School trips are for teachers not the kids

The idea that a class of students needs to visit NYC for an economics trip at 1200 pounds is a bit much when really the products of our global economy are all too apparent to see in our city or in any city really. The student in this article

 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/14/school-trips-new-york-educational-arms-race-parents

would have done just as well to have visited the M&M store in Leicester Square if he wanted to see how an essentially useless economy can be generated around a chocolate with a crispy shell. How does visiting Wall Street really help the student understand how the world works? Perhaps it would have been better to have arranged a trip to the factories in China, Malaysia and India that produce most of our high street clothes. Or perhaps a school trip to an oil field in the South Sudan where oil companies and lawyers squabble over a war torn country to make as much money for us as possible. Or even just a visit to their local Starbucks. This would offer a better education on how the economy works, but I somehow feel the teachers might not have gone for any of those.

The truth is that most school trips remain a jolly for the teachers. Yes, they have to keep an eye out for the safety of their kids but, generally, very little education takes place on these excursions. Perhaps for some students there is something to be learned in being away from home, but at a cost of over a thousand pounds, it is hardly fair to the poorest families.

If state schools and academies intend to ape private schools there will be a lot more of these added extras and some parents simply can't afford to pay it. They should not be made to feel guilty. When I was a kid we had a three day trip to the local coast and explored the history, geography and local economy. I think the total cost was 65 pounds. Even that cost can be prohibitive for some, but at least the school had funds to help.

When education is tied up so closely with business funding, the smell of money is never far away. An academy in Bethnal Green has the mantra: 'we're climbing the mountain to university together'. Perhaps we need to stop everyone focusing on the mountain and look at the rest of the horizon. After all, not everyone wants to climb Everest.