My Favorite Days At School Were Away From School on School Trips

I hated school, so any excuse to spend the day out of class was appreciated. School trips therefore were a welcome diversion. It didn't matter where we went as long as we escaped for the day. My class went on geography field trips to study rock formations in the middle of nowhere and excursions to local parks to draw pictures of flora and fauna. Then there were the museum and art gallery school trips.

The common thread through all these trips was the incessant head counting. The world beyond the school gates was apparently very dangerous and constant vigilance was required on school trips. The teachers counted us with obsessive regularity, terrified at the thought of misplacing one of us, even those of us that wouldn't be dearly missed. It was worse when we were going about towns. They used to put us in a cattle formation and count us before we crossed a road, and count us again when we'd got to the other side. I don't know what they thought could happen to us in the interim.

Anticipate the Unexpected on School Trips

Museum visits were always pretty boring. Today, museums try to be child friendly and hands on, but it was different back when I went on school trips. We were continuously told not to touch and to talk in a whisper. We never went to any interesting exhibits like the Science World or Egyptian Mummies. The worse part was that we had to pay attention on these school trips because we were expected to write up a report afterwards. If it was an interesting field trip then it was easy to write a report but if it was boing, it seemed impossible to remember what you had learned.

One particular trip to the zoo sticks in my mind. It had actually been one of the best school trips ever. The sun was shining, everyone behaved themselves surprisingly well and the teachers were in a cheerful mood. It was when we returned to school that all hell broke loose. We went back with more classmates than we started out. A boy names Michael had sneaked out a baby rabbit under his coat. Michael just loved animals and just couldn't resist the cute, little bunny. The Principle called Michael's parents, and called the zoo to grovel an apology. Michael's Father took the rabbit back to the pet's enclosure and Michael got detention for a couple of days. Of course, we all thought the incident was absolutely hilarious and the angrier the adults got, the funnier it became.

Now that I am a parent who participates quite actively in my son's school trips, I can actually see things from the other side. What a different perspective. There is always one or two kids in the class that seem to be more active than others while on a class outing. I can't help but reflect back in the days of our school trips.