This is the third in a series of posts about student field trips to the east coast; namely to Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and/or Boston. Part one focuses on the benefits of these kinds of trips, part 2 discusses why it is more cost effective to not use a travel company. With tough economic times and budget crunches at schools, some may think these trips are not fiscally feasible. You might be surprised.
HOT TIPS FOR PLANNING:
This is the time of year when every teacher can tell you exactly what is good about getting out, but I’m not talking about teachers. Students are my focus, specifically students who lack experiential learning.
Those students are often children from inner cities, but more and more of them are showing up in rural and even suburban areas.
A story in the New York Times about a principal and her students being hurt by the Race to the Top rules made me rethink my view of field trips. My previous position was that I totally dislike them.
From my teacher point of view they require additional planning, additional paperwork, often a long ride in an uncomfortable school bus, and additional risk. Because of a student drowning just before the end of the school year just past and its preventability, the risks have been foremost in my mind.
But like I said, this is not about teachers.
From the student point of view, field trips are, at worst, a day out of the classroom. Paradoxically, having a day out of the classroom may also be the best thing about field trips. If I haven’t already made it clear here or in my personal blog, I love teaching but I am not a big fan of classrooms or school buildings.
I am not a fan because I believe that for a great many students being in a classroom all day actually interferes with learning.
The students I teach know a lot. They know poverty, they know hip hop, they know sneakers and labels, they know that a lot of what we try to teach them in school will not make the slightest difference in their lives even if they learn it. They know that for many of them their lives will not be so different from the lives their parent’s have led. This is not a good thing.Many of my students have not been out of their neighborhood in the Bronx until we take them out on school trips.
I grew up in NYC. I went to NYC public schools, but my education was very different from the education these students are getting.
It has nothing to do with the schools being better or worse. They were pretty oppressive places 40 years ago and they still are.
The difference is (more…)
Schools had less than a year to adjust curriculums and teaching to reflect this schedule change. And there was one other problem. Prior to this year the ELA test scores arrived in mid to late May, four months after the test. The Math results often arrived just in time for June promotion decisions.
When the exam dates were changed speedier results were promised. Yeah, right.
Last week NYC schools had to make promotion decisions but the test scores were not available. The exam scores are promised for July 28th. I’ll believe it when I see it. While the state could not provide tests scores it did provide schools with lists of students who, at least in theory, passed or failed the exams based on their answers to multiple-choice machine-scored portions of the exams.
That excluded parts of the ELA exam that measured writing ability any sections of the math exam that included problem solving and calculation.
Here’s the catch: the state freely admits that these lists are very likely to contain errors. Some children who could likely pass the entire test were listed as failing and others who might actually have failed the complete exam were listed as passing.
In other words, some student who passed the exam and should have been promoted will have to go to summer school while some other student who might have failed will not. Some student who might have graduated middle school will be excluded from participating in the graduation ceremony with his or her classmates while some other student will participate who, perhaps, should not be able to.
In a rare bout of generosity, the state says any student allowed to graduate will not have to return his diploma and repeat 8th grade even if it is later determined that he failed one or both tests.
Could someone please tell me again why we give these tests?
If I remember correctly these tests were supposed to be about teaching better so students would learn better.
What is happening instead is that students are given the message that the system is broken, that little of what happens in it makes sense.
Perhaps that is why my 8th grade students made absolutely no effort to pass the state social studies test. That one was given on June 14th, precisely one week before graduation.
The scores for that one won’t be available until at least October.
Everyone seems to be having budget woes. Individuals, school districts, cities, states and the federal government all seem to have hit the wall that stands between fiscal reality and societal aspirations.
That’s a fancy way of saying we want more than we can pay for.
In the past, when we wanted more than what the current income could pay for we borrowed; we used credit cards, second mortgages, bonds, and other forms of IOUs to make the purchases.
Now those IOUs are due and we don’t have enough income to pay them off and continue spending at the same time.
In my house, when things get tough we sit down and figure out what we can cut back on, what we can do without.
Cities and school districts are doing the same thing.The choices are tough. None of the options are pleasant and some are unbearable. Not eating is not an option, but we can eat less. We can give up expensive steak for cheaper hamburger. Not having teachers is not an option, but we can have fewer of them.
Many districts are laying-off teachers in record numbers. And many districts are trying to find ways to lay off more expensive senior teachers in favor of less expensive new ones.
Districts try to justify this blatant ageism by claiming that more senior teachers are less effective than newly minted ones. They try to sell the gullible public on the notion that more senior teachers are burnt-out and ineffective, just going through the motions and collecting a sizeable paycheck until they reach retirement.There are some teachers like that. Not many.
Unfortunately, the idea of school as business has also taken root. Mayors like New York City’s Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, are seizing control of school systems and putting bean counters in charge of education,
While most American schools operate on a factory model, they are not factories and not businesses. I could go into details of how schools differ from businesses, but its been done before and is getting tedious.
Instead, I’m going to point out that most businesses fail.
Businesses fail for exactly the same reasons schools fail: under-financing, misuse of resources, lack of clear concept and direction, bloated or out-dates product lines, over-promising while under delivering, and bad management. I’m saying this as someone who worked in and managed businesses in a variety of fields before becoming a classroom teacher at age 50.
The school-as-business advocates point to Fedex, Apple, Microsoft and the like as models. I remind them of Enron, Washington Mutual, Chrysler, and the tens of thousands of small businesses that fold every year. There is also a very basic philosophical difference between schools and businesses.
Schools are all about very long-term investments; businesses are about short-term returns. Cutting staff in a business can make the annual dividend bigger; cutting teachers in a school can make the generational dividend much, much smaller.
The effect of not having that music, art, gym or math teacher today won’t show up for another ten to fifteen years and by that time no one will connect it to today’s teacher layoff. That delayed effect is why teachers seem more expendable than sanitation workers, for example.
People notice right away if the streets are piled with garbage, but we may never know how many potential scientists, artists, musicians or writers never get developed or what the actual cost of that will be.
I know people get tired of hearing it, but teachers ARE different.
This the finale of a 5 part series on the current educational system, Mr. Franklin’s views on how to best reform the system, and the leadership elective class that he has set up as a model for this kind of change. While Mr. Franklin’s views are shared by many, they are not necessarily representative of all other educators. Read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
A: Leadership is a form of talent – some people are naturally born leaders. But just because someone is a natural leader doesn’t mean they are necessarily a good leader, and I teach them specific skills to make them effective leaders, such as how to build a team, overcome fear, communication skills and conflict management skills. Even if a child is not a natural born leader, the skill sets learned in my class can be applied to other facets of life that will help the child make good choices and succeed. I suppose you are asking if I teach any “hands on” skills, like art. The answer is “not really”. As I said before, we need more electives, electives that cover the full spectrum of non-academic talents, so that every child can find their gift. Unfortunately, money is not herded in that direction these days and non-academic talents are going unrecognized.
Q: You have said a couple times now that you believe your leadership class benefits the students’ overall education, but can you tangibly prove that?
A: I’d guess that my class improves my students’ academics. I’ve never tried to prove it, nor is it really necessary. What’s important to me is making strides and finding and utilizing talent. That said, my class is considered an extra-curricular activity, and like all extracurricular activities, the students are required to maintain a 2.0 GPA requirement. To go on the trips, they must maintain a 2.5 GPA. I don’t obsess with the kids GPA, so long as they stay eligible. But, since the leadership class is fun and the field trips – particularly the trip to DC – are amazing, the students are motivated to keep their grades up in their academic classes. Students who are normally underachievers in certain subjects tend to do better in those subjects.
Also, I have parents tell me things like, “My daughter went from watching cartoons to CNN after enrolling in your class. Thank you.” I have had several students go on to get internships in various political offices – one even was almost accepted as a White House intern — and have thanked me for exposing them to the fact that the opportunities exist.
Q: How do you pay for all of your field trips?
A: Two words: hard work. Some of the fundraisers my students put on are for the whole school, but some are for the field trips for our class. The school is able to provide a small portion, and we ask for donations from the community. The rest is paid by students’ families. I insist that the kids work to earn their money and not have mom and dad write a check. To go to DC, the kids need to prove they mowed lawns, babysat, etc.
Also, to reduce costs, instead of using event planner/travel companies to coordinate the field trips, I do all the planning myself. For the DC trip, eliminating the travel company saves a tremendous amount of money—less we have to raise, and less families must pay themselves. It is the difference between my students being able to afford to go or not.
The hard work is necessary, and pays off in many ways. Ours DC trip is not like any other. This year, we also went to New York City, Philadelphia and Boston.
Q: How do you cram so much into one class session?
A: The class is a year long and we meet after school and sometimes on Saturdays. I made the class after school for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted students who are assigned to an extra academic class to be able to participate. Second, I didn’t want to have time constraints, making field trips, certain projects and some tasks that might run longer than the class period more viable. Doing this after school, simply put, allows for more time.
Q: It sounds like you sacrifice quite a bit of your personal time and energy for this class.
A: Yes, I do. But the impact that it has on the kids is worth it. As the enthusiastic principal at our school used to say, “The kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I cannot begin to tell you how rewarding it is to broaden kids’ horizons, to expose them to a bigger world and help them see the opportunities that exist. I cannot tell you how rewarding it is to see these children overcome incredible personal hardship thanks to the skills they learn in leadership. My hope is that as I have helped these students flourish, the students will go on to become leaders and help others in the local community, and possibly even city, state or country, flourish as well. One need not be elected to be a leader!
Q: Mr. Franklin, this leadership class is incredibly impressive. I sincerely hope for your continued success in the programs, and that other schools will begin to emulate the program!
A: It’s copyrighted. Just kidding. Thank you.
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Christi Grab is contributing editor and writer for Parentella. She is a native of Southern California. After graduating from San Diego State University, she went on to be a successful business woman. In April of 2007, she and her husband decided to put their careers on hold and travel the world for two years. Ms. Grab has recently returned from her travels and is currently writing a book about their adventure. For more information on the trip, visit http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog.
