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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Why field trips shouldn’t become a thing of the past
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My daughter’s kindergarten class recently took a field trip to the state Capitol.
A tour guide told them interesting facts - that the neoclassical structure was built with Indiana limestone and Georgia marble. That important work takes place under the Gold Dome.
The one thing that impressed Olivia the most, though, was the two-headed calf and two-headed snake. They are located on the fourth floor in the Georgia State Museum of Science & Industry.
Remember field trips? Fun. They never had to be anything exotic. A fire station or bank sufficed just fine.
Olivia attends New Life Academy of Excellence Inc., a charter public school in Norcross. Principal Alphonsa Foward says field trips - relevant ones, not trips to Six Flags - make core curriculum subjects living, breathing disciplines. It brings them to life.
“The kindergartners try to take at least one field trip a month,” said Foward, noting that the older grades aim for one trip a quarter. “Because of our size, it’s easier for us to manage [a group of] kindergartners than it is for most schools.”
I wonder, though: How big of a role do field trips play in today’s schools? We’re so focused on standardized testing, what kids learn, how well they are taught, whether individual schools need reform. Then, there are issues related to planning trips, such as transportation, funding, safety and liability. Must be hard for many Gwinnett schools to pull it off.
No, it’s not a necessity to hit the road. Today’s technology offers “virtual field trips,” and presenters can go to campuses rather than have students travel to them.
Despite that, nothing tops a well-planned field trip. Good educators know this, said Karen Hallacy, the state legislative chairwoman for the Georgia PTA.
“Every principal I talk to is very committed to the idea that field trips shouldn’t be eliminated,” Hallacy of East Cobb said. “Principals fight like the dickens to keep some aspect of them alive in their schools. It can’t be all math and all science, even though those are very critical.
“If that is all we ever focus on, our children will suffer. It’s the same thing with P.E. If kids just sit in their seats six hours a day, their attention is shot.”
In Georgia, field trips are decided at the local level. School systems aren’t required to report information regarding field trips to the state. That makes it impossible to determine whether the number of field trips over the years has increased, decreased or stayed the same, said Dana Tofig, the Department of Education spokesman.
Hallacy, though, said experience with her own kids shows that primary schools have cut back over the years.
“My oldest children went on more field trips when they were in elementary school than my youngest child,” she told me. “In fact, during my youngest daughter’s fourth-and fifth-grade years, they cut out a field trip at every grade level, and that was only a few years ago.”
Too bad.
What kid wouldn’t want to see a two-headed calf or snake up close?
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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