School trips (by bus)

[Trenchfriend]

This is a topic, I always liked to discuss. I mean the classic week-long school trips in secondary school, normally by bus.

What were your experiences?

We had the regulary trips end of 6th/8th/10th class. And I was always that type of kid, that questioned such curious relics from a totally different time, as long as it has something to do with "group action".

6th class was a really nice trip with interesting excursions. Former Inner German Border, interesting and (for 12yo) kind of sinister 66,4 hectare low moor, an impressing former german salt mine with 21 kilometer tour deep down, a state-of-the-art modern dairy factory and my favorite thuringian (thermal) pool fun bath .
This trip, I would do again!

8th class was a "lead balloon". A six-hours bus trip to Rheinland Pfalz. Four nights "classic" youth hostel on a small mountain next to an extreme provincial smalltown. Not noteworthy excursions, dark and depressive region. Kind of a useless trip. Pirmasens?? Bah...

10th class. The class (majority) decided to visit the Costa Brava/Catalunya. Yes, THE stupid and cheap "standard" end-of-school bustrip to Lloret de Mar!
But that wasn't the main point for me to quit. The main point was the 23 hours bus ride, WITH of course school classes in the bus!
Oh my, what a horror!! And even have to try to sleep in the bus? Come on!!

BAH, enjoy the ride, but without me! Two other boys decided to quit, too.
One of the best decisions in my life! Avoiding so much stress and not having missed much. And Lloret de Mar was and still is a dump.
But the funny point was, that I knew my (typical idealess) class so well and already years before, it was so clear to me, that the last school trip would end this way.
In the week after, there was more or less silence in our class and I never heared anyone talk about the trip again. Not a bit of excitement.

But my final opinion is still, that these classic week-long school trips are today useless, in general. To me, It's a thing from a totally different time, when kids hadn't much. But for us teens in the 90s and 2001, such trips were mostly "stress for nothing".
But you don't have to take part on such trips, in Germany. You have to stay at school or go practicum, instead.
And the interesting point in Germany is, that we now have the situtation, that many teachers don't want to go on classic week-long school trips anymore. And they basically don't have to, because it's their leisure time.

 

[Harp]

This is a topic, I always liked to discuss. I mean the classic week-long school trips in secondary school, normally by bus.

What were your experiences?
Not noteworthy excursions, dark and depressive region. Kind of a useless trip...

I took a bus trip in Germany when I attended the Bundeswehr Commando Course in Hammelberg.
Not a classic, week-long trip though, just for the day. I was ordered to volunteer and promised we
would meet some German girls. Uh huh. Bused to the Opel Russelsheim, Frankfurt Am Main factory,
given a factory floor tour of the assembly line operation staffed by Croatian men, served lunch,
and bused back. No girls. And a five mile run for good measure because we were ungrateful.

Not noteworthy, dark and depressive, a completely useless trip.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We never did anything but daytrips by bus, but the most memorable was a trip to the Nissen Baking Company plant in Brewer when I was in the second grade. Every kid got a free loaf of bread, and I ate all of mine on the bus on the way home. I had to sit next to this dumb boy named Philip who could turn his eyelids inside out, and the bread proved a valuable distraction.

My mother took her only trip to New York of her entire life on a school bus trip in 1957, and still remarks with horror about the 5th Avenue cabbie that yelled at her cousin for crossing the street the wrong way. Even after sixty-four years, the urban terror lingers. "If that's how they are there," she says, "I'm not ever goin' back!"

 

[Trenchfriend]

Aside from the week-long trips at the end of some grades, we got normally two excursion days every year, which were still called "W-a-n-d-e-r-t-a-g"/field day/class outing (!), believe it or not. But these days could be filled with any kind of excursion. Mostly, these days ended in idealess, boring and useless short trips.

But I will not depart too much from the main topic.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Like Lizzie I never went on a long trip with any school I attended & day outings were rare. The only one I clearly recall was a trip to visit a Turner exhibition with our art class. It was very embarrasing because afterwards, the teacher took me aside & asked what I thought of it.........I can't remember what I said to her but I was very shy so it was probably something stupid. I would have been between 13 & 15.
Needless to say I appreciate Turner more today than I did back then. Titian & Dali rang my bell at the time.

 

[Turnip]

Hmmm, let’s see...

One week West-Berlin in junior high, early 80s, hanging out in bars like KuDorf...around Ku-Damm, showing the finger to DDR-border police from watch platforms...

Ten days Tuscany in secondary high, based in Florence, visiting places like Pisa, Siena..., party all day and night, massively supporting the Chianti industry, flirting with US girls...

Most remarkable has been a one day trip to DDR in early eighties, felt like kind of a Safari experience. Everybody had to pay 15 bucks admission per head and day, 25 bucks for adults, a Teddy Thälmann lookalike entered the bus as our guide and we’ve been driven around. We visited a LPG, a rather huge red army memorial...
Walking main streets the houses looked relatively OK, going twice around the corner I expected the movie to turn to black and white, just like the war has been over a week ago...
Didn’t know where to spend my 15 bucks for something legal making sense so I finally sunk them in a gully when felt unobserved as it was not allowed to „export“ that currency.

Edith: Forgot to mention one week Black Forest in junior high, boring days, what saved was playing Skat and drinking beer with our English teacher in the evening.

 

[AeroFan_07]

Great thread topic & idea here...

My Junior year (11th grade) of High school our Agriculture instructor arranged a trip for Junior & Senior class Ag students to the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. We were based near Champaign, IL so about a 3 hour bus trip to downtown Chicago. Since we only had ~ 20 students, we opened the trip up to a Business class, making for about 40 on the bus that way. How little did we realize the error that would be.

The trip up went smoothly and everyone had fun oohing & ahhing in the middle of downtown Chicago. Our Ag teacher was a very good bus driver and handled downtown traffic without issue. We had all just settled into a classroom in the Board of trade to watch an intro video when suddenly smoke started filling the room and a smoke alarm went off! We exited the area and were sent to a looby to wait. We had been in the classroom less than 10 minuites. Then several men in suits took our Ag teacher and one of the other two teachers away. We knew this was bad. Turns out a smoke bomb had been set off by one of the students under thier desk, and another desk had been broken - right next to the smoke bomb desk.

We were "kicked out" of the Board of Trade in less than 15 minuites!

When our teachers got us all back on the bus, the lead teacher - our Agriculture instructor - turned around to all of us and after a brief lecture on how embarrassed he was by all of us, said - "Nothing is to be heard from any of you." "No talking at all." We proceeded to make it out of Chicago and back to our High School in only about 2.5 hours. We never stopped anywhere at all. It was the most silent, scared bunch of high schooler's I can ever remember being around.

Two of the Business class students finally fessed up to what they had done, and I believe one was even expelled due to that. It was a very valuable lesson in respect, and what "not" to do on a field trip. This took place in the late '80's.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When we were on the above mentioned one week-long trip at the end of 6th grade in 1997, we visited one simple museal point of the former Inner German Border. I think it must have been Tann, because it was in fact still in the Rhoen.

One or two of the stupid or hyperactive boys went freaky and started trying to climb over one of the gates. I think, it were the ones in the back. Our teachers reacted too late. And you can surely imagine, what happened to the fastest boy, when he reached the top with his hand... So Uncle Doc had to stitch up, immediately!

And for the rest of the whole trip, he had to permanently pay attention to his bandaged hand...

 

[tonyb]

For some reason I generally remember the bus rides more than the destinations, especially the field trips in my elementary school years.

Took a couple-three field trips to art museums in high school. Those introductions had me returning on my own time and my own terms in later years.

 

[Bushman]

I remember as a kid we mostly went to museums like the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry: Chicago, but we did go to Brookfield Zoo one year.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always wanted to visit Brookfield -- I once did some work on a book idea dealing with the first giant panda ever imported into the US, in 1937, and that panda lived at Brookfield. She's at the Field Museum now, but I guess you can't say she lives there.

 

[Fifty150]

In my corner of the world, the school district never brought students on trips like that. No money.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I've always wanted to visit Brookfield -- I once did some work on a book idea dealing with the first giant panda ever imported into the US, in 1937, and that panda lived at Brookfield. She's at the Field Museum now, but I guess you can't say she lives there.

Zoos were a great fallback destination when my oldest son was still a baby and my wife was working a Baylor @ Children's Memorial. That meant that for full time pay and benefits (plus shift differential for hours actually worked) she had to put in two 12 hour shifts (7 PM to 7 AM) on Saturdays and Sundays. She'd come home exhausted at 9 AM, and the message was essentially, "You- and that kid- OUT of my house because I need my sleep!" So I'd pack up baby, stroller, and all essentials and head out for the day. Looking back, it was an excellent father & son bonding opportunity.

Brookfield was one destination, but Lincoln Park Zoo was preferred: it was more compact, and the animal nursery was always a hit with my charge. They seemed to take better care of the animals as well. (And, admission was always free.) Brookfield could look a bit worn if county budget restraints were an issue as well.

The County Zoo in Milwaukee was over an hour drive away, but with bambino in his car seat fast asleep it was worth it. They had a great miniature zoo train ride that always delighted kids, too. Great memories.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I really enjoyed the National Zoo in Washington, where I got to see a fed-up gorilla dad tell his two teenage sons to SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE HELL UP. It was a lot better than the sad little roadside zoo thing they used to have in Bar Harbor when I was little. All they had was a psychotic chimp who'd throw poop at you and a couple of goats who'd eat the belt off your raincoat if you let them.

 

[Harp]

I've always wanted to visit Brookfield -- I once did some work on a book idea dealing with the first giant panda ever imported into the US, in 1937, and that panda lived at Brookfield. She's at the Field Museum now, but I guess you can't say she lives there.

I had a meeting, Jaguar broke down, fixed it, made a wrong turn, stopped to ask directions-and I saw
the Brookfield Zoo sign. I decided to ditch the meeting entirely, called off cell phone, visited the Zoo instead.
I forgot to get a plastic gorilla for my desk.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I really enjoyed the National Zoo in Washington, where I got to see a fed-up gorilla dad tell his two teenage sons to SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE HELL UP. It was a lot better than the sad little roadside zoo thing they used to have in Bar Harbor when I was little. All they had was a psychotic chimp who'd throw poop at you and a couple of goats who'd eat the belt off your raincoat if you let them.

Nixon got us the two giant pandas @ the National Zoo and my kid sister insisted that we detour their to see them. Finally made it and we saw two huge lumps of white and black fur sleeping in a corner of their area.

My wife made it to the PRC in 1999 to visit a cousin who was living in Beijing while working for FedEx. She visited a panda preservation center where, for a hundred bucks US, you could climb into their cage area, interact with them, and have your photo taken with them. She declined, but it was a great lesson on how even after fifty years of Communist rule, the Chinese she encountered were excellent capitalists.

 

[DaveProc]

We usually took day trips by bus. Senior year our Italian language class took the train to New York for three days to see multiple operas at the Metropolitan Opera. We caw Lucia di Lamemore. There was also a 9 day trip to Italy, but I couldn't raise the funds.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

We did a few of these school trips, buy bus or train from the UK to France, in the early 1970s, however school rules and punishments still applied, we had to wear our uniforms. Some of us were not as well behaved as perhaps we should have been on one particular day and on the evenings that were supposed to be free time, we got detentions and had to write out 500 lines punishment. This was reported back to the headmaster when we arrived back after the trip who then promptly administered a further penalty.!! Apart from that, the trips were good.