Topic: Describe a time when a student(s) taught you something.
It was Mother’s Day weekend, 1996. The elementary school where I taught took educational field trips each year. The sixth graders were the primary focus, but if seats were unsold, we would open it to fifth graders. Each year we would rotate from the trip to Washington, D. C. to Williamsburg and Colonial Virginia. I assisted with these and made sure my children went, since I had been on a similar trip when I was in sixth grade. Now that I think back to that trip, there’s a topic I could have written about yesterday. It was one of the happiest times of my life. But, I digress. As events would have it, our elementary school was being closed due to consolidation. Some of the sixth grade parents wanted to go out with a bang, so they wanted a New York Trip. The other sixth grade teacher and I got with our local tour guide and made the arrangements. Going on this trip was a big deal. At that time, in that community school, we could do all kinds of fund raising so that anyone who really wanted their kid, or themselves, to go, could find a way. There was this boy, great big, built like a lineman for a football team whose Mother was supporting them with public assistance. She wanted him, I’ll call him Duke, to go. So, they were at every bake sale, hot dog sale, and car wash. She took boxes of 50 cent candy bars and sold them faithfully door to door in the neighborhood. She made regular monthly payments from her meager check to watch the balance slowly move down, and when it was paid off, kept working so he would have spending money. I learned that his Father was dead, shot by someone who was now in prison. He was average intelligence, not outstanding by any means in class, well, except for being the biggest boy there.
So, we went on the trip. On the way up, he was in front of me on the bus. Several times I asked what he was saying, and he would mutter….” nothing.” Then, unexpectedly her turned around and asked me to be sure and wake him up when we got out of WV, since he’d never been out of the state. Hearing that wasn’t eye-opening enough. As I sat there, quiet pervaded the area, and listening carefully, I heard as he muttered to himself, “I can’t believe I’m going to New York City.
Fast forward to the next morning. After a night in a hotel where I learned he had never spent a night before, we got to our first attraction, The Statue of Liberty. As we exited the ferry he was walking in front of me. When we passed the gift shop/restaurant building and turned right on the pavement, there she was: Lady Liberty right in front of us. Duke stopped dead in front of me. I almost bounced off him, thinking that kids should have tail lights like cars. But then, as he continued standing there, I wondered what it would take to get him to move. But in a moment frozen in time, I heard him say,
“I never in my life thought I’d be somewhere in person that’s pictures are in books.”
What did I learn? Learning can take place anywhere, and one of those places may be where we least expect it. When I think about field trips, I try to remember to see it from the perspective of the kids—this may be a first for them, and what worlds will it open to them?
