I have just returned from an excursion to Vietnam, which as a teacher was one of the most fulfilling experiences ever. It’s hard to reflect on it without sounding trite and cliched but it was amazing. We embarked on an intense 12-day trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and explored the geographical, historical and cultural aspects of life in this exciting, rapidly developing and densely populated country. I travelled with a fantastic colleague and eleven 15-17 year olds and it was amazing to experience the thrills of international travel with students who were enthralled and, at times, overwhelmed by the sensory overload that accompanies travel to a very different place. It is interesting that coming from a huge country with a small population such as Australia, students were incredulous at the sheer energy and density of people in major cities like Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. The trip was organised to gather primary source material on the Vietnam War and Ho Chi Minh, which together make up 50% of our Modern History course. The students were able to appreciate the multiplicity of perspectives involved in historical research in a way that I think is simply impossible within the confines of the classroom. We went to war memorials that represented the “American” War from a Vietnamese perspective, the Cu Chi tunnels complex, the My Lai massacre site and students discussed with Vietnamese students how they perceived the “father of Vietnamese independence”, Ho Chi Minh. They were able to contextualise events that from Australia seemed foreign and a long time ago. The realities and long-term consequences of war were brought home to them and a number said that they “finally got” what empathy means.

The planning that is involved in such a trip seems minor when you look at the level of learning that takes place by simply immersing students in the sights, smells and feelings that travel brings. We completed a group blog along the way and documented the trip so that parents and others in the school community could in a virtual sense, come along with us. You can check it out here. This was a wonderful way to record in a collaborative and multimedia way what was, quite literally, the trip of a lifetime.