I think when they were being told that the Baltimore Aquarium and Smithsonian were no longer approved functions/field trips.. the two oldest flipped. The “new” field trips were “in house” and featured “cultural experiences” like dance. The entire school could participate from one PTA fee. So, no cool bus rides, no cool dolphins, no cool historic sites... just dance. Of course, it was presented like it was “all fair” and “good”. You can only fool children for so long and they see the writing on the wall. :)
“”You can only fool children for so long and they see the writing on the wall. :)””
Oh! I do hope you’re right. Of course, when that all sinks in, they’d have to move to a different state to survive. You’d have to go with them, of course!
We would take the special ed class (aka life skills class) on relatively free field trips about every other week. They were about the only students who got to go anywhere. The school would furnish a couple of vans for transportation and we (teachers) would drive so the school didn’t have to pay for drivers. There was no way the parents could afford admission so I’d find somewhere that was free. The lunchroom packed sandwiches (they had sack lunches all the time for those lunch accounts were empty so that was no big deal) so lunch and drink costs weren’t a problem.
We’d go to free admission days at museums or library story hour. There was a goat milking farm that let them milk the goats, learn about making cheese and the wonderful owners grilled them goat burgers! The state park let them in free to go geocaching, hiking and fishing. Or we’d do the missions in San Antonio. Or the ice cream factory, etc.
One of their life skills was learning to cook so other students would give them their unopened milk, fruit juice and fruit instead of trashing it so that would save on ingredient costs. We’d sell baked goods like banana bread, apple pies and cookies so the kids could split the money and learn to shop at Walmart or drive into the city to a mall.
Field trips don’t need to cost much but schools have a habit of squashing fun. They stopped those field trips and cooking class when we three teachers quit.