Lesson learned

/ May 10, 2014
The leader of the city in the building of public TV station WCNY in Syracuse tells student citizens rules for the Enterprise America day.

The leader of the city in the building of public TV station WCNY in Syracuse tells student citizens rules for the Enterprise America day.

The students from the middle school in Utica picked their spots carefully on the floor on a high story in the refurbished building on the west side of Syracuse that houses the offices, studios, everything that makes public television station WCNY.

It was the start of the program called Enterprise America.

Mrs. Straub announced herself as the city leader. She explained rules. Momentarily they would be breaking up into the businesses and performing the real life tasks that would help them learn many valuable lessons.

Listening and following the rules of their city.

Listening and following the rules of their city.

One girl whispers to me, respectfully. She points out that I was standing on the grass. Then I moved into the lake. Green to blue. OK, back onto the gray or brown.

I was there to watch and learn along with 75 middle-schoolers. They were there for 4 1/2 hours, and I observed for the first. My story about the impressive educational program Enterprise America will appear in the September edition of Central New York The Good Life magazine.

City Hall

Students assigned to work in City Hall already have drawn up their list of city laws, with fines. This reporter had unknowingly broken one of them during the morning welcome.

What was your favorite out-of-the-classroom learning trip when you were growing up? Where did you go? What lessons stuck with you?

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56 thoughts on “Lesson learned”

  2. Enterprise America sounds like a good concept. School focus so much on state funding requirements these days, they don’t teach kids the basics such as balancing a checkbook or even writing cursive anymore. They should also offer something like this to juvenile inmates in correctional centers so they can learn how to survive honestly once they get released. Great post! 😀

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  3. I love those rules – especially no littering. But I just know that when I see a ‘Keep off the grass’ sign I just so want to tread on the green stuff.
    As for the best trip – when I was about thirteen we went to the local Steam Railway. Our maths and English teachers were good friends and both likes steam trains. I don’t how they got permission for the visit. We had a great time.
    As a teacher – a trip with my class of 5/6 year olds to a Synagogue.It was the most inspiring visit. When they took the scrolls out of the ark and unrolled them I really did feel shivers down my spine.The scrolls had been bought to Britain before WW2. They were hundreds and hundreds of years old. History right there.

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    • It is hard to keep off the lawn, isn’t it, Rachel? I tend to listen when it is a young person reminding me politely, surely.

      Thanks for sharing about steam teams and synagogue scrolls, important historical moments in such very different ways!

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      • Of course you should listen when asked politely – it’s those little signs we have here that seem to bring out the rebellious side in me.

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  4. Ninth grade I was in a alternative school, and we took a hiking and camping trip up to a place called dragon’s tooth. We also went caving, and rock climbing, it was my absolute favorite trip, it was fun but the only thing I really learned was that the smell of cigarette smoke stays on you much longer than I had previously thought. Lol

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  5. Ha! Mark. We didn’t know what a learning trip was when I was young. That was back in the middle ages, before public radio, television was a huge cabinet with a small round viewing hole, and there were no choices in the lunch room except to eat or not to eat. Most of us chose NOT.

    I love that kids today are getting out and learning about real life outside the classroom, and hope they will remember in the future what they learn today.

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  6. What a wonderful project. I always love how kids get excited with this kind of projects. It should teach us adults a lot that kids learn so much more in creative ways, shouldn’t it?

    I remember a school trip to the Airport where we saw how the suitcases were labeled and moved around. The whole logistic system totally impressed me.

    Last week I took my daughter and 4 classmates to meet with WWF for a school project on environment and pollution. They were so well prepared and enthusiastic. I was totally impressed.

    So, well done on reporting a wonderful project, even you ended up standing on a lake 😉

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    • Thank you, Ilka. It’s important to see, and always remember, how young people like the students I watched yesterday and your daughter and her classmates, learn well when given the opportunity to prosper in a special situation.

      Yes, I was figuratively all wet there for a moment, wasn’t I?

      Thank you for sharing your view!

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  7. I am impressed at the way the students were so interested in this project about government and their ‘city laws!’ The student whispering respectfully touched my heart, Mark! I am also impressed that you stayed and listened for quite some time! I always liked when we would visit theatres. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” in Cleveland, Ohio at the “Players’ Theater was great! Our high school had these neat mini-courses every quarter in English. I took all my Math, Science, Government and Psychology required classes in my freshman and sophomore years. Then, I took four to five courses of English, no math, science or social studies. I took drama and public speaking classes. For this particular field trip the course was called, “Rebels in Literature.” No Jack Nicholson, but there was a famous man who played the Native American in the play. Too bad my mind cannot remember his name! I also liked our Science Club field trips; on bicycles, with an overnight to Kelley’s Island in Lake Erie and our road trip to Mammoth Cave. Not the whole school, but about 30 kids! Fun stuff! Hands on learning and field trips are the best!

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      • In the olden days when schools had good budgets and funding there were a lot of school buses that took us places! I even consider all the high school football games I marched in with my clarinet, and the fun we had riding to those games and also, band and orchestra state wide contests! Fun and great support of the arts and sciences. Good way to put it, Mark!

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  8. There were so many… hmm.. However, I loved and still love learning about history, so taking a trip to St. Marie Among the Iroquois in Liverpool was interesting. Fourth grade was dedicated to learning about New York State history, and it was exciting to learn about the state that we were born and growing up in. Of course, fourth grade had the infamous Colonial Days event, a trip to the Erie Canal in Camillus, and even the Salt Museum was a gem.

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    • I am trying to remember fourth grade state history lessons. We did not have the local museums down on Long Island you had here, Chris, even though we did indeed have our own Native tribes, most notably to me the Shinnecocks. I remember reading a textbook titled “The Great Tree and the Longhouse.” And that was 48 years ago. It must have been a really great textbook, because I recall that I loved it.

      After I moved here and went to Ste. Marie, I was taken by the living history exhibits. What a great way to teach about the past! That obviously made a great and lasting impression on you. Bravo West Genny district for bringing students to this great places.

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      • It must have been a great book for you to remember it… you didn’t have any negative feelings toward it.

        I haven’t been back there probably since, which is crazy to think about, but it’s probably more for kids than any other age group. The Camillus part of the canal, however, is still a great place to walk, run, bike, and fish.

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  9. Mark it’s really odd but I don’t remember much of school. I don’t know why for sure. School wasnt traumatic or anything like that. But I enjoy, now as an adult, seeing / learning of such programs. I look forward to your piece.

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  11. i love this project and what an amazing lesson for all. i think these hands-on experiences teach more than all the textbooks and lectures combined ever could. i always remember these trips as highlights of my school years, and try to pay it forward by teaching my students in the same way. that’s wonderful you got to witness it firsthand. congrats on your upcoming story )

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  12. Gotta be the trip to Stuhr Museum in the 7th grade. I’d been there before, but that particular time I was finally old enough to really understand what the early settlers to Nebraska went through, as they struggled to survive the harsh winters of the prairie.

    What I took from that, well, thankful that I was placed here now and not then. Yikes!

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    • Learning about the sacrifices to establish life in your region must have been very cool, Audrey. I remember that I liked the year here in New York State when we studied about the Native American nations that lived here in the area, the Iroquois. KInd of the same, but different, too.

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    • That was a pretty cool trip, Diana. I remember the days when Trudeau was the Prime Minister of my good neighbors to the north very well. I can picture his face, and his thin frame. I must say, don’t you think we all were at least a little bit of a geek growing up? The bar of cool was set so high by the media, there’s no way we could reach it. Good to see you this morning.

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    • I was very impressed. I had an inkling of its reach when I walked through with teachers at the open house. To see it in action … I don’t want to reveal too much because of my upcoming story, but, yes, I will agree whole-heartedly with your wise statement: “Nothing beats experiential learning!” Thanks for sharing that thought, Karen, and have a great Saturday.

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  16. The out-of-school trip that’s coming to my mind right now is … going to a near-by state-run psychiatric hospital, believe it or not. My memory is that it was for a Psychology class I took as a senior. One of our classmates, who had dropped out of school, was there as a patient. The facilities were depressing and the patients looked very sick. NOT fun. Today, I found your post very uplifting, Mark. Thank you for that.

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    • These students took right to it, Ann. They were prepared and eager to make the most of an exciting opportunity.

      Your tale is indeed depressing to me. We grew up in a time where they wanted to scare us out of a lot of behavior. But being mentally ill? How bad that must have been for your former classmate, like the caged rat in the lab. Ugh. Criminal for the teacher knew that student was there.

      Thanks, Ann. I’m glad I lifted you up with my sunny and enthusiastic students. I was smiling for sure when the polite girl told me I was standing on the long, and that whole group I took the picture of afterward giggled as I then walked into the lake!

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  17. Busch Gardens, as a part of physics class to measure various forces on the different roller coasters 🙂

    I wish we had more opportunities like this one you described.

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    • These students were wonderfully connected. I am looking forward to writing the story for the magazine and seeing it in print, Jeanette.

      Wow, physics at Busch Gardens on the roller coasters sounds like a pretty cool day out of the classroom to me. Did you have fun?

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