Oddest school field trips?

[Anonymous]

Raised in a small town, one field trip was to a local business that had a train set up in the basement, the business was a funeral home….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP. This was mid 1980s and my school was about 2 hours from Richmond.
My own kid went to a sewage treatment plant, and given the choice, I’d rather see cigarettes.

Northern VA here. We also went to a sewage treatment plant, locally. I think it had something to do with chemistry??? (It was in high school, early ‘90s.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We took a field trip to a juvenile detention center when I was a 7th grader in Alabama!! I don't know if they were trying to scare us straight, but between that and our abstinence education, I'm SO glad we moved to DC the next year!

We went on the same field trip when I was in middle school in NJ! I can still remember the terror I felt when they “locked” us in one of the cells.

[Anonymous]

Sewage treatment plant isn’t odd. It’s very educational to understand how municipal waste water works.

[Anonymous]

I went to Catholic elementary school in the 80's. The only field trip I remember was to the nun's chapel, which was in the parish building next to the school. We walked there. We received a rosary and instructions on how to pray with it.

[Anonymous]

This field trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PToqVW4n86U

[Anonymous]

My kids go to SSSAS and in first grade they both went to the sewage treatment plant off of 295 for social studies as part of the curriculum about how to design a city and infrastructure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This field trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PToqVW4n86U

My friend's son (who is AA) had a class go on a field trip to pick cotton, he is 34ish right now. My friend did not allow her son to go. It was a predominantly white school.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax county kid.

All the DC museums/Smithsonian (Natural History, Art, Air & space, etc.), Mt Vernon, Gunston Hall, Jamestown, Gettysburg, etc.

Can't recall anything strange.

[Anonymous]

My FCPS teens wish they’d gone on a strange field trip or two. Basically, they went to Huntley Meadows Park repeatedly. It’s a running joke in the family now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax county kid.

All the DC museums/Smithsonian (Natural History, Art, Air & space, etc.), Mt Vernon, Gunston Hall, Jamestown, Gettysburg, etc.

Can't recall anything strange.

FCPS girl, 22152, grades 2-12, 1976-1987:

- Boarded school bus (I think) to visit a classmate’s working farm! We got to see the barn, the old outhouse and feed chickens. 1976

- my mom hosted the last day of school 6th grade party in 1976 in our backyard - all 4 or 5 classes and teachers walked to and from the school for an all-day picnic! No buses, no chaperones. This was for my older sibling.

- My own 6th grade party/field trip 1980 was walking across the street to the swim club where all 6th graders and teachers (and principal) hung out for a day of fun in the sun! Our teacher wore a black string bikini!

- In HS, I had some scheduling snafu and missed the bus for my elective class field trip to the DC Convention Center. I remember somehow finding my male teacher and being upset to distraught that I’d missed the bus. He ended up driving me downtown in his sedan - yep, just the two of us - but I returned with my classmates on the bus. No phone call home, no checking in with anyone, we just walked out together to the parking lot and away we went!

[Anonymous]

I grew up in California but we went on a big pirate-like ship and the captain made us ask for permission to come on the poop deck and made us all take a bite out of a raw onion to fend off scurvy.

[Anonymous]

We toured the Archway cookie factory in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax county kid.

All the DC museums/Smithsonian (Natural History, Art, Air & space, etc.), Mt Vernon, Gunston Hall, Jamestown, Gettysburg, etc.

Can't recall anything strange.

FCPS girl, 22152, grades 2-12, 1976-1987:

- Boarded school bus (I think) to visit a classmate’s working farm! We got to see the barn, the old outhouse and feed chickens. 1976

- my mom hosted the last day of school 6th grade party in 1976 in our backyard - all 4 or 5 classes and teachers walked to and from the school for an all-day picnic! No buses, no chaperones. This was for my older sibling.

- My own 6th grade party/field trip 1980 was walking across the street to the swim club where all 6th graders and teachers (and principal) hung out for a day of fun in the sun! Our teacher wore a black string bikini!

- In HS, I had some scheduling snafu and missed the bus for my elective class field trip to the DC Convention Center. I remember somehow finding my male teacher and being upset to distraught that I’d missed the bus. He ended up driving me downtown in his sedan - yep, just the two of us - but I returned with my classmates on the bus. No phone call home, no checking in with anyone, we just walked out together to the parking lot and away we went!

When I was in fifth grade, my public school classmate hosted an end of year pool party at her house. I don’t remember how we got there, but it was nearly thirty 10 and 11 year olds, our male teacher, classmate’s bikini clad mom, and zero lifeguards. Can you imagine the liability issues?? I don’t even remember how we changed clothes. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax county kid.

All the DC museums/Smithsonian (Natural History, Art, Air & space, etc.), Mt Vernon, Gunston Hall, Jamestown, Gettysburg, etc.

Can't recall anything strange.

FCPS girl, 22152, grades 2-12, 1976-1987:

- Boarded school bus (I think) to visit a classmate’s working farm! We got to see the barn, the old outhouse and feed chickens. 1976

- my mom hosted the last day of school 6th grade party in 1976 in our backyard - all 4 or 5 classes and teachers walked to and from the school for an all-day picnic! No buses, no chaperones. This was for my older sibling.

- My own 6th grade party/field trip 1980 was walking across the street to the swim club where all 6th graders and teachers (and principal) hung out for a day of fun in the sun! Our teacher wore a black string bikini!

- In HS, I had some scheduling snafu and missed the bus for my elective class field trip to the DC Convention Center. I remember somehow finding my male teacher and being upset to distraught that I’d missed the bus. He ended up driving me downtown in his sedan - yep, just the two of us - but I returned with my classmates on the bus. No phone call home, no checking in with anyone, we just walked out together to the parking lot and away we went!

When I was in fifth grade, my public school classmate hosted an end of year pool party at her house. I don’t remember how we got there, but it was nearly thirty 10 and 11 year olds, our male teacher, classmate’s bikini clad mom, and zero lifeguards. Can you imagine the liability issues?? I don’t even remember how we changed clothes. Crazy.

PP quoted and after I posted, I thought-these weren’t really strange but certainly would never be allowed in FCPS ever again.

No permission slips, no accommodations (except I was allergic to bee stings and so my military officer dad drilled holes in a plastic bottle and laced a ball bearing chain thru to make me a portable pill container w/ 2 Benadryl pills-wore that thing on every field trip), little to no supervision.

My neighborhood ES was truly that-no school buses. Everyone walked, including my beloved 2nd grade teacher. Of course it was no big deal to walk to a house in your neighborhood for the last day of school. We all knew each other.
Same with the swim club - our older siblings and neighbor kids were the lifeguards and we went there every day in the summer anyway.

Fond memory of one of my classmates being allowed to retrieve something forgotten at home DURING RECESS! He hopped the chain link fence adjacent to our baseball field, ran into his backyard and returned minutes later while the entire class stood there in awe.