I had an interesting conversation with a good friend about the "criticisms" I have gotten about the trip to NZ. The main concern I have heard is that I could go anywhere I wanted to go to study experiential education (read: you could do it here). My friend Paul, who I think is wise in many ways, thought it best to think about the trip, the sabbatical, as an enrichment beyond the educational piece. It is also an enrichment of your life. Just living in a culture that is different enough to be challenging will help me to be a better teacher, and person, especially as I get an opportunity to visit different schools. As I have been telling others about my sense of the sabbatical program at Peddie, one of its designed purposes is to give a teacher the chance to be more purposefully introspective about who they are and what they do as teachers. Additionally, NZCER will be tremendously helpful in focusing the direction of my research, maybe more than any other group with which I could spend time. It is really a matter of perspective, hence the picture.
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