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Favorite school field trip


BuffJim

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We rarely got "big" field trips as kids.  My favorites that were "repeating" would always be the Franklin Institute and the Philly Zoo.  I'd take kids to either nowadays as well.  I don't remember any trips to Hershey Park or Great Adventure (or Dorney Park) as a field trip as a kid.  I did enjoy Longwood Gardens as a kid, if only for being outside and being able to wander the estate.  As a teen, the German club got to go to Disney World, so that was fun.  Not sure how that even got arranged as we didn't go to any sort of competition or anything, just several days driving down, going to the two Disney resorts (Epcot and Magic Kingdom at that time), and a bunch of canoodling. 

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We didn't do many at my school, but I still remember one we took to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  I think we also visited Betsy Ross's house which seems kind of anticlimactic after Indepence Hall.

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I went on only two during my school years.  One was to the Museum of Science in Boston sometime in the 50's,  As you can imagine it was much smaller then because there was far less science.  The other was to Mystic Seaport in Mystic CT.  That one was great because there was plenty of whaling science left back then.

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Most memorable ..

Sixth grade went somewhere near Brevard and a hippie commune sponsored/owned by Mother Earth News. Then on into Asheville for lunch in the city square park for a picnic. 

We came home on the bus in complete silence. Next day we all signed a pledge to forsake the foolishness and burned all of our rock and roll albums.  

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Just now, BuffJim said:

Can you imagine that happening nowadays?

No. He started in the 50s and continued into the late 80s. He was aware of how it looked. The entire trip he was teaching. Talking about mountains etc. We went to Mt St. Helens into the red zone. He was a legend of a teacher. WWII vet. He passed away in 2020.

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1 hour ago, denniS said:

I had a teacher take me and another kid to the Oregon coast, Banff NP, and Glacier NP. It took most of the summer. He called it his living scholarship.

 

1 hour ago, BuffJim said:

Can you imagine that happening nowadays?

 

1 hour ago, denniS said:

No. He started in the 50s and continued into the late 80s. He was aware of how it looked. The entire trip he was teaching. Talking about mountains etc. We went to Mt St. Helens into the red zone. He was a legend of a teacher. WWII vet. He passed away in 2020.

 

1 hour ago, maddmaxx said:

I'm sure today there would be some sort of investigation.

Truly sad that our world has devolved in so many ways. @denniS, glad you got the experience.  Very cool. 

When I was young, we had a female teacher like that. She was amazing. 

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2 minutes ago, Zealot said:

Truly sad that our world has devolved in so many ways. @denniS, glad you got the experience.  Very cool. 

When I was young, we had a female teacher like that. She was amazing. 

This is similar to the "fear" stuff yesterday.  I don't think it has "devolved" in that respect. There ARE folks who still do what that teacher and dennis did.  It's just overshadowed by a perception that it doesn't or can't happen, not that it really does or doesn't. 

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1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

This is similar to the "fear" stuff yesterday.  I don't think it has "devolved" in that respect. There ARE folks who still do what that teacher and dennis did.  It's just overshadowed by a perception that it doesn't or can't happen, not that it really does or doesn't. 

Good point.  But I’d be surprised to find a teacher today that would do this.  

Good people exist.  To your point, it just gets overshadowed so much, whether from fears, media, isolation, etc...

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There was an annual trip to Europe for the French club from the high school.  I'm not sure if it still happens or not.  It was usually one teacher and at least 2 chaperones for 10 to a dozen kids.

There was nobody chaperoning the chaperones however.

Yes, the kids noticed.

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8 minutes ago, Zealot said:

 

 

 

Truly sad that our world has devolved in so many ways. @denniS, glad you got the experience.  Very cool. 

When I was young, we had a female teacher like that. She was amazing. 

He continued doing it into retirement. He just took the kids of friends instead of students. I think in that way it could happen. Scouts or other organizations do it. 

A friend of mine took a HS student to AK for the Iditarod. He is taking the same kid to the Silk Road race. I'd guess the kid's parents are paying for it. My teacher paid for almost everything. I bought film for my camera and t-shirts for my friends.

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We had one in 8th Grade to the Gettysburg Battlefield that was a lot of fun and triggered in me a lifelong interest in the Civil War.

In high school, we didn't have any field trips I remember.  Our Varsity Club - varsity letter winners only - had a school room full of blue blazers with the school insignia over the pocket and we had to wear dress clothes and a tie with it.  We, mostly low- and lower-middle-class kids, thought we looked like Naval Academy Midshipmen when we went to Orioles games, etc. as a group and felt very proud.

One of the most memorable trips was to the first EVER basketball game between Navy and the Air Force Academy played at the Naval Academy in Annapolis in '67 or '68 - 1/2 hour from our school.  Navy won.  Two members of my high school class that were also there that night ended up going to Navy, one being wrestler Lloyd "Butch" Keaser who won a World Championships Gold Medal in 1973 and an Olympic Silver Medal in 1976.

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My boarding school had a weekend excursion to a local campground that had swimming holes and shoals you could slide down. 
There was a pot field in the woods just on the other side of the river. We found it and stripped it like starving locusts. The dorms stunk of green crappy weed until Christmas break. 

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I was a baby boomer, my schools were too busy trying to build schools as fast as the class size was growing. The only field trip I was aware of was the senior trip to Washington DC. It was good, when you know it’s one and done and you have twelve years to plan your shenanigans it was pretty wild. I don’t know how long we were in Washington, it felt like a week, was at least three or four days. I was ashamed of the way my class behaved. You can have fun and do wild stuff without damaging property or stealing stuff.

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12 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

We rarely got "big" field trips as kids.  My favorites that were "repeating" would always be the Franklin Institute and the Philly Zoo.  I'd take kids to either nowadays as well.  I don't remember any trips to Hershey Park or Great Adventure (or Dorney Park) as a field trip as a kid.  I did enjoy Longwood Gardens as a kid, if only for being outside and being able to wander the estate.  As a teen, the German club got to go to Disney World, so that was fun.  Not sure how that even got arranged as we didn't go to any sort of competition or anything, just several days driving down, going to the two Disney resorts (Epcot and Magic Kingdom at that time), and a bunch of canoodling. 

Franklin institute was great. 

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Not really a field trip, but as a member of my high school marching band, we got to go and play the halftime at a Baltimore Colts game.  1964.  I don't remember who they were playing.  We sat on the field behind the Colts team benches and had a poor view of the game.  But I do remember seeing my childhood hero, Johnny Unitas, playing football from a very close distance.  I also remember seeing Raymond Berry and Jimmy Orr. 

For the most part, playing in the marching band sucked, but that was a pretty cool trip for a high school kid back in those days.  

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7 hours ago, Road Runner said:

Not really a field trip, but as a member of my high school marching band, we got to go and play the halftime at a Baltimore Colts game.  1964.  I don't remember who they were playing.  We sat on the field behind the Colts team benches and had a poor view of the game.  But I do remember seeing my childhood hero, Johnny Unitas, playing football from a very close distance.  I also remember seeing Raymond Berry and Jimmy Orr. 

For the most part, playing in the marching band sucked, but that was a pretty cool trip for a high school kid back in those days.  

I went to Philthydelphia for the bicentennial celebration with the town band that had recruited a ton of us high school kids. It was fun.  

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