Elementary School Hosts End-Of-Year Carnival, Excludes All The Poor Kids

[Igel]

12. It's a question.

Don't know enough details. Local schools here sometimes have "time off" because the PTO or some auxiliary organization puts on some kid-related activity.

When I was a kid I was peripherally aware of some kids being really sad in my class. We'd all meet, and then file to the bus for a field trip. No pay, no play. We'd go off to the field trip and they'd sit in the auditorium or some other grade's classes with either busy work or something related to what they wouldn't be seeing.

My school has "field trips" for some student service organizations. One year they went to Disney World. Some students' parents couldn't pay; they stayed back. Another school organized a field trip to a water park; no pay, no play. Some kids were just told that most of their peers would be 60 miles away at an amusement mark but they'd be stuck in the classroom with a sub.

It's tough when the kids are in elementary school. My elementary school didn't have field trips until 4th or 5th grade, by which time the kids recognized why they weren't going to be going.

Yes, in some cases there are alternative funding sources. But I have kids who'd rather come to class hungry than undergo the stigma of free/reduced lunches. Others every year spend far too much trying to keep up with their wealtheir peers at Homecoming and prom. It's a no-win situation.