No More Field Trips
by John Pearson
A few weeks ago, I sat down with one of my colleagues to try to plan for this year's third grade field trips. We realized that the term was actually a misnomer because we had been told earlier that there was no money for buses, so our "field trips" would have to come to us.
In the past, we had gone to The Science Place, the Museum of Folk History, and a large campground with plenty of activities for the kids. Of course, we had needed several school buses to take us there. Buses we could not afford this year. Furthermore, even if these places were close enough to walk to, a ban had been placed on walking field trips last year as well.
For the first four years that I taught at my school (and many years prior to that, from what I've heard), every grade would have their own day to walk down to a nearby park for a day of outdoors fun and recreation. Two years ago, while we were at that park, we were frantically called back to the school by our principal because there was an armed madman roaming the neighborhood. Nevermind the fact that the guy turned out to be in a neighborhood around 10 miles away, the damage had been done. There have been no walking field trips to that park ever since.
My fellow teachers and I have decided to have a few groups come to our school and put on presentations. Unfortunately, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were unavailable (and WAY too expensive), so we had to explore other options.
In the past, we’ve had people come in and bring Legos for a simple machines demonstration. We’ve also had a group called KidProv come in and do improvisational skits with the kids. One of those times, I was even (forceably) called out of the audience and pressed into service in one of the skits. A skit that I daresay will stick in the memory of everyone present for all time.
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Other readers' comments on this article:
Teachers are in SUCH a tough position; they want to do the best for their students, but money and numbers and social issues of the day are all such a burden! WHY does it have to be so? WHY can't we live in a perfect world, or, more realistically, a world in which kids come first?
While some families may choose homeschooling as a way to limit their children's world view, we opt to use the world as our school, providing a much broader education than our existing education structure allows. We've taken history on the road, explored science with daily hands-on activities, enjoyed literature outside the snippets provided by text books.
The real world - it's a great school.
Posted by Jen on Dec 7, 2008 2:13 am