Off To Explore A World Of Learning

By Eliza Hallabeck

Resident Carole Brown has a philosophy, and this fall it will be put to the test. Ms Brown and her family will be taking a trip around the world to learn from people.

“We had a dream that has been sort of bubbling in the back of our minds since the boys were born,” said Ms Brown.

Ms Brown and husband Jim Brown’s twin sons Canaan and Colby are graduating seniors at Newtown High School. On September 1 the family will be leaving for their journey, and will be returning in June 2011.

“My boys, they are going to get a taste of my thinking,” said Ms Brown.

Friends and family can follow the Browns’ preparations and travels through a blog on TravelPod.com. The website, which can be found by going to www.travelpod.com and searching for “Carole Brown” in the Find Travelers search box, has already been updated with details about the trip.

A June 14 entry marked that with graduation just three days way, it was time to get serious.

As Ms Brown explains on the blog, the plan is to travel, meet people, and connect with young people all over the world. The “Sit On The Stoop” trip will bring the family to England, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Austria, Jordan, India, China, Australia, and other countries.

“We will start in Europe where we will first reconnect and spend special time with our nannies of years past,” Ms Brown wrote on the blog. “Some of them haven’t seen the boys since they were three months old, and now [the former nannies] have sweet babies of their own.”

Ms Brown said one highlight will be spending Christmas in Prague, Czech Republic.

Ms Brown, an attorney with her own practice, said she has always loved the idea of connecting with people. After attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. Mr Brown is a senior computer consultant with the Informatica Corporation.

The family also hosted Newtown High School Chinese exchange teacher Ding Hong during the 2009-2010 school, as highlighted in the June 11 edition of The Bee. (According to NHS Assistant Principal Jason Hiruo, two local families are working to finalize plans to host Mr Ding for next school year, since the Browns will be out of the country.)

“If Americans took the time to too see eye to eye, heart to heart, with different people all over the world, we would have a far better chance for peace, understanding, and greater joy in the world,” said Ms Brown.

She sees young people as the future, and promoting global understanding for them is where to start.

“The idea I would like to pursue is chatting with a young person,” she said, “and asking, who inspires you? What are your dreams?”

America, Ms Brown said, is obsessed with pop culture and its own instant gratification, and this hinders the country from looking outward. While watching the national nightly news, Ms Brown despairs that coverage drifts quickly to topics like the recent Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien flap.

“Do I have to be assaulted with this as news?” Ms Brown said.

As a citizen of the world, she asked, why she has to dig online for incredible stories. Because pop culture rules, she answered.

“I want to know more,” said Ms Brown. “I want my kids to sit next to a foreigner and find out what motivates their lives.”

On the blog Ms Brown wrote, “Our objective is to meet young people and students all over the world to get to know them better, to learn about their lives, and to exchange ideas about the many challenges our countries face moving into the future.”

Canaan and Colby, according to the blog, will be working on their own independent research projects during the trip also.

When the family returns home, the twins have plans to attend college. Ms Brown said Canaan plans to attend Emerson University in Boston and hopes to be a writer, and Colby plans to attend Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., to become an environmental engineer.

While away the family’s house will be rented out.

“The thing that strikes me, the question that plagues me, is why do people hate Americans?” said Ms Brown.

Catching people while they are young, she said, could mean hope in intercepting hate messages.

“I want my kids to be exposed to other people, other lives, other dreams,” she said.