School trips overseas - Good idea - Waste of time?

[quallman1234]

Sooo basically what i see here is, if she's willing to help pay for it by getting a part time job, go for it. If not stiff bicky for her.

[bgd]

I too would recommend it.

My eldest went to France last year with her school and for her it was a fantastic trip. She had been to France several times before, having lived abroad, but going with friends made all the difference. She came back with a new zest for the language and is going to carry on with it at university. She stayed with local families and got to see how the French lived.

She was also mugged but fortunately came out of that unscathed. She had to talk to the police in French and even attend a lineup of the local crims. It was good for her language and life skills. "Dad even the female detectives carry guns!"

We are great believers in giving our girls experiences over material possessions. I'm hoping that the younger one will go on a trip to Argentina for her Spanish.

[yungatart]

Our youngest went to New Caledonia in 06. Hosted by a local family, went to Creipac (the language school) every day and did the tourist thing. He really got bitten by the travel bug and in less than 9 weeks heads off to Belgium on exchange for a year!
What price can you put on being a part of another culture? IMHO it is a fantastic experience and should be encouraged!

[CookMySock]

Unless you can genuinely afford it, dont do it.

bullswool. My son and daughter didn't have two cents to rub together, and neither did us dolts. They will need to want to do it though.


DB

[mowgli]

bullswool. My son and daughter didn't have two cents to rub together, and neither did us dolts. They will need to want to do it though.
DB

DB's got it. If it's a freebie it won't be appreciated nearly as much as if they'd worked to get there. Use the opportunity to teach life skills such as making and saving money.

[BiK3RChiK]

I went with my Son when he was year 8? (form 2) to Vanuatu. It was a fantastic experience. Sure it was a junket, but who cares? The kids had to do financial planning. The teachers paid their own trip. Most of the kids there probably would never have gone to such a place and seen the culture and lifestyle (or lack of) of the Ni-Van. Driving on the 'other' side of the road, Swimming, Snorkeling, travelling to local villages and meeting with local schools (a real eye opener, I can tell you!) and generally mixing with the locals in the villages had the kids and parents buzzing out for ages.

When I got home, I raved about it for weeks! It was so awesome, I went the following year with my daughter and husband. This to me was a much better experience than going to the 'theme parks' in Aussie or to another western-style country. Worth every cent! Not something easily forgotten...

[Mom]

When my daughter went to Japan on exchange, she worked in a dairy to earn the airfares herself. I no way was in a financial position to pay them and all the other expenses while she was away for 6 months. It was a team effort and well worth it. She has gone on to study Japanese at University and has just got a job as a tour group liason for inbound school parties from Japan.

[magicfairy]

Holy shit, the furtherest I went on a school trip, was to the local court house and police station.
Times have changed a bit.
(also went to the milk factory, but it was closer, but the same people who worked there, were also appearing before the beak at the court house, small town ya know).

You were lucky. We went to a brick factory - All girls high school, Dunedin many years ago.
And we learned ... how bricks were made. The bus trip there was more interesting.

[phantom]

Last year my youngest daughter went on a school trip to Vietnam. she raised all the money herself apart from me helping out cleaning up after stockcars a few times as a money raiser. She could also have gone to Japan but decided that everyone did that ( shit the only school trip I did was to a local farm ). I am sure it has been a life changing experience for her and has helped give her confidence etc as she starts off at university. In spite of this it would appear that a lot of school trips are little more than a junket

[Headbanger]

You were lucky. We went to a brick factory

I would have killed to go to a brick factory.

We went nowhere, even the school camp was cancelled.

[Winston001]

You were lucky. We went to a brick factory - All girls high school, Dunedin many years ago.
And we learned ... how bricks were made. The bus trip there was more interesting.

Brick factory??! Luxury.

We went to local pig farmers slurry pit where we learned to pick out the solid bits and unblock the drains, very useful life skills, and when we got back to school our teachers thrashed us with a leather strap just to make sure we remembered how lucky we were to go on a school trip.

[fireball]

WTF my school only took me to wanaka (1hr drive away) for our school trips

i say better off taking a trip around your own backyard before going overseas that way you will realise how lucky we are..... plus find more roads for riding on too!

[Winston001]

But I digress.

Thanks everyone for your input and I'm coming around to thinking this trip is worth doing. I'll talk to other parents and find out more about it.

My views are biased by the sort of reports you hear of rugby/history/whatever school trips to Australia America Europe whereever. Beaches and theme parks etc plus illicit booze seem to be the main memories.

However you have convinced me that not all trips are junkets and a waste of family money. My 14 yr old daughter already works as a gymnastics coach and I'd expect her to pay half the trip cost. Make her earn and appreciate it.

[007XX]

Any thoughts? I'm under pressure for my daughter to go to Tahiti for a French class experience - they will live with local people for a couple of weeks.

I'd rather use the money towards her university education.

Let her do it if you can. I know what it's like to be stretched financially, but the fact is, this is very very likely to be an awesome eye opener for her, which she won't forget for some time.

I was born in New Caledonia and so saw a lot of exchange students while living there. They were all really ecstatic about being there, and left feeling really enriched by the experience.

[Winston001]

One experience - local school class went to Vietnam and I knew a student. Before he went I asked him if they knew about the battle of Den Bien Phu and the French history in Indochina - nope.

When he returned I asked him the same question - nope.

Spare me days!!!

His version of the trip was shopping for copies of brandname clothing, CD/DVDs and cheap electronics. He's got a university degree now but the trip was just a holiday/party.