When the World Is Your Classroom: Holy Cross Sociologist Talks About the Emerging Trend of Worldschooling

Jennie Germann Molz, professor in the sociology and anthropology department at the College of the Holy Cross, recently spoke to Business Destinations about the emerging trend of "worldschooling," an issue she's been researching extensively for an upcoming book.

"Even by the time I started studying the phenomenon in 2014, the term was not very common," said Germann Molz. "Parents referred to what they were doing as ‘travel schooling’ or 'roadschooling' or 'families on the move'."

This small but growing alternative education and lifestyle practice, adopted by families who take their children out of conventional school settings and educate them while traveling the world, doesn’t come without its challenges, according to Germann Molz.

"It can be a bit more difficult for worldschooling teens to find a peer group, to assert their independence from their parents, to venture into the world of dating, or do some of the other kinds of identity work that kids do at this age when they are constantly on the move with their parents," said Germann Molz. Even so, studies show that that travelling can be very beneficial overall.

Germann Molz, whose research focuses on the intersections of tourism mobilities, mobile and social networking technologies, and emerging forms of togetherness, has been teaching a number of courses at Holy Cross on social theory, travel and tourism and global citizenship.

You can read the full article at BusinessDestinations.com.