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.
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’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.
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.
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.
We have those! They’re called: “conferences” and “trade shows”. Some business sectors hold them in places like Las Vegas.
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.
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. :(
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oompa-loompa dinkety dorklift…
You should not have traveled into the Torquerift!
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)
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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 exist, just search for “old watermill tour” and I’m sure you’ll find something close to you.
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 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.
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.
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”
I find the inclusion of the word “ass” here extraneous.
Monday Thursday Wednesday Assday Friday Saturday Sunday
Am I missing something? Why is Thursday after Monday?
Explanation is simple. I don’t know English.
Carry on, my friend. Just didn’t know if I was missing a joke.
If you want you can always do it in German
Montag
Dienstag
Mittwoch
Donnerstag
Freitag
Samstag
Asstag
Sonntag
Arschtag
My apologies. I’ve only been learning German for 3 months. I sometimes mess up the spelling!
I enjoy how Germans were like, “fuck you (W)oden, we’re calling it mid-week. We’ll keep the rest.”
still better than humpday
What calendar do you use where Thursday occurs before Monday in the week?
Because they made a whole ass of it.
Extraneous ass word.
Hey when I was a kid I loved any chance to escape kid jail.
Well, we have an adult version for you to try escaping.
I go on field trips all the time! Take a day of PTO and straight-up go the science museum or the zoo or the Japanese garden alone, but with a packed lunch so it really feels like a field trip.
When you’re an adult, you can do whatever you want*.
Dammit, you’re right! I’m inspired and am going to the museum!
* terms and conditions apply. Travelling, accommodations, tickets, food and planning not included and must be paid separately. Field trips can only been done on non-work days or after applying for PTO. Plans may be cancelled by your SO, kids or employer at will and without prior notice.
It does fall a little flat when I do have to buy my own tickets, but on the other hand, I can just be all “yoop,” and suddenly be in an art museum with no planning or prior expectations of ever planning it out.
The best trips are the ones that just abruptly happen.
My employer is sponsor of a (huge) museum and other cultural institutions. They have several family passes that can be borrowed by us to visit those alone or with our families for free.
I have used that several times now - go to work on the morning, eat lunch with your colleagues and then take some time off in the afternoon and visit that museum or another place.
And yet when I try to hold hands with a 12-year old at the museum, so we don’t get separated, I get ‘a conversation’ with the cops. So unfair. Just trying to fit in.
My first day at my new job a month ago, we all loaded onto a bus and took a guided tour of campus. Had lunch at the cafeteria, stopped for ice cream. It really felt like a field trip.
I had a similar experience a long time ago when I worked for a telco. We got on a bus and they took us to visit a tower, their NOC, and other sites. It was pretty interesting. That’s also where I learned they literally have a dedicated dashboard just to monitor the CEO’s mobile signal and data speeds, to make sure it never falters. So from his perspective, the service is great! For everyone else, not so much.
Pretty soon they might need dedicated dashboards to monitor their body armor.
Congrats on the new job. What are you doing?
Thanks! I got hired at a pretty big university (better than the one I attended for sure) to do documentation (and hopefully, increasingly data) work in their advancement department. Kind of random and the pay could definitely be better, but I’m generally pretty happy with the environment. Nice to not be supporting abject evil. First actual work-from-home job without feeling a suspicious eye on me at all times. Trying to make use of the free certification courses they offer and am halfway through CompTIA Data+. Nice break from the Uber/Lyft grind for awhile, anyway.
One great thing about working at a big tech company is that they would give us field trips. Like, legit, we’re all gonna go play at the Imaginarium kind of field trips.
All of our proposed work field trips sucked so hard, everyone revolted.
Idea one: There was a bizarre “corporate leadership conference” which was a bunch of weird conservative motivational speakers that were on tour across middle America. No one aside from the two asshats who proposed it wanted to go after learning the details.
Idea two: Our two department managers decided that a canoe trip would be a great way to bond as a group. It sounded fun until anyone put an ounce of thought into it. Since the managers didn’t want to do any planning, we were all given vague tasks. Like, “lunch.” And “portage at the roller dam.” I was one of the two in charge of lunch. WTF? Do we figure out a place to stop mid-way and eat at a restaurant? Am I bringing a cooler of hotdogs? Does Steve bring a grill? Can there be beer? (NO)
Oh that fucking tour with Rudy Giuliani and GWB and every other asshole you never want to hear from.
My ex got dragged to that by her manager at a previous job, who had been before; she was disappointed that all the speeches were exactly the same as the last time she had been.
You expect people doing a lazy cash-in not to phone it in?
I don’t think they understood the purpose. xD
