Into The Woods

If I hadn't already been a supporter of Barack Obama, the sound bite I caught on this morning's news probably would have swayed me. Speaking at a Colorado high school, he reminded us, "Education starts at home." When I heard these words, I was getting ready to head off to work at a public school in Oakland where this might have come as some sort of debatable notion.
Today's experience was unique, in that my wife came along with me for the day to act as one of the chaperones for our fourth grade field trip. She went in prepared as a veteran of countless field trips with our son's class, as well as a great many over the years with my students. She had been listening to the stories and watching the stress drip off of me for the past several months, but I don't believe she was ready in the way she might have liked.
She found a way to challenge one girl by asking her, sincerely, if she could go five minutes without insulting someone. After a couple of false starts, she got a streak going, and was able to finish off the day remembering the admonition, "if you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all." It was a very quiet afternoon for that girl. My wife wasn't as successful with all the kids in her group, but she was buoyed by the support she got from another parent who kept it much more direct: "Knock it off."
Meanwhile, up the hill, I was managing a conflict between a parent and one of the volunteer naturalists who was leading another group. Apparently there was a wide gulf between what each of them felt was "respectful", and each one insisted that the other was being "disrespectful." The kids needed some direction, so I got them settled and sent the grownups to opposite sides of the forest to cool off.
The punch line to all of this action is this: I only ended up taking fourteen of my twenty-four students on the trip, with the expectation that these were the best-behaved. Compared to other field trips, this one went fairly well, with an equal amount of fun and education and only trace amounts of overt discipline. Still, there were plenty of grown-ups at the end of the day shaking their heads, wondering aloud, "How do you do it?"
I suppose when it comes to field trips, if you'll pardon the expression, some children need to be left behind.