International trip for 5th graders?

[Anonymous]

Background: our school is doing a very large, 2-week international trip during the school year for 5th graders this year. The positives of a great international experience are obvious, so I will only lay out the negative from conversations with other parents surrounding the topic.
-The trip is very expensive and several small fund raisers are being planned, although the first payment was already due last month before those began.
-The trip was open to the whole grade but about 2/3 of the class declined.
- Parents who declined seemed to be in one of 2 camps: either they were not terribly pleased with the idea of sending kids on a huge international trip without parents at age 10 or 11, or they are worried about finances.
-It has already begun to cause tension between the children who are and who are not going.
-This is happening in the school year and disrupting the year for both the students who go and those who cannot.

Questions for schools who have done this type of thing:
1. Do any other schools do large international trips at such a young age? If not, what age does the school do trips?
2. Does your school do international trips during the school year?
3. How do they handle the kids who won't be able to go? It is inevitable that some won't be able to go, but does it always have to come down to the haves and have-nots?
4. Do they do huge amounts of fundraising?
5. If so, when do they start fundraising and how do they raise huge sums of money ($3500 per child in 6 or 7 months)?

I know it's DCUM and it'll be very difficult, but please, please, please let's try out best to leave school bashing out of this. I'm just looking to see how other schools do it and if our school is an out-lier on this.

[Anonymous]

That sounds awesome. Hope the trip succeeds.

[Anonymous]

Hi--
I taught 5th and 6th grade for 15 years. I'm now a principal in Fairfax County. The furthest I ever went was Philadelphia. I have never heard of an elementary grades going out of the country.

The earliest that this might happen is 8th grade.

I'm also a mom of a sixth grader. I would not support a trip like this at this age. I would prefer to save our money and plan a family trip.

[Anonymous]

I would be delighted for my child to have such an opportunity! If I didn't think it was a good idea for him/her to go then I wouldn't send him/her. Parents have to make decisions about their child and take responsibility for those decisions. It's not the school's problem: it's your problem. Either you want him/her to go or you don't. Then own it and explain to your kid why he/she is or isn't going. That's reality.

[Anonymous]

PS: This trip has been part of the plan since the school's inception. Also, you're incorrect that 2/3 of the families declined.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't Stokes do an international trip for sixth graders? That's their top grade of course. Don't know how they finance it.

[Anonymous]

PS: 10:17- the trip was planned for 8th graders since inception, not for 5th graders. That is a new twist that was put on us just a few months ago. The 8th grade trip is/was enthusiastically supported by parents. A 5th grade trip is a head-scratcher and parents I know in 3rd and 4th grades are also beginning to worry about this for the future. I know for a fact that the trip was one of the deciding factors for at least 1 family with whom we are friends to pull their child out of the school entirely. For our DC's sake I hope the trip happens, but I just learned of two more families pulling out of the trip and a couple leaving the class entirely (I don't know if it is related).
If less than 15 kids go then we need to look at the reasons for that. There are more lower SES students in the 5th grade. Maybe that won't be a problem going forward, but maybe there are other issues?

Back to the topic at hand: how DO other schools do it and how do they do it with 10 and 11 year olds? I can't even imagine managing a group of 'tweens for two weeks abroad! Any Stokes parents with advice?

[Anonymous]

I think this is to distract 5th grade parents that middle school starts in one year and there has been no thoughtful planning on the project.

Fake it 'til you make it Yu Ying!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The positives of a great international experience are obvious

True, but I have to wonder whether 5th graders traveling as a group are going to have the kind of great international experience I would wish for my kids.

Our county (in a state over 500 miles away) organized a 5th-grade trip to...Washington, D.C. It was a fun experience, but so much of what we experienced had more to do with travel, period, and being with our peers for hours and hours, than with D.C. specifically. I remember that many kids bought whoopee cushions from the souvenir carts. I remember being excited to eat at a non-school cafeteria and getting to pick my own food. I remember the endless drama going on about who was rooming with whom. I don't really remember that much about D.C. from that trip, other than vague memories of being in front of the capital for a photo and being at the Smithsonian Museum of American History (and wondering where the chaperone for our little group had gone).

So, my questions would be, how great is the international trip going to be? And not just the list of things the kids are going to go see, but really, what are they going to get out of it? From my experience, I think a 5th grader could get a ton out of international travel with his or her family. But I have a hard time a school trip is going to be that productive. I'd really need to be sold on the benefits.

[Anonymous]

I'm wrestling with this idea, too. How much can a 10 year old really get on a tourist-level trip while in a group of other 10-11 year olds. The decision for us is more than "why not go?" because of the expense.

[Anonymous]

I used to be a trip leader for a well-known travel organization. I lead international (and some domestic) trips for 5th and 6th graders. Of course, this was in the summer so the aspect of missing school was not an issue.

In my experience, almost all of the kids really enjoy the trip. A few really get a lot out of it. But if you're going to spend that kind of money, I would wait until middle school at least. At 5th and 6th grade, the majority of kids just don't get a meaningful sense of international travel. They would have just as much fun at summer camp or something more local (and less expensive!). I'll never forget the time we were snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, and I found one of the kids inside the boat playing GameBoy. That's what his parents sent him halfway around the world to experience? Somehow I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a bad idea for a public or charter school, *if* the parents/guardians are expected to come up with funding.

It's one thing to ask for $75 to go to Philly to NYC because that's reasonably nominal and/or the school can pick up the tab for those who need help financially. But to say "Hey, we've got this expensive trip and some of you can afford it and others definitely can't, so who's coming!?! We'll talk about it all year and your child will be keenly aware if they're part of the awesome hype or totally left out!" seems short-sighted, insensitive, and a little cruel.

I think the socially negative implications out-weight the positives. Let the parents who can afford it do it anyway. I'd be disappointed in my public/charter charter school for sponsoring something like this.

[Anonymous]

This would be a big fat no for us -- I have a soon to be 6th grader and a soon to be 5th grader in DCPS.

We travel internationally with them all the time -- which we don't do DURING the school year. The cost is ridiculous to ask parents to cough up. Don't start about the fundraisers, because that is a lot of pressure on parents too. Plus having gone on the 5th grade field trips which require buses only -- can't imagine a plane full of them or a hotel full of them.

I would consider older kid, maybe 8th grade? But then I don't even know if the cost is worth the "benefit."

[Anonymous]

so don't go. sheesh. people are so unbelievably petty. its an INTERNATIONAL school!! And if someone pulls their kid "because of the trip" I call bullshit. They wanted to leave anyway and just found something to pin it on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PS: 10:17- the trip was planned for 8th graders since inception, not for 5th graders. That is a new twist that was put on us just a few months ago. The 8th grade trip is/was enthusiastically supported by parents. A 5th grade trip is a head-scratcher and parents I know in 3rd and 4th grades are also beginning to worry about this for the future. I know for a fact that the trip was one of the deciding factors for at least 1 family with whom we are friends to pull their child out of the school entirely. For our DC's sake I hope the trip happens, but I just learned of two more families pulling out of the trip and a couple leaving the class entirely (I don't know if it is related).
If less than 15 kids go then we need to look at the reasons for that. There are more lower SES students in the 5th grade. Maybe that won't be a problem going forward, but maybe there are other issues?

Back to the topic at hand: how DO other schools do it and how do they do it with 10 and 11 year olds? I can't even imagine managing a group of 'tweens for two weeks abroad! Any Stokes parents with advice?

Actually you're wrong. At our very first orientation they said fifth grade. I really don't get why you think you speak for the class parents--you don't. Bet you haven't been a part of ANY of the fundraising efforts and planning meetings either---have you??? Just another crab in the bucket.