6th Grade Field Trip - An Academy District 20 Tradition

Today we put our 6th grader on the school bus for the 4 day/3 night field trip up in the mountains called High Trails.  I guess you could say it is a "right of passage" for the Academy District 20 6th graders, and has been a tradition for 30+ years. In fact, there are parents sending their kids off this year that participated themselves 30+ years ago.  I do believe the teachers look forward to the trip as much as the kids and the parents do, because it seems like the kids grow up over night.  Personally, I think it is looked at as essential for the kids to be out on their own away from parents and with teachers and teen counselors, with various levels of responsibility, whether it is playing kitchen helper, making their beds, or just finding a quiet place to write about their experiences.  

Though it is tough to hug your son goodbye with no way of contacting him, I realize he is in good hands with his teachers, principal, and the teen counselors and I look forward to Friday when he returns "a new man."  We experienced this first hand with our older son who attended High Trails four years ago.  It is still the most positive experience of his middle school years and if his grades were a little more solid, he would be one of the teen counselors himself.  Well, maybe next year!

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