This mum thinks school excursions should be banned ASAP.

I hate school excursions.

I’m sure when I was seven-years-old I probably loved them as much as the next kid.

I have fond memories of panning for gold at Ballarat, at sitting in the stocks at Old Sydney Town, at wandering The Rocks pretending to follow the footsteps of the characters in Playing Beatie Bow.

Ah the memories. What a riot. What a great excuse to escape the classroom and get out of doing any work.

And the reason I loved these school excursion was exactly the same reason that kids – including mine – love them: they are a great reason to have a bludge.

The very same reason why I hate them.

You think I am exaggerating don’t you? You think when your child is wandering around the aquarium they are actually taking in all that information about dorsal fins?

Sorry to tell you but they aren’t, well at least not at kindergarten level.

Just this year my son’s school has had three field trips already.

One each term with another approaching towards the end of this year. This would be okay if it wasn’t for all the rest of the palaver.

The sports carnivals, the craft days, the concerts, the book fairs, Grandparents day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, the author visits, the Easter hat parade, the twice weekly assemblies, the end of year learn to swim week, the Christmas fair, the once-a term mufti days, and of course Healthy Harold.

I’m not quite sure when they find the time to teach our kids to read.

My kids come home from these “special days” hyped up, excited, stimulated, over-joyed but unable to settle back into a regular routine. The idea of sitting down to do homework is a battle. It’s not a regular school day why should they be expected to behave like they usually do?

I’m not alone as a parent in finding our primary school curriculum overcrowded and simply too complicated.

The recent Abbott Government review into the national curriculum had that exact finding.

Too many subjects, too much clutter.

Call me the excursion-Grinch. Call me the fun police. Call me a party-pooper but I am all for a little more in-classroom time for our younger students.

Before you manage to squeeze the words killjoy and grouch in there, let me clarify.

I can see in some circumstances that excursions have their benefits. I understand the need for students to occasionally have a little break from routine and I can see how in some situations, like a zoo trip, they might learn from actually observing the animals in real life.

I also fully support the need for older students to gain this added educational advantage that a field trip might provide.

What I am fed up with is my kids coming home from their once-a-term day out and telling me they learnt nothing.

“Oh a guy dressed up as a pirate and taught us how to speak pirate-talk”

“We got to play in the biggest playground I’ve ever seen.”

“There were lots of trains but I don’t really know what they were for.”

Stop right there, I say. Back to the classroom and how about you learn how to spell the word before you go for a ride on one.

I just want a back to basics education for my kids. I want them to develop a love of learning and a passion for being in the classroom – not to be desperate to escape it at the first chance possible.

What do you think? Are excursions a complete waste of time?

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