In twelve years of high school teaching, I have never taken any of my classes on a field trip.
I’ve studied Of Mice and Men with scores of freshmen yet never shepherded them to the Steinbeck Center. Eleven different Public Speaking classes; zero public speeches attended. My World Literature pupils, who break down the Renaissance at length and culminate their work in a historical research paper, never set foot in a museum. Is there a sordid tale of grand plans squashed by a savage administrator with a callous disdain for anything that put her legal arse at risk? Sadly, no. I’ve never even considered a field trip as a component of any curricular unit. While exploring how to build a school’s instructional program and the culture to support it, I’m compelled to reflect on my own instructional patterns.
Why haven’t I taken any of my students anywhere in a dozen years?
