Field trips

“A child educated only at school is an uneducated child” – George Santayana

I’m pretty sure that everyone who’s gone to school has gone on at least one field trip during their school life. At least I hope so. And I’m equally sure that some of your most exciting memories are probably the ones about the field trips.
And that’s to be expected, isn’t it? Who doesn’t relish the chance to get out of those dusty, old classrooms? I’m not going to dwell on the droning voices!! And it’s definitely a bonus to not only spend a couple of school days out of school, but to get to spend them with all of your friends.
The classroom isn’t always the ideal learning space for every student. Of course in the modern world, most kids do most of their learning in the classrooms – that’s why we’re still stuck with classrooms, right? But it hasn’t always been like that. Learning used to be much more ‘hands on”. Literally. Most will learn best if they actually see the places their History books are talking about. Or if they actually see that particular plant or that animal that’s described in their Biology book. We need to see the things we read about come alive.
While the new interactive media are very helpful, field trips teach that you can learn something new anywhere and anytime. You don’t need a formal setting or chalk and a blackboard.
Field trips touring your own country are especially good. Not many people opt to vacation in Guyana when they can vacation abroad. So field trips give those kids who’ve never explored that particular place in Guyana, a chance to do so and a chance to appreciate their own country. And even for those kids who have visited a lot of places in Guyana, field trips make you see the places in a completely different light.
You’re now visiting that place to learn something particular, specific to the subject. You’re now looking at that place as not just some place you pass on your way to somewhere else, or not just as that place you might have visited once or twice. That place is now the site of some historical event that you probably weren’t aware about. And you will look at your old surroundings with ‘fresh’ eyes.
In fifth form, our Geography teacher took us all the way to Lethem to do some research for our SBA. That trip was one of the most enlightening experiences of my entire life. The trip taught all of us much and more about the geography and diversity of Guyana and geography on the whole.
But just as importantly, the trip taught us how to adapt to conditions that we weren’t used to. For me, it was the first time I spent an entire week completely away from my family.
And next week, we’re going to Berbice for Caribbean Studies. And for subjects like Caribbean Studies, things like field trips and tours are especially important. While they’re quite analytic and we learn things about ‘discourses’ and ‘hegemony’, isn’t it best to see such processes play out in the concrete world?
And hey! Field trips let me hang out with my friends while learning. The best of both worlds!