<p>Of the many class inequities in our previous rural h.s., the senior class trip was the final straw. A handful of well-off, well-traveled families made these decisions, and as ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad said, just went fancier each year. Problem is, they were out-of-touch with the majority of students populating the school district.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students hadn’t traveled anywhere beyond their county.
Half the town lived in substandard housing or subsidized government housing. </p>
<p>Three choices proposed for schoolwide vote were: Williamsburg, Disneyworld and a Bahamas Cruise. Nobody voted Williamsburg, it sounded too much like school. Some voted Disneyworld, as it might be their first and only chance, but they were laughed at by those who had been there too many times to count. </p>
<p>When the winning vote went to Bahamas Cruise, I asked the h.s. principal, “Is everyone here crazy? How many kids can afford an $800 trip?” It included a flight to Miami and housing 4 to a boat inner cabin. </p>
<p>What I got back was that the parents actually wanted to make it upscale enough to rule out the rowdies. They had no true interest in a trip available to everyone. If they had, they’d have gone by bus for 2 days to Philly or Boston, or anything affordable from upstate NY and a new experience for most kids of the district. </p>
<p>We had sent our kid overseas to study in the previous year, and simply said to him, “no, we’re tapped out” because we were. We told him he’d have travel opportunities once he got to college, and this just wasn’t very important. S heard repeatedly he was the only one in the honors classes not going, but he didn’t press us about it. </p>
<p>Then the earth moved. The night before departure, a guidance counselor called, saying that one kid was being removed from the trip for disciplinary reasons. She offered our S that ticket for half price, since it would go for no use anyway. If S bought out half the ticket, at least they could give back half the money to the family of the disciplined boy. At that point, we told him to go and we’d pay it.</p>
<p>As it turns out, some harworking kids had done fundraisers all year because this WAS a meaningful opportunity to them. The school kept track of a kid’s work hours on the fundraiser and applied that against his personal ticket, a very good system. Other kids saved from afterschool jobs. </p>
<p>Bad luck weather, it was rainy/overcast for 4 days, but they ran around the boat and had fun.</p>