Field Trips

I have been really disappointed in field trips this year.

First of all, they are super expensive. Admission to the Detroit Historical Museum today was $5.00 a kid. That wasn't too bad. Then, we had to add the bus fee. The district is charging us $25 an hour per bus, and then an additional $0.25 cents per mile traveled. When it is all added together, it costs each kid $10 per field trip. We will be taking 5 this year (three at the expensive $10.00 cost- the others are covered to varying degrees with school fundraiser money).

Needless to say, there are some kids who have trouble coming up with that money. It could be because of single parents, multiple kids in a family, whatever. There are a few of my kids who would not have been able to go if I hadn't been able to cover it out of our general fund. I will always scrape together the money to send kids if it is a financial issue and I know ahead of time. Those are kids whose families may not be able to provide those experiences for them on their own.

I also had 4-5 kids today who were just not going to go on the field trip. It would be boring, or they had already been there. Not going to go? I don't understand! Field trips were the highlight of school... So two of my students did not come to school today at all to avoid the trip, and two others didn't have their permission slips returned, so they were left at school with other teachers.

On the positive side, the students who attended and I learned a whole lot about the history of Michigan and Detroit. Did you know that Vernors and the three-light stoplight originated in Detroit?