Bill Would End State Field Trip Funds

15 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  Liz on March 24 at 9:25 a.m.

  one word: homeschooling.

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  JBelle on March 24 at 9:33 a.m.

  How important are occasional field trips? I can only speculate on the value of reshaping the classroom into a different venue on an occasional basis, and tell you as well that trips to Moscow for to visit real live art studios and galleries, trips to Spokane to see the Spokane Symphony in the old Fox Theatre, trips out to Finucane Dairy farms to see 100 cows being milked simultaneously and yes, that glorious trip to the Cataldo Mission when we in the 4th grade at Central count as the most memorable and sacred moments of my time as a student in SD 271.

  This is such an ill-advised bone head move. The Christ Child attended a school where 3 field trips a week were the norm. He can tell you more about industry, philanthrophy, history and practically anything else you want to know about this area, thank you to Discovery School and their mission which seeks to exacerbate and nourish the curious mind of a child and acknowledges the world classroom. It’s no surprise to me or anyone who was there that 15 years later, The Christ Child can get a nearly perfect score on the GMAT; he understood his responsbility to learn at a very early age and critical to embracing that understanding were those Discovery School field trips. So? because we’re short of cash, we’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

  One final comment: the faculty at Discovery School does not have the salary/benefit package that the union employees of the public schools here in Spokane do. But they do get to teach at Discovery, where the culture endorses and mandates trekking downtown to observe the dress rehearsal of the latest Best of Broadway show, studying the ecosystem by trucking out the Rimrock every week and getting right down in the mud and weeds to observe and monitor the flora and fauna, touring the terminal annex of the Post Office, walking through the box factory and yes, skiing together as a school every Friday afternoon in winter at Mt. Spokane. Odd; although they get paid less, most of the teachers that were there 15 years ago are still there….

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  florined on March 24 at 10:11 a.m.

  Liz, just a clarification: I personally know a number of parents who homeschool and see to it that their children are exposed to/introduced to processes, events, arts, etc on a personal level. I’m sorry to say that I also know several who do none of that. My point is that homeschooling has the potential (but not the guarantee) for exciting, experiential learning and I enthusiastically applaud those parents who choose that route.

  Students in public schools need that same access, for the same reasons, and there is a limit to how much can be brought to the student…sometimes, there’s just no equal substitute for taking the students to the source.

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  Frum Helen Back on March 24 at 10:50 a.m.

  I love those field trips and will certainly miss them if they’re stopped. My grandkids have all invited me to go along on them and they’re so much fun. I’m always on my very best behavior so they will invite me again.

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  daveo on March 24 at 11:51 a.m.

  The legislature needs to stop trying to manage school districts every expenditure. Let the highly paid professional administrators decide what is best for teaching our kids.

  Bob Nonini, as an example, may understand insurance very well, or moving product via airplanes, or living on the water, but what does he know about teaching kids. Does he have any kids in the public schools, now or ever?

  Kids love field trips. I’ve been part of one for the last 5 years that supports what kids learn in the classroom and get them outside. The costs I’ll bet are very low for the experience. Teachers are paid, busses have been paid for, parent volunteers are free. So some bus driver time and some mileage??? How much will we save; or more importantly what is this really about!!

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  Escapee on March 24 at 12:05 p.m.

  I never felt especially enlightened by Field Trips; I more or less was just along for the ride.

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  Liz on March 24 at 2:29 p.m.

  Oh, I totally agree that the success of homeschooling depends entirely on the parents doing said homeschooling. I did not homeschool because I honestly did not feel I could do my kids justice when they were starting school. I might feel differently today. I’m in a different place.

  I was just saying that these types of cuts are the very reason a lot of parents throw in the towel and just decide to homeschool. They are sick and tired of their kids wasting eight hours a day getting a substandard education and coming home to MORE school in the form of homework overload, so they just bite the bullet and jump into the homeschooling world. Homeschooling, done right, is an extremely efficient use of time. Do you know how much time (and therefore money?) is wasted in a typical classroom??? Someone actually did a study on this and the results boggled my mind.

  Both of my kids went to/are going to the same private school in CDA. Daughter spent one year at CHS and while I was impressed with the dedication and care from many of the staff (just for the record, I think Randy Russell rocks…great guy) I also realized that the system cannot possibly do justice to kids who deviate from the average either above or below the norm in any significant way. And the norm in our society is getting lower and lower by the minute…

  Daughter took the first half of the GED today, in what would have been the end of her sophomore year in HS. She just got her scores. One of them was perfect; the other two near perfect. She takes the rest tomorrow. This is with an eighth grade education from the private school and pretty much the equivalent of one semester at CHS.

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  Arpie on March 24 at 3:09 p.m.

  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.

  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.

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