Although field trips can be fun, outside-the-classroom experiences for middle schoolers, most no longer provide anything new to the learning experience in high school.
As such, a good number of field trips should be cut from the school’s curriculum because they not only are ineffective, but also require too much money and teacher effort to justify the meager educational returns.
Field trips are supposed to serve as a way to educate students in an environment outside the traditional classroom setting; however, for most students, field trips simply act as a free day off from school. While this isn’t necessarily bad, it does highlight how most field trips have strayed from their intended purpose and are often highly ineffective, with many students prioritizing socializing with friends instead of learning.
The underlying theory behind field trips — that they can offer something or accomplish something that a normal classroom setting cannot — is simply not true, especially these days. Advances in technology and curriculum have allowed the hands-on experimentation that field trips are known for to become more accessible, enabling student exposure to this unique style of learning from within the classroom.
This is not to say that all field trips are ineffective. There are a few exceptions that absolutely should not be removed from the school’s curriculum. For example, the Media Arts Program’s junior trip to Los Angeles as well as Redwood Middle School band’s trip to Disneyland are great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that can’t be experienced in a classroom.
It’s also worth noting that significant field trips, like the previous MAP example, often have more social rather than educational aspects. In MAP’s case, this social aspect is an intended part of the experience, but the socializing for most one-day field trips detracts from any real learning.
Field trips can also require a sizable amount of money to fund transportation, lodging and admission fees. This money should, whenever possible, be used by the school for more relevant purposes, like funding for facilities and sports. This is especially important this year, as fundraising and donation efforts have been going down drastically, which is impacting a lot of sports and music programs like water polo and band.
Organizing field trips is also an extraordinary investment for teachers, who often act alone or in a small group to get them planned. As part of the greater restrictions on fundraising implemented last year, teachers are now required to “ask for donations” instead of requesting direct payment for field trips, furthering their burden.
To resolve these problems, the school should cut most ineffective, single-day field trips in favor of larger, once-in-a-lifetime field trips. At the very least, big trips do provide value to the educational system. In place of smaller field trips, the school should focus on implementing cost effective learning opportunities within the school, such as speaker assemblies or bigger in-class projects.