Field Trips

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by Sara, Feb 25, 2014.

  1. Sara Tea Drinker

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    I was thinking today about my time in school, and I realized something from 7th grade on:

    I wasn't allowed to go on many field trips.

    What my school was like in Junior High is that it's separated into two teams, all the classes were the same, but different teachers for the classes and etc... The first team had a bunch of kids who went on field trips, the second team rarely, if ever went on field trips. I was in only an English class of a mixture of both teams and actually was banned from going to the Salem Witch Trials memorial in Salem due to the fact that I was on the other team and they refused to let the kids go despite my whole English class going except me and five other kids due to the fact our team didn't allow field trips. My parents threw a fit about it, but they stood firm that I wasn't allowed to go due to the fact I wasn't on the right team which was randomly selected. The other team went on a bunch of other field trips which my classmates and I weren't allowed to go on due to the parents saying that they wanted the kids to not go on them. At least on the Salem trip, I was severely disappointed I didn't get to go because it was the talk of the class for weeks afterwards.

    So I'm curious:

    Do you think field trips should be allowed? Do you think they're a good educational tool? And if there's a group of kids banned from going beyond medical reasons, parents should have the right to appeal and let their kids go if they want to?
     
  2. Jin うごかないで

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    I'll be honest. No. Field trips as an overview aren't educational because from my view and experience growing up and going on trips. Non of them have benefit me educational wise. Mostly because your mind gets sidetracked to the information you're supposed to take in they're not good a good tool for education but instead for the most part it can be a real hassle for teachers. Now this is from a highschool-primary school prespective.

    At the moment I'm studying games development in college; we're going to be taking a trip to eurogamer this year to help us with research. Which is vital for coursework now this sort of trip at this age is perfect. because 1) You can doze off if you want but you still need to take in information wether you like it or not if you want to pass the course. whereas trips in previous years at school and high school were SUPPOSED to be intended to teach kids something but ended up just being a waste of time because the kids didn't care as they were away from the desks and paper and out somewhere else and the reason it fails at this age is because you know you're not learning anything new at this point you're just here to kill time.

    But this is my own personal view shaped around my own personal experience with trips.
     
  3. Patman Bof

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    Field trips can definitely be interesting and useful. The field trips I' ve had were amazing on too many levels for me to count. Especially the ones I' ve had when we were old enough for the teachers to let us roam on our own.

    French locales aside I spent a week traveling around England (with a day long stop in Disneyland Paris on the way back), a week in Italy, and ten days in Spain.
     
  4. Sara Tea Drinker

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    I hate you so much.... *sees S. Mods rolling up sleeves* IT'S JEALOUSY AND I'M JOKING!!!

    But yeah, I always loved field trips, and they were educational. I loved the ones going to Boston, it's what made me fall in love with the city and China Town. That was one of the few I went to in Middle School and sixth grade. I always learned a lot, too... When I was in college I had a teacher who brought us to the beach every good day and taught us about Tide Pools and the creatures living there. (Marine Biology class) It really teaches you hands on and for me taught me much more than a classroom could.
     
  5. Patman Bof

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    Lol, if it' s any consolation I' d kill to visit the US someday. The internet now allows me to satisfy my curiosity from my room, but it' s just not the same. I realize full well how incredibly lucky I am to have been given all those bright memories.
     
  6. Shuhbooty moon child

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    Yes, i find field trips as an educational tool. I don't know what you're school was thinking hut that's ****ed up. When I was in middle school every child had the opportunity to go with parents permission(obviously). When I was in 8th grade tho, only privileged kids got to go to some special place but it wasnt, educational. It was a reward. And thats what your story implies. It sounds like they were reward trips.
     
  7. Sara Tea Drinker

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    From what I heard, the parents of my team's kids wanted the school to be like it was a boarding school instead of public education. Which meant little to no field trips for our team.

    It really disappointed me though, I loved the field trips and it killed me to hear about Salem because they spoke endlessly about the experience and what they learned. Our class that was left over which was five kids was forced to sit for an hour and a half and read books while the assistant threw a fit because she couldn't teach us anything with over half the class gone. I heard later she really ripped the higher ups a new one because she thought it was unfair not only to us for missing the experience, but her who had to be stuck behind all day for a 90 minute class where nothing was learned and/or taught.

    And yeah, the other team got on a ton of field trips I heard. It was random on who got selected to which team, and my parents wanted me to go because they knew I loved the experience, but they couldn't budge the school on the issue.
     
  8. Ienzo ((̲̅ ̲̅(̲̅C̲̅r̲̅a̲̅y̲̅o̲̅l̲̲̅̅a̲̅( ̲̅̅((>

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    That is a terrible system o.0 I don't even understand why it was implemented like that, the assistant is right, everyone should have an equal chance to go or no one goes at all.

    I found school trips to be, not always educational, but an important experience, they were always really exciting and it broke the monotony of sitting in a classroom all the time. One of the only useful school trips I had was when our german class went to Germany fr 4 days as I felt like we really learned stuff there and built up our language but apart from that I saw them more as a way to inspire kids or get them to see what stuff is really like. It's the difference between being told about, say, America and going there yourself to see what it's like. In the classroom you can be taught so much stuff but it will account for nothing if it's not applied to real life, real life is why we teach our children these things. To have a simple education in a classroom is a closeted one and I don't think it's right.

    Even the science lessons where we got to leave the classroom and go and investigate outside (one biology lesson we took our quadrats and went and measured population diversity on our fields) should at least be done if no school trips can be provided.
     
  9. Sara Tea Drinker

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    Actually, now that I think about it...

    A lot of teachers expressed concern because the kids started to get hostile towards the other group. Refusing to sit with the other group for lunch and not hanging out with them. Even the principle mentioned it once when I overheard it. Looking back at it, I should've pointed it out. I don't know whatever happened with that.

    It wasn't that our school was poor, hell, our school had some of the best funding of the state. It was just parents didn't want their kids to go on field trips to make the school look more "elite." I think I wasn't even allowed to go to an amusement park to learn about Geometry because of these rules.
     
  10. Ienzo ((̲̅ ̲̅(̲̅C̲̅r̲̅a̲̅y̲̅o̲̅l̲̲̅̅a̲̅( ̲̅̅((>

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    It sounds like it became the "us" and "them" mentality which can cause so many problems. Also, was that the reason why your school had so many different trips but only let half the kids go on them because they couldn't afford everyone to go yet they still went ahead with the trips to make the school seem more elite?
     
  11. Sara Tea Drinker

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    Money isn't an issue with my town, the schools here are the most richest in the state. A few years before I hit Junior High, they built a brand new elementary school with everything high tech for it's time. My town is horrendously rich in a lot of parts and a lot goes to keep the schools going. They could afford to send the whole school and probably the high schoolers along with them and not put a dent in funds. In sixth grade we even went to an amusement park for the day and Boston to it's Science Museum and Aquarium without any problems.

    It wasn't funding issues for the school.