Recently, it has been pointed out that high schoolers don’t go on many field trips. We remember going to many in elementary school, and even middle school, but many seniors this year have realized that they have not been on a single field trip in all of their four years of high school. 

While some teachers may declare they feel they sign field trip permission forms often, I concur. While yes, there often are students who ask their teachers to sign permission forms, it is normally the same students. These students are involved in clubs such as FFA, FCCLA, Leadership and Development, and performing arts groups like choir, band, and theater. 

These groups are important, and there are many students involved in all, but these groups are not for everyone. 

Students like Alex Gilmore (12) are not involved in these groups. “I used to love going on field trips, and I was excited for them once I got to high school, but as a senior, I haven’t been on a field trip since I got to high school.”

This begs the question: why? Why shouldn’t we go on any field trips? You could say there aren’t opportunities or any time, but we could make opportunities, and we could make time. 

We could have field trips for every grade level, for all the students. Not just those in clubs. We could go bowling, or we could go to the movies. We could even go out of state for a day, similar to how the seniors go to New York every year. 

I feel that there should be some type of free trip that students could go on, though, because some students wouldn’t be able to go on the New York trip because they can’t afford it.

It wouldn’t necessarily need to be a big trip, just something for everyone to get to experience. 

Obviously, COVID changed a lot for everyone. But, now that we’ve overcome it, we have the chance to make things go back to normal, if not better than they were. 

English classes could go see a play about a book they’re reading, history classes could tour historical sights, and science classes could go to the science center. 

We could dedicate some funds to these field trips, or we could make separate fundraisers within the classes that can go towards their trips.