By Steven Witkin ‘16

It is the same routine every time. You get a field trip form and have to go around to every teacher to get their signature as some sort of approval. The official purpose of this seems to be so that the teachers know in advance when a student is out for a field trip, but many teachers just sign without looking at the date of the trip. What if a teacher does not sign? Does a teacher have the right to not sign and say that a student cannot go? This process is more trouble than it’s worth, and frankly, quite useless.

When a student misses school for a field trip, it is essentially like a sick day. The student makes up the missed work the next day. Of course students should alert their teachers and perhaps get the work beforehand if they plan to miss a day, but having each teacher sign their approval on an unrelated trip is unnecessary. Additionally, the scavenger hunt of getting signatures can take days. In this regard, getting signatures serves no purpose that cannot be done in an easier way. It would be much simpler if field trip forms did not require signatures from each teacher.