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DEL.ICIO.USWhy 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.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Mark
February 23, 2008 12:59 PM | Link to this
Chirp, chirp, chirp……
By LT5000
February 25, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this
How about a trip through Norcross’s dilapidated neighborhoods. Show them the neighborhoods now and pictures of the neighborhoods 20 years ago. Have them talk with the long time residents to see how they feel about the influx of illegals.
Show the kids the real cost of illegal immigration.
Rick, when will you be taking your field trip with the Norcross Police on a Saturday night? That’s something I would like to read about.
LT5000
By Mark
February 25, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this
LT5000
Badie won’t do that. That would involve actually seeing the blight he has no idea of. A real journalist would do it, but not Badie. He’s a keyboard kind of guy….
By T
February 25, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this
I remember well some of the best times I had in school were getting to go on field trips.
That is unless we were going to our yearly torture.
It’s kinda’ of a funny thing to think back on now but, in the late 60’s early 70’s the board of education felt the need to take the whole-school to see’ “Gone With the Wind”. Every stinkin’ year we went to see that picture!
After about the 4th time we went, the boys I hung out with just stayed in the bathroom as much as we could, mostly smokin’ and cussin’.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best example of a good field trip. It’s just the one that sticks out in my mind whenever I hear those words.
Oh and by the way, hey Mark and LT, why don’t you-guys go on a ride-along you keep harping about?
Maybe if were lucky the cops will get tired of your chirp, chirp chirping and drop both of you off in the areas you are constantly complaining about. Then maybe, someone else will end our misery of your stupid posts that never have much of anything to do with the actual article!
By Mark
February 25, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this
T
I don’t need to go on a ride along thru that ghetto. I drive thru it often, and it’s filthy and full of human flotsam. When was the last time you saw the area, T?
By LT5000
February 25, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this
T,
I guess you are quite entertained by Badies’s usual fare of Human Trumpets and handing out flowers.
Don’t blame Mark and myself for trying to address the real issues in Gwinnett. It sure as hell ain’t field trips.
C’mon Badie, you’re better than that.
LT5000
By Pam
February 26, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this
Well, to stay on topic, I too remember the great field trips as a child in the 70s an 80s. One of my fondest years in secondary school was my sixth grade year and what my teacher called December Celebration when we visited several nearby places to see how they celebrated the holidays.