Why are the field trips so underwhelming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the moms who are ready to take on this task:

Why?
What do you think is a good field trip and why?
Why do you think they are important?

This is a serious question.

What do you expect the kids to get out of the field trip?

Speaking for myself I have pretty strong memories of field trips growing up and I think they are a valuable part of a well rounded public education.

Teachers’ points about some things that cannot be outsourced are noted. It still seems hard to believe ALL the work for organizing them has to be done by the teacher directly and none of it can be outsourced. While yes the teacher is liable for it being right having someone else pull info together that is then reviewed by the teacher still seems like it would save them a lot of the prep time.

Nostalgia is a good reason?
What are the field trips you remember? What do you remember about them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the moms who are ready to take on this task:

Why?
What do you think is a good field trip and why?
Why do you think they are important?

This is a serious question.

What do you expect the kids to get out of the field trip?

Speaking for myself I have pretty strong memories of field trips growing up and I think they are a valuable part of a well rounded public education.

Teachers’ points about some things that cannot be outsourced are noted. It still seems hard to believe ALL the work for organizing them has to be done by the teacher directly and none of it can be outsourced. While yes the teacher is liable for it being right having someone else pull info together that is then reviewed by the teacher still seems like it would save them a lot of the prep time.

Teacher here, and I’m going to be honest with you: collaborating with parents would be just as much as doing it myself.

And most of us have fond memories of field trips, but this is a different era. Teachers take on more liability with less support now. I’ve had to discipline chaperones! I’ve learned I can’t trust adults to do the right thing and that some consider field trips nothing more than a fun excursion for themselves.

I’m barely hanging on at work as it is. I can’t take on an ounce more because I may break. And if I break, there’s another classroom going to a long-term sub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are times I feel like that person…

Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had maybe one field trip a year and that was it. I don’t remember any in MS or HS. Field trips are not a necessity, they can be fun and educational but they are not mandatory.

Plenty of schools don’t have enough money to fund field trips and they don’t have PTAs that can run fund raising to provide field trips and after school activities. The PTA cannot do the paperwork associated with the field trip, that paperwork ends up being the backbone for any liability that might arise from the trip. Teachers are over worked as it is, adding on extra things is a lot. Kids behavior has gone downhill which makes field trips even more of a nightmare, do you think it is fun to watch the kids who are nightmares at school at a museum? Or Cox farm? Or any other location?

In my experience title 1 schools have enough funds but not enough manpower. These are the kids who need it the most. Make it happen if you can or advocate for it if you can’t

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:After having three kids go on the Jamestown field trip in 4th grade, I can honestly say that trip is a complete waste of time. It takes three hours there and three hours back, leaving only a small window to actually see the site. Everything is so rushed, it's absurd. The only way to make that trip really work is to do an overnight.

Our school used todo an overnight. Geriatric principal nixed it. He and granny AP need to go. We need to oust boomer administrators.

How much extra will the teachers be paid for an overnight? I’m a single parent teacher and wouldn’t be able to do an overnight even if I wanted to. I don’t have anyone else to watch my child.

I don’t think many posters are wondering about the impact these trips have on teachers.

I’ve chaperoned several overnight trips. I’ve never been paid extra for being at work 18 hour days and on call 24 hours. In two cases, I even had to pay for my own hotel room and entrance tickets. This was on top of paying for childcare back home so I could chaperone in the first place.

I have a colleague who organizes field trips for her students, but they would probably be deemed “underwhelming” by most of the people posting here. They still require a lot of extra effort and funding which I know she contributes to herself. I hope she never sees this thread.

Exactly. Field trips take a tremendous toll on teachers, who are ultimately responsible for all of the paperwork and all of the details. Every field trip I’ve organized has cost me time or my own money.

This is a discouraging thread. I appreciate that parents want these experiences for their children, but they aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes that keeps overburdened, overworked teachers from taking on even more work.

And ultimately, most trips would be better as family trips without the stress of returning to a school at a certain time or having to find a place to feed 100 students.

Give it a rest already. Simple field trips are part of curriculum and parents have a right to expect them.
Not overnight, yes.

Um No "right."

Yeah, I caught that word, too.

Sorry, parent. I’m no longer doing field trips as part of my class. They aren’t required by my curriculum. They were always additional work that I placed on myself. Those days are over. I’m simply focusing on keeping my head above water now.

Ask PTA for help. I am sorry you have a shitty job but it’s sad how parents are accepting that their kids are getting shorted.

But are they getting shorted? Is the experience worth 2.5 hours on a bus to be at the location for an hour?

And while I appreciate the PTA’s offer, the simple truth is the work still falls on me: the paperwork, the forms, the aggravations. I’m also responsible for students’ and chaperones’ behavior.

I suspect many of us aren’t debating between field trips and no field trips. We’re debating between staying at this job and quitting.

Maybe it’s best if teachers all quit, maybe that would put a damper on the rapid erosion of public education. Or maybe we would end up with Ed tech farms with babysitters, who knows

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are times I feel like that person…

Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had maybe one field trip a year and that was it. I don’t remember any in MS or HS. Field trips are not a necessity, they can be fun and educational but they are not mandatory.

Plenty of schools don’t have enough money to fund field trips and they don’t have PTAs that can run fund raising to provide field trips and after school activities. The PTA cannot do the paperwork associated with the field trip, that paperwork ends up being the backbone for any liability that might arise from the trip. Teachers are over worked as it is, adding on extra things is a lot. Kids behavior has gone downhill which makes field trips even more of a nightmare, do you think it is fun to watch the kids who are nightmares at school at a museum? Or Cox farm? Or any other location?

In my experience title 1 schools have enough funds but not enough manpower. These are the kids who need it the most. Make it happen if you can or advocate for it if you can’t

So you want the people who are already burdened and overextended… to give more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

Who's doing all the planning for the Lewis program trips? If your experience is the norm, then there's no way the teacher over there is planning dozens of field trips every year by herself. And as far as I know I'm fairly certain she is the sole teacher in the program. Have they centralized all the paperwork to admin? Seems like the process is inconsistent across FCPS.

They have a program coordinator. That person doesn't teach classes and organizes all the field trips.

This is how it should be. When I was essentially a volunteer coordinator i was told it’s impossible to create this position as a paid one (I didn’t want it but I wanted continuity).
Well guess what I guess where there is a will there is a way? Or maybe it depends on the district (I wasn’t at FCPS)

[Anonymous]

Only field trips that use fcps buses are confined by certain hours. It’s good to use them for places like DC, but longer trips, like 70+ miles, require use the use of coach buses. There’s a policy about this. That’s why trips to places like Richmond or Jamestown can be all day, and the buses often depart before school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only field trips that use fcps buses are confined by certain hours. It’s good to use them for places like DC, but longer trips, like 70+ miles, require use the use of coach buses. There’s a policy about this. That’s why trips to places like Richmond or Jamestown can be all day, and the buses often depart before school.

At great expense and little reward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah all the PTA can do is throw money at you, maybe (not if you’re at a title 1 school). Requesting the field trip, getting approval, communicating with the venue, getting permission slips, taking the health training for the kids with medical issues who go, because if a kid with epilepsy or diabetes is on your trip you have to be trained to assist them, and they will always be on the trip, putting the lunch orders in with the cafeteria and picking them up, arranging for chaperones, creating student groups, getting there, keeping track of the kids, and getting back- this is SO MUCH WORK for often maybe 2 hours at the actual destination. Forgive us if we don’t choose to add this to our plates as often as you think you’re entitled to expect.

Who's doing all the planning for the Lewis program trips? If your experience is the norm, then there's no way the teacher over there is planning dozens of field trips every year by herself. And as far as I know I'm fairly certain she is the sole teacher in the program. Have they centralized all the paperwork to admin? Seems like the process is inconsistent across FCPS.

They have a program coordinator. That person doesn't teach classes and organizes all the field trips.

This is how it should be. When I was essentially a volunteer coordinator i was told it’s impossible to create this position as a paid one (I didn’t want it but I wanted continuity).
Well guess what I guess where there is a will there is a way? Or maybe it depends on the district (I wasn’t at FCPS)

Yes. It is impossible to create it at your average elementary school because it isn’t justified so it isn’t part of the staffing budget. As part of a specialized program that receives its own funding, it may be a budgetary allotment. At a title 1 school which receives additional funding for staffing, something of this nature (though it would come with many more responsibilities, it wouldn’t just be “field trip coordinator”) may be possible. Again, people who don’t work in the public school system thinking they can just speak on things they know nothing about is irksome.

[Anonymous]

Teacher who has done field trips, as well as a parent- School buses have a very limited window so going into DC is incredibly difficult as you have such little time actually at your destination.

Trips like Gettysburg are funded by the parents and take coach buses, which are expensive. As a parent in a wealthy pyramid, our school goes on this. As a teacher in a heavily title 1 pyramid, this would not be possible. Equity between schools and pyramids is an issue that I have seen firsthand and field trips is a big one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher who has done field trips, as well as a parent- School buses have a very limited window so going into DC is incredibly difficult as you have such little time actually at your destination.

Trips like Gettysburg are funded by the parents and take coach buses, which are expensive. As a parent in a wealthy pyramid, our school goes on this. As a teacher in a heavily title 1 pyramid, this would not be possible. Equity between schools and pyramids is an issue that I have seen firsthand and field trips is a big one.

And I’ll give you one guess in which pyramids the parents in this thread saying their kids have a RIGHT to field trips send their kids 🙄

[Anonymous]

Very underwhelmed by our FCPS HS field trip to Washington DC. It was "do whatever you want", no plan. Parent volunteers were given suggestions of where they might take each of their group of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very underwhelmed by our FCPS HS field trip to Washington DC. It was "do whatever you want", no plan. Parent volunteers were given suggestions of where they might take each of their group of students.

Wouldn’t that be better? Kids don’t fit molds and they often have tons of different interests. Working off a list honors that.

Also, that takes MORE planning in a teacher’s part than just saying “follow this path.”

[Anonymous]

NO, it sucked

[Anonymous]

It was incredibly lazy on the part of the teacher(s). No plan.