Remember those fun-filled elementary school days when students got to leave school and embark on a relaxing day filled with paper lunches and socializing? Oh, the joys of those field trips. We never, however, thought about the immense amount of work teachers put into planning the excursions and the policies they had to follow to make our fun possible.
For a simple one-day field trip, teachers must fill out numerous forms, describing the transportation and attendance of students. A permission form is necessary, plus approval of the trip from the school and county. Teachers must create a list of the students who have paid, a deposit form that has the information from the list on it, a request for funds for the trip, transportation and a substitute, and many other forms with minor details.
To get an over-night field trip approved by the county, teachers must fill out the MCPS Form 210-4 Travel/Study Approval form for Overnight Trips and Extended Trips Out of the Washington Metropolitan Area, an itinerary for the extended trip, an MCPS Form 560-31 Application to Participate in an Activity Away from School for which MCPS Transportation is Not Provided and Parent Financial Responsibility Form, a permission slip, an emergency plan, a chaperone list and orientation procedures. Each one of these forms has extensive categories that teachers must fill out, such as how the objectives relate to the curriculum.
Even after putting in all of this work, sometimes trips are not approved due to minor issues. For example, the long-anticipated AP Environmental Science trip to the Virgin Islands did not get approved this year because teacher Laura Dinerman had to check a box that stated she would pay for any student who could not afford the trip. Though she explained to the county that there were three other spring field trips available to students, the trip had to get cancelled due to this insignificant rule.
It is completely ridiculous that teachers should have to put in hours of work and fill out repetitive forms so that they can educate their students with hands-on experiences that cannot be recreated in a classroom. Since when does the county have the right to expect teachers to be able to shell out more than a thousand dollars for students? MCPS needs to let teachers do the teaching instead of having them spend hours doing tedious busy work that their job descriptions do not include. The extent of preparing for a field trip should only include a permission form, detailed planning of the trip itself, and the collection of money. Teachers do not need to be bogged down with explaining every little detail of the trip. For example, one of the orientation procedures asks the teachers to explain the roles and responsibilities of chaperones. Easy: Chaperones come on the trip and help the teacher watch the kids. It does not require an entire form to explain it.
Field trips are all about learning and experiencing the real world, especially in classes like AP Environmental Science, where students cannot sufficiently learn unless they are outside examining the world around them. MCPS should let the teachers do the teaching and remember that education is of the utmost importance, not filling out form after form. Many trips are going to come up that not everyone can pay for. MCPS needs not worry so much about regulations and whether students can afford the trip or not, and focus on the educational experience that students would have gained from these trips.