MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Too much for a 9th grader?

Too much for a 9th grader?

posted 7 days ago by fourlemons (389)
22 replies | jump to latest

When I was in 9th grade the school I attended had a required field trip to go mountain climbing and kayaking on a river. Seeing as I have a fear of heights and pretty much anything that could up my chances of death, I dreaded it for weeks and even tried to get out of it, but I ended up going. And this wasn't just climbing up a hill. This was strapping ropes around you, putting on a helmet and repelling up the side of an actual mountain and the river we kayaked on had rapids and little falls. The girl I got stuck kayaking with had the social graces of a Cro-Magnon man and screamed at me the whole time to paddle harder. It really is a miracle I'm here to type this right now.

1. Was it reasonable to make this a required trip for a 9th grader? (The only correct answer is no.)
2. Should this instead have been an optional offering for some sort of after school extreme sports club?
3. An appropriate field trip would have been ________.

[–] Valerian (10000) 7 days ago

Our 9th grade trip included a glass museum & glass blowing studio, a zoo and some other museums. I was exhausted from all that walking and standing around.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

That does sound like a lot of walking, but I like the amount of time you were able to stay on the ground and away from rushing water. I would have offered to trade with you if I could have.

[–] Valerian (10000) 7 days ago

I was joking about it being tough. It was like a picnic. We had snacks in the bus between museums and the class DJ provided the road trip music.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

Class DJ? Did you go to the high school in Fame (1980)?

[–] Valerian (10000) 7 days ago

He was in a band and did DJ gigs at parties. I went to an ordinary small town high school.

[–] Daft_Munks (4530) 7 days ago

1. Was it reasonable to make this a required trip for a 9th grader?

No, although mountain climbing and kayaking sounds like fun, I wish my school had offered the opportunity to do something like that.

2. Should this instead have been an optional offering for some sort of after school extreme sports club?

Yes

3. An appropriate field trip would have been

Something less extreme like a box factory or something LOL

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

😂🤣 I do have a core memory of touring a bread factory as a young child, and it is a good one. Perhaps more factory tours would have been good for me.

[–] samoanjoes (55099) 7 days ago

It would have been better if they required you to do a controlled obstacle course.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

That was a different school trip, perhaps 8th grade. It was a ropes course. If my fear of death on the mountain climbing/kayak trip was a 9.5, that one was more like a 4.7 (not counting the climbing wall portion).

[–] Keelai (34178) 7 days ago

Normally, a parent has to sign a permission slip for a field trip. Did your parents sign anything?

Rope course sounds like you opted in? Were there other courses you could've taken instead of that one?

The course sounds extreme for a child. But, I would've went on your field trip since it sounds like fun to me. The equivalent in my school was cutting up a frog in biology class, but we were allowed to opt out of it so my conscious is clear since I didn't commit frogicide.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

They probably had to sign something but I don't remember. It's all been a long time ago now but it does make for a (hopefully) humorous message board story. 😁

While I was a chicken when it came to extreme outdoor activities I was a champ when it came to dissection. By the time the frogs (or whatever) made their way to me, the -icide had already taken place.

[–] Keelai (34178) 7 days ago

At least you faced your fears which is a good thing.

I remember many opted out of the frog dissection class. My thinking is the more who opt out, the fewer frogs are unnecessarily killed.

[–] AndyKing1967 (36490) 7 days ago

I’m surprised that you weren’t able to opt out 😳

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

Interestingly, a few years later my parents worked it out so that my younger sister didn't have to go.

I guess we know the answer to the question, "Which of their kids were they willing to risk falling off a mountain?"

[–] AndyKing1967 (36490) 7 days ago

Maybe time to find out what they’ve written in their Will.

[–] parkerbot (7861) 7 days ago

Read about those two kids who traveled the US on their own a 100 or so years ago.

Kids need more experiences like that, not less.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

I traveled to Boston (mostly) alone at age 13 and had a blast. The issue I took with the aforementioned trip was not with having an adventure, it was with it's distance from the ground.

[–] parkerbot (7861) 7 days ago

Unlike many things in life, the ground will always be there for you when you fall.

[–] MaximRecoil (4513) 7 days ago

That's bizarre. Typical school sports, which are far less dangerous than the two activities you mentioned, normally require a signed consent form from the parents before a kid can even participate, which is the opposite of required participation:

Any participant in a sport who is under 18 years of age is usually required to have a consent form filed on their behalf by a parent or legal guardian.

And here's an example of one:

https://www.pdffiller.com/preview/43/543/43543708/large.png

They also usually require a physical examination by a doctor.

On top of that, every school "field trip" I ever went on also required a signed consent form, and none of them involved anything dangerous aside from the ride on the bus itself. I've never even heard of a required school field trip.

By the time I was in 9th grade I'd long since realized that there was no such thing as a legitimate "requirement" in school anyway, i.e., they had no way of forcing me to do anything I didn't want to do. For that matter, they couldn't even force me to go to school at all, and starting a few months into my freshman year I mostly stopped showing up. I wasn't old enough to officially quit school yet, but who was going to make me go? No one, that's who. There were truant officers in my hometown when my mother was in school (1955 to 1968), and she has some funny stories about them, but they didn't exist by the time I started school in 1980.

I never showed up during sophomore year either. I didn't start going again until junior year when Dad figured out a way to bribe me into going back, and I graduated on time.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

Well, perhaps "required" was a strong word, but it was a trip scheduled into the school year that the whole class went on. Had I stayed home I would not have been the cool rebel, but the village scaredy-cat. No 9th grader wants that moniker.

[–] chilone (17637) 7 days ago

They need more classes on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. The outdoors and physical activity is for the birds.

[–] fourlemons (389) 7 days ago

I spent my whole childhood outdoors. On the ground, outdoors.