There is a lot of talk about field trips these days. A child fell from a dangerous cliff on a field trip locally, and he was seriously injured. That's certainly a strike against field trips for some parents and some schools.
A family I know pulled their child from school over the issue of field trips because they were unhappy that their child was developmentally too young to participate.
What exactly is a field trip, and should it be a part of any school curriculum? That depends on the school mission, the education plan, the families as participants and the ability of a staff to understand and provide a learning experience off-campus.
Some adults would say that trips should belong to the family alone. The responsibility to provide jaunts to local sites and interesting places is not the school's.
No matter what anyone says, field trips count with children, whether they are with family or with their school friends. "Count with children" means the trips leave a lasting impression.
Making a field trip fun is one thing, but making it important to the individual child means the impression of something positive that he will always remember.
I'm the field-trip planner for my school. I've planned 10 field trips for the next 10 weeks, and I have 50 more in the works for the next year.
I plan trips for very young children, and the destinations include caves in Kentucky as well as cliffs in Illinois and crests in Indiana forests. The destinations for field trips at my school have been as far away as Tennessee.
I'm a firm believer in "doing." No child can experience from his desk the same as he can by going and exercising all his senses to explore the world around him. If there is something worth seeing in my area, you can be sure my students and I will find our way there.
Choosing a regular bus and driver is instrumental in making trips first-rate. Miss Sandy drives for my school, and her thoughtfulness, ingenuity and special interest in the children is the icing on our cake.
Organizing a field trip takes sense and sensibility. Schools that don't employ strict discipline of both teachers and students and demand the cooperation of parents will not be able to produce a field trip that enhances children's lives and helps them grow up.
Good teachers look at the roster of children. By understanding the group's energy level, its ability to learn, its ability to be governed and its desire to reach out to the world, a teacher will choose the right trips.
But field trips are not for every child. Although field trips are part of the regular school curriculum, some children are just not cooperative enough to go on them, and some are just not old enough to enjoy them. Dragging a very young child on a lengthy bus ride or a long tour or onto a strange playground is just asking for trouble.
Field trips should provide three things: a learning experience, run time and food.
Making a field trip a memorable experience means experiencing something new. For children, it means getting out and really playing with friends in a new place and sharing a small meal, because food always makes classtime memorable.
Making a field trip an event to remember is not difficult: "Remember that trip out to the farm when ..."
(Judy Lyden operates a pre-school in Evansville, Ind. Write to her c/o The Evansville Courier, P.O. Box 268, Evansville, IN 47702, or e-mail her at jlyden(at)evansville.net.)
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