Field trips are always an interesting experience. In this day and age they have become even more so. Parents need to have limited criminal history checks before they can volunteer, teachers have to a carry a pharmacy with them to meet the medical needs of each student, and that doesn’t even get into the issues with getting one approved or getting the kids ready.

Students are always excited about a field trip and I always tell my class about my first field trip experience as an adult. I was in college and working in a class that was going to the theatre. The kids were excited and as I’m getting ready checking things off this one child comes up holding her head saying she had bumped it while running to get to the classroom. She removed her hand and I saw the blood. Was she upset that she had to go get stitches? No she was upset because she was going to miss the field trip. Kids who normally would fake any illness to miss school, come to school sick and end up vomiting on the bus.

While it may seem like chaos, and the teacher might resemble Patton barking orders, there is a method to it. The time I left it to parents to check things was when it went horribly wrong (but that is another strip) which is one reason I don’t take a group of students and wander between groups making sure everyone is fine.

I don’t know what it is about the Indiana State Museum trip but while the other classes are bursting with parents that want to go, I always come up short, must be my magnetic personality, or the monkey.