Sometimes, the worldschooling potential of a destination is clearly evident – the educational value of historic sites, for example, is pretty obvious! If you visit a Roman ruin, you’re going to learn something about the Romans, (whether it’s about how they built, what they built, how they lived, what activities were going on at the site, or any of a hundred other things) whether you like it or not!
But sometimes, the educational value in a place is less obvious. And Disney World is one of those places! I’m not suggesting by any means, that anyone takes a “field trip” approach to Disney World – no-one needs to be making any notes or carting round a clipboard!!! But there is plenty of learning there when you start to look.
So, here’s our round up of worldschooling-y bits (very technical term there!) for each park!
MAGIC KINGDOM
Surely Magic Kingdom is just full of rides and people eating ice cream, right?! Nope!
- Number one on our list is the Carousel of Progress. It’s a clever attraction that shows several scenes, and discusses, technological development over recent history. From things like electric lightbulbs and fridges being invented, through to VR videogames, it shows how society adopted various technological innovations – not to mention it shows how American homes looked in various eras!
2. The Hall of Presidents! From photos, portraits and presidential memorabilia in the atrium at the start (including a display on the making of the attraction) which is almost like a museum – to a multi-media presentation of the history of the United States, the educational value of this one is clear! Plus, there’s a complete line up of animatronic presidents – who doesn’t want to see that?!
EPCOT
In some respects, this one speaks for itself! Walt Disney designed it to demonstrate technology and show what life could be like in the future, as well as how we live alongside the world itself.
- Number one here, as chosen by our kids, is the huge aquarium in The Seas! They love watching the sharks, rays and turtles, watching them eat, and noticing the differences between all the different fish.
2. Living with the Land – a boat ride that takes you through huge greenhouses and delves into landscapes, plant life, growing techniques and food production. There are fish farming or aquaculture tanks, hydroponics systems, and all sorts of agricultural innovations! There’s even a bit about aquaponics, showing you how fish can be incorporated and implemented in agricultural systems!
3. Spaceship Earth – a journey through the history of humanity, showing various scenes right from our early hunter gatherer days, through the Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, the Roman Empire, and the Renaissance in Europe, right up to the moon landing, the invention of computers and beyond! Its fun to see everything changing. Plus, there’s a little touchscreen quiz you can take at the end to show you what the future might look like for you!
4. The biggest, and most obvious one – World Showcase! Wandering around all the different “countries” and seeing their architecture – and potentially eating their different foods! I don’t know how accurately each country is represented, but from the ones we’ve actually visited, the “pavilions” seem pretty fair reproductions! Plus, some pavilions have street acts that represent their culture too. We love the Japanese drumming and Mariachi Band (from Japan and Mexico respectively). We’ve heard good things about the Chinese acrobats, but we’ve never managed to catch them in action though! If you manage to get round the whole lake, you’ll have seen Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the USA, Japan, Morocco, France, the UK and Canada! That’s a lot of countries at once!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
This is another fairly obvious one! I mean, you can go on an actual safari!!!
- So, number one would be Kilimanjaro Safaris! A fun jeep ride where you get to see lions, giraffes, zebras and more just going about their daily lives!
2. All the animal enclosures. You can stumble across smaller animals like flamingos by accident!
3. Wilderness Explorers! Your kids can sign up to be Wilderness Explorers, just like Russell from Up! They’ll get a little workbook, and can visit stations all around the park to learn more about the natural world, and get stickers for their efforts! It’s super cute and lots of fun! We’ve never managed to get to every station though!
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
Ok, so this one is a little more tricky! There aren’t any overtly educational things here. (Or not that we’ve found! If you know different, let me know!) However, this park has sparked so much discussion with our kids about what Disney does best – creating completely immersive environments. Particularly with the arrival of Batuu, you can completely forget that the normal world is still there, just beyond the bushes! We’ve had huge talks about how smells and sounds are added to the parks, how every tiny detail has been created by somebody – even the stuff that looks like leftover shipping containers! And how Disney cleverly manages to draw your eye, and make you focus on the “main event,” whatever that may be. For kids like ours, who want to be artists, photographers, authors and game designers, there’s some pretty big lessons about creating right there!
THE REST!
As you would get on any foreign holiday, there’s plenty of worldschooling outside of the parks too! For us, coming from the UK, the kids loved seeing a different currency, and working out what all the different coins are worth! (Plus, there’s a handy bit of maths practice converting from one currency to another to see how much things would be back home, and if their money was stretching enough!) They were intrigued by all the signs and announcements in Spanish, and tried to work out what different words meant! And the wildlife!!! Oh my goodness! They watched (and counted!) tiny lizards scurrying and hiding around the resort – not something we’re used to seeing at all! We had some sort of huge heron or crane try to steal our dropped crumbs when we ate outside – very different to the tiny sparrows that do that in the UK! And my daughter literally shrieked when we came across a wild turtle sunning itself in a pond at our resort! (There was also the time we saw a snake at Blizzard Beach, but that was whipped away pretty quickly by a cast member – but not before the kid’s jaws hit the floor!)
So, there you have it! There’s plenty to learn at Walt Disney World, without even trying! (Not that you needed an excuse to go or anything!) Happy travels!
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A Different Way To Go 