Global Action/World Challenge

[Amber]

Yes your child may "grow" from the experience (but they will just leaving home and going to uni) but don't kid yourself that the receiving country is getting much out of it.

And from holding down a job, getting stuck in to some housework and cooking at home on a regular basis, gardening, or, as you say, organising a hiking trip to Wales. A university admissions tutor was asked about gap years and said he was hugely in favour as long as they didn't involve 'finding your true self on a beach in Bali on the bank of Mum and Dad, or building a school in South America and coming back thinking you had saved the world'. Holding down an actual job, especially a fairly menial one as they tend to be, or doing some hardcore, sustained volunteering with elderly, disabled or disadvantaged people, speaks far more for a person and also might make them grow out towards the light, rather than inwards to their own self-centred core.

[kenyancowgirl]

Indeed!

[wildwest]

We are not yet at that stage with our dc. But I wonder why the schools encourage such things? Learning about yourself is a life-long journey and dare I say, I still am 'learning about myself'! There are 3 aspects to this, as I can see it.
1. DC doing some good to the world: When there is so much good that needs to be done where you are, why look to do it further afield?
2. learning to survive without parental support: Again, as we said, this will have to be the case, when they begin Uni.
3. to have something to talk about in their interview, which they own: I do think this is an important aspect in any interview. But it doesn't have to be charity in a different continent. It can b any such activity, that they have done enough to be able to 'own' it and get a sense of pride from it.

Until the educational institutions don't give a good perspective about it, the students and parents won't stop it and until some begin to stop and take a different view on it, the change can't be sustained.

[scary mum]

The (profit making, as I mentioned above) have very good sales pitches.

[Amber]

I wonder why the schools encourage such things?

Most of them don't, to be honest. There are big commercial companies driving it with fancy marketing and slick brochures, but I don't think too many schools get involved. Someone tried to get it off the ground at DS's school but there was insufficient interest. The ones that do probably are driven by staff who fancy a nice exotic holiday themselves and their places are paid for by the children signing up.

Cross posted with scary.

[loobylou]

I also think that this doesn't add much value and I'm sure universities are used to a certain demographic accessing these types of things and hopefully they therefore take such experiences with a pinch of salt.
Having said that, I myself, at the end of an enforced "gap year" (needed to resit my A levels) went to a LEDC for a month to "volunteer" (and I did fund this myself). With the benefit of hindsight I can see that we may have done more harm than good (and even at the time, I was sceptical about the "good" I was doing). However at the time the benefits to me, as a very naive teenager growing up in an area where I had only ever seen one non-WASP in my life, were incalculable. I see that experience as quite a defining moment in pushing my politics and opinions in a certain direction.
However I don't think that's a good enough reason to do it and I think the world is very different from how it was 28 years ago when I went. I think there is much more exposure to poverty and much more understanding now than maybe there was then (or maybe just than there was in my village!) I would not want my children to do it but I think there are ways we can actively try and show them different aspects of the world (and in any case my daughter has read all of J K Rowling's writings on this https://www.upworthy.com/jk-rowling-exp ... d-for-kids" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ).
Unfortunately I think some people don't want to volunteer etc unless it's in a context that has some perceived "glamour" attached to it.

[Eccentric]

You lot are awesome. Thank you all for your wise words. No guilt left and I will be back to encouraging a nice celebratory holiday with her friends at the end of GCSEs. They were thinking of going backpacking in Sweden. Apparently in their wisdom the school organised a school exchange with Swedish students to an all girls school many of whom were ‘fit’ boys so Sweden has been top of the holiday destination list ever since.

[Amber]

You lot are awesome. Thank you all for your wise words. No guilt left and I will be back to encouraging a nice celebratory holiday with her friends at the end of GCSEs. They were thinking of going backpacking in Sweden. Apparently in their wisdom the school organised a school exchange with Swedish students to an all girls school many of whom were ‘fit’ boys so Sweden has been top of the holiday destination list ever since.

There could be no wiser choice than Sweden - my favourite country by miles. They will need to start saving now though if they want to eat any actual food when they are there.

NB - if they want the truly awesome (in the proper sense of the word) scenery they ought to go to Norway too. The chaps are pretty fit there as well.

NB2 - as I recall your daughter is rather thoughtful and mature. I am sure you could introduce her to some of the concepts outlined in this thread. You might have a future activist on your hands.

[anotherdad]

I wonder why the schools encourage such things?

Prospectuses, open days and websites. Photos of their students trekking across the Andes, dancing in India or working with children in a less-developed country go down very well with middle-class parents looking for those little extra things to justify all their tiger-parenting. It's a logical extension of the Van der Graaf generator, the oscilloscope and the copper sulphate solution in a conical flask which are the usual props taken out of the cupboard annually, dusted off and placed prominently in the science lab on open evenings.

"Do you want your child to experience geological surveys in the Icelandic tundra (look at the shiny samples they brought back!), or would you rather they went to the school down the road where I'm sure there's great value in counting pebbles in Prestatyn in February?"

[Amber]

Do you want your child to experience geological surveys in the Icelandic tundra

Be careful or I shall recount again in sordid detail my experiences on a family holiday to Iceland when we encountered several UK school parties, none of whom appeared to be making the most of the visit unless you count posting endless pouting selfies on social media, moaning about the cold, moaning even more about being got out of bed to look at the Northern Lights, and charging round a hotel totally out of control and scantily clad. I asked for the name of the school in one case (my 13 year old son became the object of some unwanted attention, and a group of Icelandic teenagers literally went and hid!) when I was threatening to call the Head teacher and it was a very expensive girls' school in London.