My fourth grader just brought home a note from the school today.

[renie408]

All field trips are cancelled for the year due to the high cost of gas. She is really sad because they had a really big trip to Charleston that the fourth grade has done every year. It is a sleepover. No more Charleston trip.

She wrote a letter to her Representative and her Senators to vent when she got home from school.

[dsc]

1. We had a similar ban in effect

but it was lifted. Was this ban over the cost of gas, or the supply of gas? Ours was supply and thus was lifted. It seems if it is cost then the kids should be able to just raise more money and still get to go.

[renie408]

4. The bus company raised their prices

and it made the trip to expensive. The other field trips are also about cost. The problem is that we are a rural school and a lot of these kids already come from poor families. They don't want to have to price the field trips so high that only the more privileged kids can go.

A neighboring county is considering making the school day one hour longer and only going four days to conserve gas.

I don't understand because we have the lottery, which was supposed to dump bizillions of dollars back into education. But SC schools are traditionally underfunded, so maybe the lottery doesn't add enough back in.

[Hello_Kitty]

2. That's crap! Poor kids.

Isn't there any way to raise the money for that trip? Could they sell candy or something?

[renie408]

5. I am going to get together with the fourth grade team

and see what can be done. This is a really big trip and a fourth grade tradition. I am thinking that I might can get some of the businesses around here to chip in to help bring the cost back to where the school thinks it will be fair to all kids.

[Cha]

3. That's a major bummer for

the kids and teachers. And that's not all that's going to be effected by the monkey and his grinders.

[blondeatlast]

6. Good for your daughter's activism! I'm sorry about her disappointment,

though.

I've got an 8 year old son and his school has usually had a field trip by now and there has been no indication of one coming this year--and he's noticed it.

It's starting to hit home for the kids. That's tragic in so many ways.

[Erika]

7. Tell them to be happy and don't worry

Big energy profits have never been higher! It's the Republican way.

[renie408]

8. OMG!! I must be more tired than I realized, because I am laughing

my ass off over that.

I can just see telling my daughter, "Chin up, sweetheart! Exxon-Mobil just posted record profits!! It should all come trickling down to us any day now!"

Man, I bet she would REALLY be writing a letter then!

[DebJ]

9. Because your child is more politically aware, maybe she will

respond to this:

My husband teaches at an inner city school, a very poor one. The field trip for his kids is a walking trip to the local Health Center. That's it. Always.

What his school system is cutting back on is
a)all teacher's aides eliminated
b)summer school likely eliminated next year (and for many kids, summer school means oh boy I get to eat lunch cause they will buy me a pizza and I don't have to watch mom smoke crack for awhile)
etc

The Senators won't respond to her satisfaction, and that could be a downer.
But she could buy some kid school supplies in a poor school, and feel good.

[renie408]

11. I dunno.

I always have a tough time with this type of thinking. Yes, I think it is important for my kids to feel empathy for kids who are less well off than they are. For anyone, really, who has a tougher row to hoe than theirs. But then the same thing could be said to your inner city kids. You could show them a movie about the kids starving to death in Africa and that they are comparatively better off, right? But that does not respect their situation or their feelings about it, I think.

I think it is OK for her to be disappointed about this. I don't want to make her feel like she is being 'spoiled' or that she is acting like an over-privileged brat because she is sad about this. Can you see where it might backfire?

She will get a letter back from DeMint and Graham and our Representative, John Spratt, has both written me back and called me in response to letters I have sent him, so I was thinking she might get a good response from him, at least.

I understand what you are saying and if she were another kid, I might take your approach. But she is the kid who gave away her tooth fairy money last year to a kid in her class because he never got a Snow Biz when they came because he said his mom couldn't afford it. I think it would probably worry her that she was being 'bad' because there are people worse off than her and she was being sad about missing a field trip.

[eaprez]

10. American Airlines CANX flights because of fuel costs...no surprise

schools are cutting costs the same way. Hell, I'm cutting out field trips. My electric bill was DOUBLE what it was the month before - with less use.

[Yupster]

12. Fourth graders have a school trip

that's a sleepover?

[Vickers]

13. So, are they cancelling Idiot Boy's whiskey-soaked AF-1 jaunts?

:eyes:

[texpatriot2004]

14. Hey that's a grat idea cancel just a few photo ops and the kids

can go on the trips.