Why are the field trips so underwhelming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the kids care about on a field trip is lunch. This is not talked about but it’s true. If I take my students on a field trip, they’re asking what is there to buy to eat at the destination. If what is available is not appealing to them, they choose not to go on the field trip. If they do go, they whine and rush through the activity and ask when we came done so they can go buy food. Then they want to sit and eat the food, as long as is possible. I can’t say I don’t get it, but trust me that the hassle of planning a field trip for them to treat it like a lunch date with their friends is not worth it and I’m not sure what “love of learning and history” you think they’re getting from them perseverating on when we can go to Elevation Burger and the gelato place at whatever stop we’re at.

This is funny!

I was at the Museum of Natural History recently. A high-school aged group went by. The conversation I overheard while the tour guide was explaining the exhibit to kids who weren’t listening:

“How much longer until lunch?”
“I don’t know. Maybe like 30 minutes?”
“Ugh!!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In kindergarten (fcps) we did a pumpkin patch and also the zoo.

Nope. Not good enough.
/s

[Anonymous]

I took my 3rd grade students to the zoo back in the early 2000s. One group joined the rest of the class with ice cream cones in their hands. The chaperone decided that would be a good idea! All hell broke lose when the other kids saw that. Did I tell the 4th grade teachers to never bring that parent along? Hell yeah!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took my 3rd grade students to the zoo back in the early 2000s. One group joined the rest of the class with ice cream cones in their hands. The chaperone decided that would be a good idea! All hell broke lose when the other kids saw that. Did I tell the 4th grade teachers to never bring that parent along? Hell yeah!

Ot my first grade class where one chaperone took her group 9n the pricey train ride around the zoo. This had been discussed prior as a "not to do,"

[Anonymous]

I also remember a field trip to the Building Museum that my child was really excited about. Turns out, they only saw the lobby and then were ushered into a classroom-type space to hear a lecture and do a craft. What a TOTAL waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the kids care about on a field trip is lunch. This is not talked about but it’s true. If I take my students on a field trip, they’re asking what is there to buy to eat at the destination. If what is available is not appealing to them, they choose not to go on the field trip. If they do go, they whine and rush through the activity and ask when we came done so they can go buy food. Then they want to sit and eat the food, as long as is possible. I can’t say I don’t get it, but trust me that the hassle of planning a field trip for them to treat it like a lunch date with their friends is not worth it and I’m not sure what “love of learning and history” you think they’re getting from them perseverating on when we can go to Elevation Burger and the gelato place at whatever stop we’re at.

This is funny!

I was at the Museum of Natural History recently. A high-school aged group went by. The conversation I overheard while the tour guide was explaining the exhibit to kids who weren’t listening:

“How much longer until lunch?”
“I don’t know. Maybe like 30 minutes?”
“Ugh!!”

Lol! See! They don’t care about those museums or history , they go for the food court.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No.
Parents need to volunteer or the school needs to hire a coordinator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also remember a field trip to the Building Museum that my child was really excited about. Turns out, they only saw the lobby and then were ushered into a classroom-type space to hear a lecture and do a craft. What a TOTAL waste of time.

A lot of the places you’d be like “oh, they should take a field trip there” have VERY specific field trip itineraries/plans that large school groups cannot deviate from. So yeah in theory the National Building Museum is cool but the way you have to interact with it while on a field trip is very different. I posted earlier about a disastrous trip I took students in to the national gallery of art. As a museum, I love exploring it on my own and had we been allowed to do that, I think the kids would’ve liked it somewhat, but they made us get into groups of 10 with these awful volunteer docents who selected which paintings we had to look at and then guided us through their questions about them interminably. Even I was miserable !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No.
Parents need to volunteer or the school needs to hire a coordinator

FCPS schools all had to cut SPED positions this school year and you think there’s staffing money to hire a… field trip planner?

[Anonymous]

I grew up very poor and didn’t do anything outside of school. The field trips I remembered having an huge impact on me were a trip to Williamsburg and a trip to see a play. It was fun to see what a college town looks and feels like since I never got to go to any college tour. The play was interesting, I was never a theater fan but seeing so much effort and talent, I learned to appreciate how much work theater is.

We didn’t have any chaperones since these trips were in high school and we all walked around as a group.

Personally I thought they were life changing in a “new experience” kind of way. If I had to be objective about the “educational” value as it relates to the curriculum specifically - it would be zero. You could just show a video about Williamsburg or watch a play on YouTube and call it a day.

I appreciated that the teachers who planned the trip at their own time did something like that when they could easily have typed in a few words on YouTube and press play. Even now looking back I’m surprised my former teachers put in so much effort when they didn’t have to. I don’t blame anyone for choosing an easier path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No.
Parents need to volunteer or the school needs to hire a coordinator

FCPS schools all had to cut SPED positions this school year and you think there’s staffing money to hire a… field trip planner?

As posted earlier, Lewis HS appears to have a coordinator whose job is field trip planning for their academy program. They've arranged close to a hundred trips in three years - in my opinion that seems like having a field trip planner at every school is worth it, if that level of production is to be expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A love of learning. Bringing history to life. Teachers excited to teach and show their student's the connection between what they are learning and the history around us.

So the “bringing history to life” is 45 minutes at the museum or site. The rest of the day is bus rides and organizing groups/meals.

Meanwhile, the teacher put in 3 weeks of planning and an aggravating amount of hours chasing permission slips. She then had to discipline students on the bus and at the exhibit. She had to constantly remind chaperones that they are on duty and can’t treat this as a fun vacation, and maybe they should get off their phones every now and then.

And all the kids will remember is singing on the bus ride.

Or the gift shop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took my 3rd grade students to the zoo back in the early 2000s. One group joined the rest of the class with ice cream cones in their hands. The chaperone decided that would be a good idea! All hell broke lose when the other kids saw that. Did I tell the 4th grade teachers to never bring that parent along? Hell yeah!

Ot my first grade class where one chaperone took her group 9n the pricey train ride around the zoo. This had been discussed prior as a "not to do,"

We had a parent buy their group (4-5 kids) $20 rifles for each kid, and those kids came back and taunted the other kids with their new “toys”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No.
Parents need to volunteer or the school needs to hire a coordinator

FCPS schools all had to cut SPED positions this school year and you think there’s staffing money to hire a… field trip planner?

As posted earlier, Lewis HS appears to have a coordinator whose job is field trip planning for their academy program. They've arranged close to a hundred trips in three years - in my opinion that seems like having a field trip planner at every school is worth it, if that level of production is to be expected.

Sorry, are you saying we hire 200 field trip coordinators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

No.
Parents need to volunteer or the school needs to hire a coordinator

FCPS schools all had to cut SPED positions this school year and you think there’s staffing money to hire a… field trip planner?

As posted earlier, Lewis HS appears to have a coordinator whose job is field trip planning for their academy program. They've arranged close to a hundred trips in three years - in my opinion that seems like having a field trip planner at every school is worth it, if that level of production is to be expected.

Sorry, are you saying we hire 200 field trip coordinators.

I volunteer for that role!

And now we are 200 teachers short.