School trips - how expectations have changed.

@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
October 22, 2016 10:14am CST
On our flight last night from London to Delhi we found a large party of kids from Ireland in matching T-shirts. We think they were a school party or possibly a hockey club. Anyway, it's not so important what they were but we were left feeling REALLY old and underprivileged. When I was at school, the main residential stay trip was the school trip to Devizes, a nowhere kind of place about 30 miles from Salisbury where we stayed in a grotty 'field studies centre'. My husband's school trip was to a place with a big sand pit (the details seem to have been lost in the mists of time). When commenting about this trend for schools to do super-luxury trips, I got a comment from a friend who'd saved for her dream holiday in the Bahamas, only to find a school party in the same hotel. What's gone wrong? How is it possible that schools - not just expensive fee-paying schools - are organising such outrageously expensive school trips? When I was at school, the day trip to Glastonbury Tor and the Fleet Air museum at Yeovilton was a stretch for some of the parents to pay for and the school had a special 'distress' fund for picking up the costs for the kids whose parents were out of work or financially 'distressed'. Something tells me they wouldn't be able to pick up the costs for a fortnight in India.
17 people like this
17 responses
@MALUSE (69428)
• Germany
22 Oct 16
I know what you're talking about! I don't know how often I've talked my mouth fuzzy (as the Germans say) in meetings at school and ranted against this trend. Yet, to no avail. The school I taught at has exchange programmes with towns in Italy, France, Russia, Ukraine, the USA and Thailand. Crazy! The parents should protest, too. But the ones who have the money, don't say anything because they see no reason to complain, the poor ones keep their mouth shut because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. There is also a school fund to help them but it has its limits. So the pupils whose parents can't afford the trip don't participate. If I could, I'd forbid such trips at once.
4 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
22 Oct 16
My school had a small trip to Russia. Only about 15 of us a year did Russian so it was not a big trip, as you can imagine. I spent that summer working in a shop but one of my friends did go and the whole group got salmonella. She then lost her part time job at the chip shop and I felt less sad that I didn't have the money for such adventures.
2 people like this
@Mike197602 (15491)
• United Kingdom
22 Oct 16
I'm 40 and our school did similar trips. We were twinned with schools in the US so there were yearly trips there and then to another place in peru. I never went but when I moved from junior high to high school I went skiing every year which was good...I paid for most of the skiing trips myself with job money.
2 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
23 Oct 16
We did French and German school exchanges every year (I didn't do either thankfully, nor my sister) but I did do a one-off Swedish exchange when I was 14. She came to us for 3 weeks during school term and I went for 2 in the holidays but it wasn't specifically our school - lots of schools in the area did it.
2 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Oct 16
Is it paid by the school or by the parents ? I did a few trips to foreign countries when I was at school, and it was not expensive at all because the school was paying a large part.
1 person likes this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
22 Oct 16
From France it's relatively easy to put a load of kids in a bus and drive them to another country. That's not possible with India or the Bahamas. I think it's acceptable if the distance and cost isn't too far and the kids can all get involved in fundraising.
2 people like this
@SIMPLYD (90727)
• Philippines
26 Oct 16
Actually , this happens in some posh schools here . Though this has been questioned by some parents , because not all can't afford it since there are students there who are just scholars courtesy of the school .
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (453792)
• Switzerland
23 Oct 16
This trend started many years ago and I cannot understand how parents can pay for such expensive trips. I would be upset to find noisy students in a top class hotel if I booked a vacation there.
1 person likes this
• United States
22 Oct 16
We never went on class trips or any trips - and I sure don't feel like I missed out on life.
1 person likes this
@youless (112054)
• Guangzhou, China
23 Oct 16
Here in the primary school, my son's school trips were just around our city. And now my son is a grade 7 student. This month their school had arranged a trip for them and it located in our city. I heard that some schools will have an overseas trip and I think somewhat it will be a big burden for some parents because the cost will be so expensive. Not every family can really afford it because it is unexpected expense for them. And parents will have more worries since it is a trip abroad.
@youless (112054)
• Guangzhou, China
23 Oct 16
@boiboing This is why I don't think it is a good idea for a school to have this kind of trip. Not all the parents can afford it. And the students who can't have a travel because of the financial problem, it may make them feel shameful.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
23 Oct 16
I think it's just one more pressure on both the parents and the children.
1 person likes this
@skysnap (20154)
22 Oct 16
Delhi is metro city so expensive. But other parts in india are not so expensive. But delhi sure is as expensive as new york.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
22 Oct 16
I don't know where they were actually heading to but I hope it was somewhere less expensive than Delhi.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
23 Oct 16
the biggest one I had was a trip to florida (band trip, and we hailed then from Iowa). Took us a year of fundraising, and that money was split up anyone who wanted to go could, even those whose families couldnt help with costs.
@Fleura (28885)
• United Kingdom
2 Nov 16
Wow! We went on a day-trip to Boulogne!
@KnehKnah (3584)
• Philippines
26 Oct 16
Oh! Times has changed a lot! Our Educational Tour in College were visits to other schools, business establishment, before a lunch in a beach followed by an hour swimming. Then, off we zoom back to the University. Have to be there before 6 in the evening or parents will demand hours of explanation from the Faculty. Today? The young students simply board a motorcycle, spend resto/bistro hopping then hours in a beach & stay there overnight. Their parents? No complaints.
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Oct 16
I can't imagine how parents could pay for such a thing. It must be wealthy private schools who do those trips.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
22 Oct 16
My friend's son is at a state school and will do a cricket 'tour' in India next year. So it's not just the fee-paying schools that are doing these crazy travels.
1 person likes this
• Eugene, Oregon
22 Oct 16
@boiboing How will that tour be financed I wonder?
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
23 Oct 16
@JamesHxstatic I don't have kids so I've not had that conversation but I suspect it's a mix of the school doing fundraising and the parents putting their hands in their pockets.
1 person likes this
@just4him (302287)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
24 Oct 16
When I was in high school the school did a trip, one taken every three years to give all students the opportunity to go. It was costly, and took place during the spring vacation time so the kids didn't miss classes. I couldn't go as my family didn't have that kind of ability to do so. It was a trip east to visit Washington D.C. and the various battle fields of the Revolutionary War and Civil War.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
24 Oct 16
I'd have to say that sounds very educational.
1 person likes this
@just4him (302287)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
25 Oct 16
@boiboing It was and one I would have loved to go on.
@paigea (35452)
• Canada
23 Oct 16
I know. When I was a kid, if there was a girl guide trip or something, we brought sleeping bags and slept on a gym floor or something similar. When my girls joined a sports team, we traveled and had to book hotel rooms! When I was in school so very long ago, school field trip was not in the vocabulary.
@hora_fugit (5862)
• India
22 Oct 16
So you are in India.... *thinking*
@celticeagle (157281)
• Boise, Idaho
22 Oct 16
They have fundraisers and do car washes now days. Some kids work very hard to raise the money for trips.
@teamfreak16 (43451)
• Denver, Colorado
22 Oct 16
Our trips just consisted of field trips, the longest about 75 miles away.