International trip for 5th graders?

[Anonymous]

latest count is 2/3 of the class is going!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:latest count is 2/3 of the class is going!!

I would hope so, if the board has kicked in 50K!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not any of the PP's, but here I go, wading in!

1) Few kids out of the whole school will receive benefit from this.
Well, the trip is for fifth-graders, so realistically only fifth-graders will benefit. I assume the goal is for every subsequent class to take the trip when they are fifth-graders, so eventually every student will be offered the trip.

2) What is the selling point to convince everyone that the whole school benefits from a dozen kids getting $50,000 to go on a trip to China? It isn't like 10 and 11 year olds are old enough to bring back knowledge, culture and wisdom to the rest of the school. Again, I think the idea is to have as many students as possible benefit directly by taking the trip themselves. I could see how they could bring back improved language skills or at the very least some talking points for cultural differences.

3) How have these students had it harder since the beginning? Every one of our kids who started there have had multiple new teachers and many curriculum changes over the years. I'm guessing that the original thought was that this first class has the hardest time raising the money; hence the $50,000 gift to help offset costs and make it affordable for more students. Other classes will theoretically have more time to raise money; hopefully with the result that money is not a factor in whether or not kids go on the trip.

Seriously, if you don't like the very idea of the trip, you should be objecting to that with other parents and the administration. What you're doing here is just nitpicking posts on DCUM, which isn't going to get you any satisfaction.

Your answers are much more pleasant and satisfactory than the ones given by the school. We are told that the 5th graders have had it the hardest because they have been the leading class and are always breaking in new teachers. That class has also consistently had the most behavior and academic problems of any of the other grades. So the kids who stick around have put up with a lot of disturbances. We are also told that the whole school will benefit from the cultural exposure that a few kids will get. I'm not sure how, since those kids are scheduled to leave the following year. Though as I understand it they will be housed at Yu Ying for an additional year this time because the new school isn't ready and won't be for a long time.

[Anonymous]

The first class is the experimental class. They are the guenie pig. The school learns what will work and what will not work from this class. If you can not appreciate that this class has had it harder than your dear child's class, you are simply out of touch. I do not have a child in this class, but I appreciate the barriers they have navigated to make my child's experience better.

The children who started in pre-k full immersion last year benefited from that because the school used the knowledge they learned from the older class(ES) to make the program better.

[Anonymous]

As someone who has travelled, and lived, extensively overseas, I can say that some parents seem to have vastly inflated expectations of what this trip will accomplish. The bottom line is this is a guided tour to major tourist sites in China. Nothing wrong with that. Compare it to a class trip that visits the liberty bell in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty in New York and Fanuel Hall in Boston. But this will not result in improved language skills. Kids and adults are going to be talking in English the vast majority of the time on this trip. Kids should not expected to transfer "talking points" back to the school, (invariably, such points would be Haha! We went on a trip and you didn't!)

The fact is that kids of this age would be just as happy if not more happy on a local trip or a special activity.

I hope in future years there this trip isn't presented as a done deal and parents are given various options to consider.

[Anonymous]

Fifth graders are definitely capable of bringing back "talking points." They can talk about the way people dress, how they get around, what the bathrooms are like, how people shop for food, etc. International travel alone is a learning experience--getting a passport, immigration and security, etc.

It is AMAZING to me that a public charter school is going to try to get this going. Talk about dreaming big and showing these kids that they are worth it.

[Anonymous]

+1000. Don't let the "extensively traveled" person get you down. He/she did not include the fact that the kids will be doing homestays as part of this trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Don't let the "extensively traveled" person get you down. He/she did not include the fact that the kids will be doing homestays as part of this trip.

That sounds interesting PP, can you share more? What exactly is a "homestay" and what does it include?

[Anonymous]

The trip is still mostly tourist destinations and tour buses with a couple days of homestays. 4 days of homestay is not exactly worth $7,000 for my child and I to go on this trip when I could do the tourist package for my whole family for only a few thousand more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trip is still mostly tourist destinations and tour buses with a couple days of homestays. 4 days of homestay is not exactly worth $7,000 for my child and I to go on this trip when I could do the tourist package for my whole family for only a few thousand more.

Not a YY parent here, but, as a returnee from various exchange opportunities and fluent speaker of three langauges, I'm struck by this really odd declaration. Aren't "homestays" (I assume these are stays in families etc.) exactly what is recommended to get meaningful exposure to a foreign language and culture. Indeed, if you want a tourist trip to shoot photos of yourself in front of countless attractions, then such cultural immersion would be a total waste of time. But why in the world would you then enroll your child at YY?

[Anonymous]

That's my point: 4 days isn't enough to constitute a real cultural experience for anyone, let alone very young kids. 10 and 11 year year olds still require baby sitters which is why most of them are traveling with parents. The majority of the trip is site seeing destinations and very little of it actually involves the host families, even on the 4 nights they are staying in their homes.

[Anonymous]

The trip is to go see China - a culture and language these kids have been studying in a partial immersion environment for the past 5 yrs. About time, IMO, and makes perfect sense even though I don't agree that using a 50k donation/grant for the benefit of 20? kids is the best use for it.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe this topic is generating 24 pages of talk. Here's my take: There will always be kids in every class at YY who will not take the trip, whether for financial, personal, whatever reasons. It's a public school, after all.

So if you don't want to go or send your kid without a parent, or waste that much vacation, just DON'T GO! Find that one other kid or 10 other kids that aren't going and make it work for your families. Take the kids to NYC for the day, or pull them out to go to the movies, or whatever. The more you stress about it, the worse it will be. Kids are resilient and all of us grew up just fine, even though we didn't have the same advantages as our friends. Seriously, it will be okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this topic is generating 24 pages of talk. Here's my take: There will always be kids in every class at YY who will not take the trip, whether for financial, personal, whatever reasons. It's a public school, after all.

So if you don't want to go or send your kid without a parent, or waste that much vacation, just DON'T GO! Find that one other kid or 10 other kids that aren't going and make it work for your families. Take the kids to NYC for the day, or pull them out to go to the movies, or whatever. The more you stress about it, the worse it will be. Kids are resilient and all of us grew up just fine, even though we didn't have the same advantages as our friends. Seriously, it will be okay.

No one is arguing against the idea of the trip - this about logistics. Is 5th grade a good year? Should it be done when school is out? Are people going to enthusiastically fundraise or donate to something that won't benefit all students?

[Anonymous]

Isn't fifth grade the highest year for YY? It seems on the young side to me, but if those are the oldest students....