LifeTracker

Self-Education By Traveling

Traveling Teaches Students in a Way Schools Can’t The Atlantic

Traveling and studying abroad can often educate young Americans in ways that the classroom cannot. To achieve lifelong lessons, it’s best to stay close to the people and not in the lap of luxury when setting out to understand how others live around the world.

Traveling to these places made me realize that the “advantages” I initially thought I had over others were not necessarily advantages to everyone. Many actually preferred living with the challenges they faced over living in a country like mine, where other things are missing. A professional I met in South America who had turned down a job offer in the United States told me, “I’d never want to move there, even though I’d make more money. The social part of life is better here, I find people happier here, and my quality of life is what matters most.” Rick Steves, the popular travel guidebook writer and television host, expressed similar thoughts in an interview with Salon when he said, “It’s a very powerful Eureka! moment when you’re traveling: to realize that people don’t have the American dream. They’ve got their own dream. And that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing.”

Married Once Do It Again

Marriage is in decline in America, as it is in much of the developed world. Pew Research reports that the share of all adults who have married once has fallen from 85% in 1960 to 70% in 2013.

One interesting factoid in this trend is the willingness of divorced or widowed adults to remarry. About 57% of this population does remarry, a similar number to 50 years ago.

There is a gender gap in attitudes about remarriage, and it’s not what you might expect.

There are definite gender differences on this question: Most currently divorced or widowed men are open to the idea of remarriage, but women in the same circumstances are less likely to be open to the idea. Among previously married men, 65% either want to remarry or are not sure; 30% say that they don’t want to remarry. Among women who are currently divorced or widowed, only 43% say they may want to remarry, while 54% say they are not interested.

It’s older people who are remarrying. Among those ages 25 to 34, 43% had remarried in 2013, compared with 75% in 1960.

8% of newly married adults have at least one partner marrying for the third time. And men do remarry younger women.