benefits of traveling with children, where exactly and how great it really is. In my opinion, it can be divided into three lessons. Lesson 1: Diverse Values I know that when it comes to the benefits of travel, many people will mention exercising their children’s independence and autonomy, learning about multiple cultures, and so on. Indeed, these are all benefits of traveling with children. But what I want to talk about is something else. That is the establishment of the child’s multiple values. In my opinion, there is a particularly big enemy that we need to eliminate in our life. Its name is “narrow-mindedness”. Narrow-mindedness, for a country, will cause a closed country; for a nation, will cause the night; for a person, will cause self-righteousness. The result of these three levels is backwardness, arrogance, and ignorance. Remember Lu Xun in the portrait of the country’s “A Q Zhengzhuan”, is this vivid description of narrow-mindedness: “with three feet three inches wide wooden board made of stool, not Zhuang people called ‘bench’, he also called ‘bench’, but the city people called ‘bar stool’, he thought: this is wrong, ridiculous! Pan-fried fish, not Zhuang are added half-inch long onion leaves, but the city but add finely shredded onion, he thought: this is also wrong, ridiculous! Yet the people of Wuzhuang are ridiculous country people who have never seen the fried fish in the city!” I think, from the big religious conflicts, national strife, ethnic hatred, to the small neighborhood disputes, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fights, many of them are related to their respective narrow values. If each of us could fry fish, shred scallions and sit on stools as we like, there would be peace in the world and prosperity in the country. So, how do you get your children to have multiple values? One is to read, and the other is to travel. Read ten thousand books, can not die reading, that is dull; travel ten thousand miles, also can not travel in vain, that is a peddler. Reading, to learn to think, travel, but also to travel in depth. The combination of the two will really work. The second lesson, diverse worldview lesson Travel, is one of the best and most intuitive way to see the real world, the real life. Often times, what we take for granted and are used to, is not really how it is naturally meant to be. Travel is to let us know what the mountains are like, what the water is like, what the houses are like, what the people are like ……. The most crucial thing is what life is like there. When I was a reporter in Guangzhou, I once went to the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong, just a couple of hundred kilometers from Guangzhou. What I can’t imagine is that the children there, there is no pair of shoes to wear in winter, but also to walk more than ten kilometers to school every day. This is part of the real world. Similarly, in the early morning in the German countryside, you can see a white-haired old man under a thick rose arcade, holding a thick book in his hand to read; in Nepal, you can see people living in simple and plain clothes, get up every morning, with a satisfied smile, to worship God and pray; in Japan, you can correct your watch according to the time the train arrives; in France, you may also have booked a driver that An hour late, but also gentle with you to say do not rush; in Thailand, the child will seriously ask you, the siren is to go to the men’s or women’s toilet; in Paris, you will see while drinking coffee and chatting while striking the flight attendants …… These, is the real life of different regions, different beliefs, different cultures, different customs people. These, all the first-hand, first-hand, from each other’s movements, each other’s eyes, each other’s inner communication, can not be experienced at home. The third lesson, the lesson of multiple perspectives on life, is that travel also makes one aware of the diversity of life forms and the endless possibilities of life. The preciousness of life lies in its diversity, in its endless possibilities. There are hundreds of millions of forms of living things, just ants have more than 15,000 species, and human life, in just a few decades, should also have infinite possibilities. Going on a trip is the best way to know this secret of life. Many people, in the midst of travel, found the true meaning of life, looking for their own soul belongs. I like Peter Mayer’s trip from New York to Provence, later, he changed the course of his life, and his wife and two dogs live here in seclusion; I like Hesse’s trip in southern Switzerland, later, he settled in the small village of Ticino, the countryside in a corner, but wrote the words that affect the world; I also like Goethe’s travels in Germany’s Thuringia forest area, in the top of the Kerkelheim mountain hunting on the walls of small wooden buildings, painted I also like Goethe’s “Song of the Wanderer,” a legendary masterpiece that he painted on the walls of a small wooden building on top of the Kirkleheim Mountain during his travels in the Thuringia forest region of Germany. There is good, there is bad, there is familiar, there is strange, there is understanding, there is confusion. Any place has its beauty and ugliness; just as any person has its loveliness and shortcomings. I believe that few people at the foot of the magnificent snow-capped mountains, will not feel the greatness of nature, the smallness of life; and few people, after opening their eyes and growing their chests, will be calculating, jealousy. When a person, after knowing the different ways to live life, will not become a machine that only makes money, will not only think that a certain way of life is the best, will not only listen to a voice, will not only do what others tell him to do …… that is, he began to become a person with their own thinking, have their own opinions, have their own dignity, have their own pursuit. He starts to become a new person with his own thinking, his own opinion, his own dignity, and his own pursuit. When a person sees various kinds of life during his journey, he will naturally think about why others live this way and how I should live myself. The combination of travel encounters and inner thoughts brightens the eyes, fills the spirit, experiences life, and changes life – this is the greatest meaning of travel.