Field trips losing out to budgets, tests

Remember grade school field trips, when you would -- assuming you remembered to bring in a signed permission slip -- get a day off from classes, board a big yellow bus with 40 screaming classmates and visit a museum, play or zoo? (I remember touring the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which looking back, is a tad odd).

Well, those trips are fewer and farther between as school districts across the nation grapple with budget shortfalls and the school day grows increasingly crowded because of high-stakes standardized testing. Educators and field trip coordinators, such as Elise Bernardoni, an education specialist with Friends of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., are worried that the decline is shortchanging students.

"The thing that is most important about coming to our zoo or any zoo is to get the experience of seeing animals up close. That instills such awe and wonder and appreciation for nature and conservation," she said. "Learning about that in the classroom is all well and good, but ... if you’ve never seen an elephant up close, how on earth can you know how incredible they are?"

Read the full story.

-- Seema Mehta

Comments

[Robert, L.A, E.R.]

I taught for a few years in LAUSD and remember my own student experiences from elementary to high school. Somewhat related to the idea of exposure to nature was the unique travelling unit of special trailers that visited elementary schools to show us all kinds of animals. Different groups of classes attended these outdoor assemblies through the day. I remember that we students really enjoyed seeing the different animals and hearing the presentations.

While we could not see elephants or other large animals up close, these units did introduce young children to the animals and nature on a first-hand basis. I don't think there is anything like this anymorej. I observed during my time teaching that there were many student that had no feelings of empathy for animals, too often telling me stories about dead animals in the street and finding nothing wrong in feeling entertained by such accidents and killings.

A lot has been lost over the years, including development of the humanitarian spirit at an early age in children. Maybe such activities should be reconsidered for the value of collateral benefits that could result.