“Please let this be a normal field trip…”
“Duh… we’re going to Renton Tech. I think it will be fine”
As kids, field trips were the best part of the year. They were the one time a year we got to spend a day with kids in other classes, do something special, leave school, and have fun. There was no goal for the day; there was nothing we were trying to gain besides having fun outside of the world of school and parents.
Field trips are awesome. Going to the zoo or the aquarium was the best part of the year. Don’t lie to yourself. Staring at fish for hours is the best. But for some reason, we got to high school and the fish swam away. Field trips are now reserved for very specific classes and/or they are the most boring thing we have ever done in our lives.
The only field trip that has ever been offered to me in high school, was a super fun trip to take a tour of Renton Technical College… I did not go. But the people who did congratulated me on the sound decision to stay home as they missed too much school work for absolutely no reward.
The majority of us would enjoy nothing more than having one day where we can forget about school, not be worried about missing anything, and just leave. Things were different in elementary school. I remember my fourth grade trip to the nature preserve like it was yesterday. I walked around learning about different ecosystems for hours. I was hand in hand with my best friend as we hiked around looking at different trees and animals. I remember the lunchable I ate and the grilled cheese she had. I remember getting back on the bus exhausted but with such a big smile on my face I thought my face was stuck like that.
For most students at liberty fifth grade was the last time that smile dawned their faces. A handful of us went on the eighth grade trip, a smaller handful have gone on random trips here and there because of a certain class they were taking, but nothing is the same as getting on that bus with friends you never see in class, and going on a trip just because. The key is all the little parts of the trip, which you just don’t get on a college tour. We crave simplicity and joy and all the things that come with class wide field trips.
In high school, you can hear how teens miss elementary school. We yearn for the simple lives we had from the ages of five to twelve, when we would pack brown bag lunches and hop on a bus to give our teachers migraines. We would do anything to return to those little, easy lives.
Now, our days are overflowing with tests, homework, and to-do lists longer than any essay. Worst of all, we never get a break…
Plus, there is no better way to learn than to be surrounded by elephants.
