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Hi Kristine,

I am assuming your son is NOT in kindergarten.  If he is, his teachers must be amazing to be willing to take kindergartners on a 3-day trip.  

As a former middle school teacher, I helped chaperone many trips over the years - to Mexico and Washington D.C.  The most important criteria included if they were respectful of each other, their teachers, and the school's rules and policies. My grandson was invited on an amazing trip in high school, and he had to have a high grade point average as well.  Since it was a cultural trip, it would make sense that the school would want students who were interested in learning, especially more about other cultures. I think he was required to write an essay as well.

I would imagine that Jekyll Island has many educational features that make it an attractive destination for a field trip in Georgia.  I can see why your son's teachers would want to offer it to students who have shown an interest in learning as evidenced by higher grades.  However, hopefully that was not the only consideration.  Whatever the mechanism for determining who can participate, let's hope that it is equitable and takes into consideration more than one factor to allow as many interested student participants as possible. Having received the occasional C myself, I would have been ecstatic to have had an opportunity like that.  I hope your son has/had a great time!  

Sincerely,

Carolyn Mohr,

Adj. Professor, Dominican Universtiy & Southern Illinois University/Carbondale

Hello Kristine! 

I am a 4th year major at Wartburg and this post really brought many things to my attention. First, I have never heard of going on a multi-day field trip with students that young of age. I think that is a lot for them and a lot of responsibility for teachers and trust from the parents. I feel it would also be pretty costly for the students and parents for that many days on a field trip. Another thing that really brought to my attention was the grade in order to attend the trip. I do not see the need for that to be a requirement in order to gain experience in science. I think it should be for all students as the more experience, the better for anyone. Nobody should be held back for a grade because that is not fair for everyone. If the school or teacher decides to take a field trip, everyone no matter who should be welcome to come on the field trip. I would have to agree with you on your reasoning as I have also never heard of that before and I would also agree that this should improve that grade if anything. It would be a fun and engaging experience for all students and would allow them to gain more interest in the subject. I feel all students should get to go with parent content (and funds if needed) to get that extra experience because it's ultimately just not fair for everyone. This kind of defeats the purpose of NCLB because all children deserve the same education and experiences if able. I hope this helps ease things a little bit! 

Hi Kristen, I understand both sides of this situation you are posing. 3 days is a long time to be in charge of a group of students. It may be difficult for teachers and chaperones to handle students that have a lot of behavior issues. If it were my class, I don't think I would be able to exclude a large chunk of studnets becuse of low grades. I think the best solution would be to have two field trips. One that the whole class can have fun and engage with. Then have a second that takes place Friday - Sunday or another time period. THis would encourage all of the students to get their grdes up, without excluding the class from having this experience.