Trip to Chinatown. Watching a Broadway play. Downtown visit to the Art Institute. These are just some of the school field trips that teachers have organized to enrich the classroom instruction and expand on what classes are learning through immersive and hands-on experiences. However, students often have to miss scheduled classes and labs in order to attend such field trips. 

Students should have the freedom to choose which educational experiences serve them the best if their schedules overlap: a scheduled class or a field trip.

Regardless of a field trip’s educational value, scheduled classes should be a valid reason for students to miss field trips, similar to how absences are handled for illnesses, doctor’s appointments and traveling for sports and high-commitment clubs.

Although field trips do not count toward the 10-absence threshold per semester, students still have to spend time outside of school to make up assignments and tests they missed to stay on track with the missed classes’ curriculum.

Students should prioritize their own schedules because being forced to skip classes for other classes devalues the subject and its content. In particular, arts and music classes tend to be considered less valuable than more “academic” subjects and are often overlooked in favor of other subjects.

Communicating with members of the U-High administrative team would give students more autonomy at school, and giving students more control over their schedules would prepare them better for the independence they will have in the future.