And this is why I loved being a community education teacher.
I get to decide where we’re going for an excursion/field trip. I choose which activities we do. I not only get to participate but I’m expected to actively get involved to encourage my students. I get paid to do it.
I’m literally living the dream.
I had a student ask “what’s the big red building on [Street]” and enough students were curious that we spent 20 minutes talking about the building. It’s the pipeworks and gas mains museum and I’ve wanted to visit for years but never had time or justification for the adult entry fee …so you bet we took a field trip the following week!
(another upside to community ed, we can plan and initiate a field trip on 20 minutes notice. Last week the toilets in the classroom started spilling over and we couldn’t physically be in the building, but class had just started, so we grabbed our bags, I grabbed the field trip kit, and we walked to the train and went to the beach. “Change of plans, maths class is cancelled, we’re doing environmental science today, who’s ready to learn about coastal ecosystems”)
A few staff members and I have joked that we’d save so much money just ditching our school building entirely and literally every class is a field trip. Field trips are some of the most fun, most engaging, and honestly sometimes the most effective ways to learn something. Place based learning and hands on learning utilises a different part of our developmental skills compared to classroom based learning, as well as community engagement and life skills developed from getting out into the community and learning how the world works.
But the way America does excursions and field trips is odd to me, because they’re often expensive and you get a chartered bus and it’s a curated experience. Vs Australian community ed where a field trip is often “walking to the local train station to talk to the station staff and learn about the ticketing system” it’s free and is like 40 minutes out of our class then we walk back to school and you do several things like that a week.
Yes, kids tend to learn better when they’re not chained to their desks in a Taylorist torture chamber. Thanks for being a great teacher.
walking
That’s the problem. This really only works for urban spaces in the US. So much of this place is sprawled out, you often need to arrange for private transportation.
Unless you’re arranging transportation for something that’s within walking distance. That would be kind of nuts.
My dude, my elementary school principal was afraid of busses. Every time a teacher would take their class on a field trip (about once every other year) they’d get fired for some bullshit reason. No, we got to sit quietly in assemblies. Far more educational that way, right?
School in general is wasted on kids. No kid cares about history or god forbid chemistry. You know who does? The person who just became an adult and is about to FUCKING GRADUATE! I only remember the last year and a half of school, because I was actually old enough to care and process that shit. Everything prior was just needless torture.
You can arrange stuff like that and I can only recommend it.
My friends and I made a “guild” back when we were younger. As we were all young at the time, our original written rules were mostly about drinking and securing the dates in our calendars for drinking. As we grew older, it’s less about drinking, but more about keeping dates free in the calendar on which we are excused from our families. So we meet up a couple of times a year in weekends with no obligations from other stuff. It’s litteraly just agreeing to pull a day out of the calendar in a weekend. We don’t get complaints from the wives either, because they also have their bi-annual trips for their respective groups, or they enjoy a day without the husband for whatever reason. Actually it doesn’t matter if someone is married or not, it’s just the idea of putting a day in the calendar for no other reason that being the “guild meeting” and everyone around accepting it.
So… ar first we had a lot of fun doing the kind of stuff that dudes do (riding motors, shooting guns and daring to run naked etc.), but eventually we got sick of hang overs, bruises and wasting time, so we try make at least one “serious” event before getting to the drinks now. Sometimes we go on company tours. Maybe someone got hired somewhere and wants to show off, or they have a hobby to show. Sometimes we just arrange for someone to show us around interesting stuff. Some things do cost money,but more often they’re happy to showcase their stuff. Doesn’t matter to me. We’re here to learn, experience and understand all stuff that we wouldn’t ordinarily get to see.
Through this self-made “guild” we have been to places that are not accessible without invitations. Some might call it “networking”, but I mean, honestly, that’s not what we are doing. Sure, I learn stuff from these companies and we get a connection, and I would be more inclined to choose them for future references, but we are doing this entirely because we can’t drink from noon to midnight anymore.
Advertisement: I’d gladly volunteer my guild for testing company showcasing and reviews if anyone is willing to have us. We are 4-6 guys willing to watch you work. We won’t be initially drunk, unless you serve it to us. We have seen many companies doing the same stuff before, and can provide valuable feedback if you want it.
I wish to join your guild but I’m already drunk. We good?
You in Germany?
Only for the annual border crossing shopping. We’re in Denmark. A trip could be planned.
That’s why I chaperon every trip as recently as today.
Do you have to use PTO, or do they just let you have the day? Do they pay you for the day without having to use PTO? That sounds awesome. I would be signing up even though I don’t have kids.
Not OP, but they almost certainly have to use PTO at least in US.
Many places you didn’t even get off for Jury Duty
"Pay you without having to use PTO?’
Ha.
Look, when I found out that Europeans get a thing called "holiday " that isn’t two or three days in a row, I was almost ready to riot.
In Canada I get 8 weeks vacation plus unlimited sick days plus 1-2 weeks at Christmas
One of the things that wasn’t too high up on my complaints but I have the opportunity to complain now about: I had a serious plan ready to apply to immigrate to Canada. I’m in Software, I was learning French, financially sound and healthier.
Then my ex wife fucks a dude I don’t know and of course we already have a kid. No more going to Canadia.
What were you planning do in Canada? I’m only lucky to be where I am thanks to a lot of generational wealth and family connections which gave me an edge over most people.
Most newcomers to Canada really struggle and often don’t make it.
Sorry to hear about your ex bro. Going through a divorce myself right now, thankfully no kids.
Ah, well, blessing in disguise then. For a good chunk of time software engineers were in demand. For whatever reason, I can’t remember if it was embedded or application level though.
I’m a datacenter system administrator and I often ponder moving to the US actually. I really want to buy a house but even in my situation I can’t afford one.
In my company they give us all a factory tour so we can see what are work helps facilitate. It’s pretty cool, honestly. Helps make things less abstract. When I worked as a roaming tech it was my favourite part : arriving at a new client and discovering their factory or offices or whatever and seeing them do their thing. Very cool stuff, once in a while.
My department actually did a field trip to a steel mill the other day (during paid working hours). Steel mills are so fascinating and I can only recommended visiting one at least once. The sheer sizes of everything is just breathtaking and molten steel just looks glorious. I would say that these kind of events are not unusual in German workplaces.
How was the dance party at the end of the day?
Sadly no dance parties… But we also didn’t stay for the night shift 😅 Oh and fun fact: Steel mills must run 24h a day, 364 days a year (1st of May is off) for I think 20 years straight. That’s just crazy.
I never noticed the sign. But I do know that in the real-life “Anvil,” a lot more devious stuff used to go down than just dancing.
My employer has their own power plant and gardens and I got to go on a “field trip” to both of those places and yeah, it was pretty dope. They sent out an invite asking the department if we wanted to go check out these places, so I signed up figuring it would be a good networking opportunity. It was, I connected with a bunch of people. Plus i got to see the inside of a power plant, how cool is that? More employers should do this.
I told my mom this story the other day, she didn’t know about it. It involves the shitty private elementary school I went to: We had a field trip to the Lincoln Boyhood Home in southern Indiana, about a two-hour drive. It looks quite nice now, but in the 80s, and I will never forget this… we got there, and there were some log cabin foundations in a pit. We looked down at the pit for a few minutes, then were rounded up back into the carpool station wagons and drove back home.
I didn’t mind all that much because I got out of school and we stopped at McDonald’s on the way back, but looking back on it, what a strange day.
I’m sorry that’s the platinum life experience. It’s only available to those born in the right zip codes and the right families. It says so right in the 28th verse of the Star Spangled Banner, our unofficial social contract of America.
Aren’t Company Outing’s a thing?
We do ours once a Year, last time we went to a bird sanctuary.
Our company is across the street from a heritage railway. They operate a steam locomotive railway with a museum at the other end.
We went on a company trip this summer. Which meant we took the railway to the other end. This being something that I was looking forward to doing myself.
But instead of actually, you know, seeing the museum, we went to a terrible restaurant. Where my boss proceeded to drink nine glasses of wine at 2 in the afternoon. While we collectively ate one of the worst meals I’ve had.
Afterwards, he felt so bad about the trip that he offered me another ticket so I could actually visit the museum on my own time :D
Now I want to go that Museum too, it sounds awsome :D Have Fun :D
It is; they’ve got an awesome collection of steam locomotives and matching rolling stock. They also do a lot of restoration work.
Here’s actually a shot from the railroad crossing at the end of our street. And yes, the locomotive is ‘backwards’ in this configuration, as it can equally pull in both directions. Makes it a lot easier that they don’t need to turn the locomotive itself around at either end.
Never had one in the U.S. At best, the food truck shows up or they have a “pizza party,” but actually leaving work? On company time?
Damn that sucks.
My former Boss even apologized that they couldn’t do one during COVID and made an
even bigger one to “make up for it” as the Lockdown was over.
There use to be this thing called “vacation”.
Now, even if you could get vacation days without people calling you for work stuff, people would rather catch back up on sleep or shows in a “staycation” then travel to an old mill.
I guess I never thought about it, but my job technically does this once/month as we have an off-site day and it usually involves doing things that normally aren’t open to the public.
Why aren’t adult field trips a thing?
They are. You just have to sign up for them. Nobody’s gonna come drag you out of your comfy chair to do it like they do when you’re a kid.
There are probably twenty places in your city where you can show up and pay $20 for a tour.
If you’re in Denver, for example, you can go to the Coors brewery, or the Art Museum, or the Botanic Gardens, or Buffalo Bill’s grave, or Meow Wolf.
If you want someone to call you at 6 am and order you to call in sick to work because you’re going on a field trip, please let me know and I’ll make a business out of it.
Exactly! I did tours through a cathedral, where we went inside the roof or behind the iron curtain of an opera. In any city, there are loads of these tours.
I played hookie a few weeks ago and went down to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on a random Tuesday. It was glorious.
Later my middle schooler was looking through Google Photos and went “wait, you and Mom went to the zoo without us?!” Mwahahaha. Get rekt kid.
I’m often unsupervised in my work. Sometimes we can work extra hard for a few days and skip a day once we’re sure that we’re getting done on schedule. We say we were there of course. Got to go to MoMA and New York’s Museum of Natural History this way.
Edit- letting your kid look through your Google photos account, pretty brave
Just went on a trip with only me and my mother, while my wife and the teenager stayed behind and my god, it was so nice going through an aquarium and being able to stop and look at something for longer than 15 seconds.
Bahahaha I love it and I need to make this happen for my wife and I.
Along similar lines, there are chartered bus tours that you can sign up for to go to multiple destinations in a city farther afield.
The local bus company does a “mystery bus trip” every couple of months or so where you pay a flat fee, hop on the bus and go do something. They give you just enough info to know if you might want to do it or not and how to dress and the rest is just up to whatever happens
“Bring a shovel, painters overalls, and a bag of lime”
Stranahan’s is a fun tour too!
There might be something to that… Is it illegal to forge a doctor’s note? If so, you’ll just need to keep a doctor on retainer.
Only if your employer requires a doctor’s note for sick days. Honestly if I ever have another job that does require a doctor’s note I might just make a habit of forging those because fuck that noise
Unfortunately it’s perjury. All places of employment are considered to be courtroom proceedings per the Honesty Expansion Act of 2021
lol wut
safety first
Capitalism.
The real answer is nobody cared enough to push the idea into the mind of the public, and, therefore, the public did not care enough to act upon it. Capitalism is merely another fragment of humanity’s callousness.
Which is why extra bonuses for already wealthy people is the most important thing in the entire world.
Costs need to be cut for the sake of commercial school budgets. Because somewhere the budgeting became a school’s job and not a regional government thing.
They exist, just search for “old watermill tour” and I’m sure you’ll find something close to you.
On an unrelated note, the word “adult” is cursed.
“Adult field trip” has a much different connotation than simply a field trip that adults go on…
Call it what you want as long as orgies are involved
They are. They’re called “conferences” and they’re typically of a bullshit subject matter your company is interested in enough to send you to.
Sometimes I forget that Lemmy is full of people who make way more money than me.
I went to one when I was making $36k/year. It’s because I didn’t know any better and volunteered for a bunch of stuff. It was a huge company though.
And if you’re really unlucky, you become part of the exhibit and have to speak or work booth duty.
So when do I go to the zoo?
To a small degree they exist. At least for the parents of said children. My kids’ school frequently asks for parent volunteers to go on field trip to help watch the kids.
Do I have to bring my own cattle prod or do they provide those?
I believe the school system provides those for free.
Until the DoE is disbanded
Then they’ll be issued guns
I’m concerned how powerful these cattle prods are that the Department of Energy is involved /s
“I hooked mine up to a car battery, sends a third grader flying 'cross the room I tell ya” - some hillbilly probably
Yeah ours used to do that, and now they require a full background check before you can volunteer. So no field trips.
require a full background check before you can volunteer
The local animal shelter is begging for dog walkers. But they send your info to a totally shady international background check place that shouldn’t know very much and also violates data sovereignty.
So no dog walkers.
A background check for working with kids makes sense. For walking dogs though? What do they think is gonna happen?
Nah, I’ll pass on that one.
The background check is pretty easy. Costs less than $20 iirc.
Perhaps they’ve done something totally awesome that means they can’t pass one?
Assuming you mean work-sponsored, they exist. My job usually does one (optional and workload permitting) like every six months. Outside of work…well if you’re an adult nothing is stopping you from going to a museum or an old mill yourself.
Schedule a tour of your local water plant! Even small cities have interesting setups, and its in their best interests to give tours and build community trust.
Great idea!
They’re called “vacations” and you have to pay for and plan them out yourself.
I’ve been sent to plenty of conferences that were pretty fun
I think those are just called “Strikes”
Every month or so we have corporate, engineers, sales, customers, whoever come through the plant for a tour. Makes me feel like an oompa loompa.
If only the higher-ups got into dangerous mishaps, followed by you and your coworkers singing a song about what they did wrong.
I had a woman slap my hand away from a hot surface while on one of these tours. No songs, though. And I’m not much of a higher up, so probably not worth it.
“She touched the reactor’s body, she did! Now her flesh is melted like…?”
… drippity do. (Drippity do)
Oompa-loompa dinkety dorklift…
You should not have traveled into the Torquerift!
We have those! They’re called: “conferences” and “trade shows”. Some business sectors hold them in places like Las Vegas.
Yep. Conventioneering! Except you get to learn about talc processing and talk to sales reps who are really big into talc processing.
Tell us more about talc processing.
I’m under a series of non-disclosure agreements that serve to protect Big Talc. I can disclose that step one is to dig it out of the ground. The rest is processing.
You know, I sort of guessed where you were going when you mentioned NDAs, and I was still caught off guard.
Seriously you can’t just leave me like that!
I’ve never been to a convention. :(
I snuck into a defense industry convention once and just ate all the the free food and coffee while watching CEOs try and sell warships to admirals and stuff. It was dope. Free candy at every booth, it was like Halloween for business bigwigs.
A very nice Japanese businessmann spent 15 minutes telling me about the benefits of a Unicorn radar and radio mast array for medium sized frigates and I’m just like “Interesting!” As if I’m actually in the market for naval radar masts and not just some nerd who snuck in.
Honestly, I like to avoid them. They sound fun at first, but then you realize that you’re going to be in a room with strangers for 8 hours and at the last minute you realize, “would anyone really notice if I just skipped out?” And, “why do I always get invited to the talc and sulphates convention and not the candy convention?”
I do travel a lot for work, and frequently see conventioneers at hotels. The Excruciating Implantable Medical Device Convention (with posters) looked amazing. I honestly thought about crashing that one.
Honestly, the ‘Talc and Sulphates’ convention sounds fun to crash at least once in your life. It’s only when a topic is old-hat that it becomes boring… I’ve always enjoyed listening to people who really know their shit talk about topics they like.
‘Implantable Medical Devices’ is either AWESOME or AWFUL depending on the kind/purpose of the device. Excruciating is definitely on the awful side, though, so pass on that one.
Hahaha, like the Ventricular Assist Devices.
They bore a one-inch diameter hole in the heart, suture a BLDC impeller motor (VAD) on, then cut into the aorta or whatever, suture fancy material stuff to a tube that then redirects the blood flow through the motor. And a fancy cable that exits your abdomen and connects to the electronics.
It was the single most disturbing thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. I really wish I didn’t know how it worked.
And down the rabbit hole we go!
I found stuff about LVAD, but somehow RVAD seems to be
But maybe that’s what gets your heart racing…
Can’t figure out inline images in lemmy. This should be the joke: https://lemmy.myserv.one/pictrs/image/0990c4e3-e575-4824-a018-0ce119eb3ad4.jxl
Yep, I am sick unto the death over talc and talc derivatives. It’s all sunshine and lollipops for the first few years, but it gets old.
Anyway, these medical devices were sort of like spinal implants, or things that could mitigate damage from a bad alligator bite if one got ahold of a person’s ankle. Bone replacements, mostly. The photos on the posters were pretty unpleasantly graphic, but they all basically looked like good solutions to very unfortunate problems.
I’m in tech. We have… Different conferences.
I actually left a job because every other employee was sent to attend a conference, and when it was “my turn” the word was that they were just… Not going to be sending anyone to conferences anymore.
At the last minute, management decided to go to the conference I was supposed to attend, without any of the lower level employees (it was just managers).
I was… Salty about it.
… I still am.
I’d be salty about that too!
Trade shows suck. Go to a convention run by fans of something like sci-fi or anime and you’ll have fun even if it’s not something you are all that into because everyone around you is having a great time.
Trade shows involve people pretending to have a great time until it’s the evening and they can go find a bar.
I wouldn’t know.
Honestly, fan-run cons are an awesome time. Find one near you and check it out.
I went to one in Orlando one time.
I don’t remember what the conference was even for, but I sure as shit remember scuba diving in the Aquarium at Epcot.
