Reply to International trip for 5th graders?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "International trip for 5th graders?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've been lurking on the outsides of the trip discussion for a while, as my child is not yet a 5th grader, but I want to bring up one factor that has not yet been mentioned here, as far as I know.

Our child has one parent with a Chinese background and one parent who is not.   We have in fact already been to China, to visit relatives and to see the sights.  If I was going to take my 10 year old on a trip in the middle of the school year, it would NOT be go on a group tour of Tian An Men Square, forbidden city, great wall, etc, although these are certainly worthy places to see.  Rather, my kid would be running around with cousins in the housing estate, or the alley, playing games, using the language, and generally absorbing the culture more so than any group tour would provide.  Or perhaps they'd see how much their cousins have to study and memorize for school and wouldn't complain so much at their homework.  And of course they'd be learning proper manners and enjoying local dishes at banquets.

As the 5th grade trip is currently planned, I'm not so sure it would have much value for my family or child.  If we were to spend $7000 or more on a trip, we would do it very differently and get a lot more out of this.

Please don't get this wrong.  I'm not suggesting the school drop off kids at a random Beijing hutong and have them go at it.  And I realize most parents and kids have never seen China and a trip is a great opportunity for them to do so.  But, for quite a number of us, if we were to make such a trip at all, we would do it very, very differently.

Perhaps the school could take us into account?  Perhaps 2 weeks out of the 5th year could be for "independent study".  Some students would go on a group tour to China as is being planned now.  Others might go to China, but with family, as I mentioned.  Still others might do local events -- such as outdoor education week, or volunteer at a Chinatown nonprofit, or other things still.

Having a "independent study period" would take the pressure off those who cannot afford an international trip or whose kids aren't ready for one.  EVERYONE would do a fun, "cool", educational activity and tell everyone about it when they all returned.   It would allow more options to accomodate the concerns and needs or all parents, without dictating one set-in-stone agenda to the whole group.

Thoughts?  Who would like to see the school offer something like this?[/quote]

I like the idea of a class trip with DC going with his classmates since preK.  DC grandparents live in Asia and we go visit often so going there won't be a big deal but going with his classmates would be.  We really hope they have this when DC is in fifth.  He'll definitely go.[/quote]

Me too.  There are a lot of reasons I think Yu Ying is a special school, and one of them is that by the time my child is finishing elementary school, he will have been learning with the same small community of students for seven years.  I think that's pretty amazing to contemplate at a public school.  I love the idea of him going to China and having the opportunity to put all of those years of study to use, really experiencing the reward of his hard work, getting to fall in love with his adopted language and culture.  I think there are some priceless life-lessons in that opportunity.  It is much easier to contemplate when I know that the other children will be from families who have the same academic and ethical expectations that we do.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics