Huckleberries Online

Arpie: Field Trips Are Valuable

Posted by DFO

March 24, 2009 5:26 p.m. • 11 comments

Arpie: Field trips are the cement that holds the learning together. They connect what is going on in the classroom to what is going on in the world. I can’t imagine a fourth grader in Idaho only having to read about the trials on the Oregon Trail, picture the burdens of the mountain man, or trying to understand Christianity coming to Idaho. How rich their lives have been and how much will be missed without walking in the wagon ruts, near American Falls, attending a trappers rendezvous in Pierre’s Hole, craning their necks to see the huckleberry stained ceiling at Cataldo mission. More below.

Question: Were you impacted by any school field trip that you took as a kid?

This bill does not mean the end of field trips. Teachers care too much and see the benefits too much to let that happen. What it does mean in an increase in fundraising to pay for the darn things. Imagine even more chocolate sales. It also means the disparity in our state between districts that pass overrides to pay for such things and those that don’t will continue to grow.

Field trips and all district bus use is presently paid for by using some weird state funding formula that makes them even more expensive than seems proper. If the state passes this bill to quit paying for them, which I hope they don’t, the least they can do is amend the bill so that districts and classrooms need to pay the bare minimum to go on trips. Just the cost of the driver and gas seems fair though there are probably a few other expenses that I’m not thinking of.

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Cindy_H on March 24 at 6:49 p.m.
I visited the Hostess factory when it was still operating in Spokane. My mom and I witnessed another parent dipping her finger into the Twinkie batter.
I haven’t eaten a Twinkie since. However, this weekend, in Seattle, I watched my husband eat at chocolate dipped Twinkie at a local chocolate shop.
Made me feel nauseous.
Duffer on March 24 at 7:08 p.m.
When I was in elementary school in Boise, we took a field trip by bus to Meridian where we boarded the Union Pacific train en-route to Boise. Quite a thrill for a kid back in the early ‘50’s!
Chita on March 24 at 7:14 p.m.
Cataldo Mission, Camp Magee and Tubbs Hill - all done in elementary school. Field trips are a night mare for teachers but they still do them because they know how important they are to learning. I loved taking field trips and still remember them 30+ years later.
Stickman on March 24 at 7:55 p.m.
As for field trips, they are my favorites, as many will come by this spring and summer to visit the stickman, as they make their way around Tubbs Hill to enjoy the beauty of it all. One of my favorite times of the year, and one where I give an incredible amount of sticks away. The Sorenson school is my favorite, as they make their way through life and usually end up here.
BandR on March 24 at 10:06 p.m.
Does Trail Creek count? Trail Creek rocked and I’m so glad they still do some form of it so all my kids could go, too!
cantyoureadthesigns on March 25 at 11:36 a.m.
Yes, I was in about 5th grade and we had a field trip to the local newspaper operations, both front office and the printing plant. I found it fascinating to learn about all the numerous things that had to happen in order for that paper to land on our doorstep every morning.

Other field trips I enjoyed were to a prominent computer manufacturer and to a couple of the local Universities.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.