Opportunities abound!

The other day I was chatting with another mother (York school district) while I was waiting for Connor during his Tae Kwon Do class. She was all excited about a field trip that her son was going on with school to the U of R to participate in a simulated "Crime Scene" and learn about forensics. She was going on and on about this wonderful field trip. Basically, she felt that Connor was missing out by not going to public school. I finally had to interrupt her to tell her that Connor goes to the same place (the Life Science Center) once a month for four hours. To date, Connor has studied, at the Life Science Center, the principles from the physical sciences and nanotechnology to create new biological tools,how snowflakes form, bacteria, and the effects of medicines on heart disease (and how the medicines are developed) and alternative fuels. The "Crime Scene" and forensics lab will be later in the year, I think in May. Connor doesn't miss out on the school field trips at all. Any field trip I believe is educational, is already on our curriculum. What we DON'T do, is waste a whole day on a field trip to watch the Disney movie "The Beauty and the Beast" (Katelyn went on that one,and we already own the video!) or go to the local park, Highland Park. Every year the school wastes countless days on absolutely useless field trips that have no relation to the curriculum. I remember when Katelyn went on a field trip to tour Main Street Geneseo. Please! Another time I chaperoned a trip to watch a skit of The Hungry Caterpillar at Genesee Community College. It literally took the entire day to watch the 30 min. skit, and the kids barely paid attention. It is a story written for kindergartners, and the kids were bored to tears. Katelyn also went on a field trip to the Arboretum when she was in 4th or 5th grade. An older biology student would get a whole lot out of such a trip, but the little kids spent the entire time playing tag through the gardens. So, back to my topic, Rochester has a million opportunities for field trips, and I feel grateful to live in a city rich with theatre, art, museums and science. No, we don't miss out on school field trips. In fact, on Thursday, we are going to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to view the Titanic display.