Although I didn’t ride a school bus growing up, I did take them when I went on field trips. One trip I remember vividly was a visit to The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles when I was in fifth grade.

The Holocaust exhibit was especially eye-opening for me — almost 20 years later, I still remember it in great detail.

I got to thinking about my visit to The Museum of Tolerance and the overall impact that field trips can have on students when I read an article from The Jersey Journal about a high school student, Jonathan Pinto, who has been on nearly 50 field trips. 

(As a freshman, Pinto reportedly had a goal: He wanted to set a record for the most field trips taken by a student at his school, Harrison High School.)

His interest in field trips began when he signed up to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since then, he has visited such sites as Independence Hall to see where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed, and traveled to Boston to walk in the footsteps of Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty who started the American Revolution, according to The Jersey Journal.

"It benefits me," Pinto told the newspaper. "I get to see things I might not get to see otherwise. I took all of these opportunities and turned them into a positive. I'm a visual learner, so I feel things come to life better when you see it. I feel it comes to life because I'm actually there looking at it."

I also read an article during the holiday season last year from The Lufkin News about school bus driver Robert Hunt, who organized a field trip to the Museum of East Texas' Festival of Trees for the kids on his bus after he saw it on television. The children on the driver’s bus were from low-income areas, and he felt that they would like to see all of the Christmas trees.

“This is my Christmas present to the kids,” Hunt told The Lufkin News at the time. “I thought they would enjoy this, and I know a lot of the kids on my bus are in situations to where they wouldn’t get this chance if we didn’t give it to them.”

Recognizing the importance of field trips, Dr. Linda Bluth, past president of the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), and her partner, Betsy Eisman, have endowed an annual $500 grant that will enable NAPT members to help bring learning to life for students in their community and enhance classroom studies in their school program. As SBF recently reported, the grant covers the cost of transportation, entry fees, supplies and classroom resource materials so that teachers may continue using the experiential learning gained from math and science, language, social studies and arts-focused field trips.  

Has your operation provided transportation for interesting field trips, or trips that you feel have made a difference in students’ lives? If so, I’d be interested to read about them. Post a comment below or send an e-mail to info@schoolbusfleet.com.

Until next time,

Kelly Roher
Managing Editor