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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Costa Rica trip is a very expensive boondoggle.  We have not yet found the money to take our own family vacation to Costa Rica but felt incredible pressure to pull together the funds for our kid to do it because there is alot of peer pressure on it.

It is a "growth" experience for the 8th graders in that they are traveling without their parents in a foreign country, they have to navigate the social pressures of being with 200+ other 8th graders for 7 days 24-hours a day, and many have to handle gastrointestinal issues alone for the first time (send Pepto!).  I really did not appreciate the 4:00 am call from my 8th grader that he had been throwing up and with diarrhea for hours and the chaperones did nothing for him - they had no medicine to offer AND, because more than 100 kids had the same issues they were stretched to think to offer any individual comfort.

You should know that its not really educational because it is so huge that its easy to go the whole trip without speaking a word of Spanish.

Also, it is run by Deal teachers who feel empowered to do their own social engineering. 
 My student was forced to room with one of the more difficult students on the trip because the teachers thought the three friends were nice enough to handle it - it ended up being fine, but an additional source of pain and pressure on their experience and at this price I would to think the students could at least select who then room with - but really they can't.  The teachers are constantly switching roommates and swapping kids on busses to try to manage the painful social dynamics of the immense group.

Honestly I'm shocked that these trips are still happening - its a crazy expensive burden to put on parents for something that is not very educational.  Think of the other things that money could do to support extra curricular activities throughout the entire year at Deal.  Maybe the Costa Rica trip was worth it when it was 50 students.  Now its just a ridiculous, expense trip that subsidizes vacation for 20+ Deal teachers and staff members.  [/quote]

You think watching hundreds of children is vacation? I’m a teacher who refuses to go on any trips like this because of how exhausting they’d be. I want an actual vacation. [/quote]

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