On Tuesday, Nov. 28, Wayland Middle School (WMS) Interim Principal Tyler Steffey sent an email to WMS families to inform them of changes to longstanding field trips, including to Walden Pond, Cape Cod and Washington, D.C..
“We have made the difficult decision to halt overnight field trips and the [sixth] grade Walden Pond bike trip, with the support of our Central Office administration,” Steffey wrote. “We came to this conclusion prioritizing the physical and emotional safety of students. We have found making accessibility a reality too hard for many students when we are far away from Wayland or when we are away overnight.”
For years, each WMS grade has embarked on a unique field trip that aligns with their grade’s mentor, an impactful figure from American history whose work shapes the student’s curriculum and values. In sixth grade, students bike nine miles to Walden Pond to learn about Henry David Thoreau’s ideas of transcendentalism. In seventh grade, students travel to Cape Cod and stay overnight to understand Rachel Carson’s work on preserving nature. In eighth grade, students fly to Washington, D.C. to visit the nation’s capital and its museums to learn about Martin Luther King’s passion for social justice, concluding their trip with the annual eighth grade dance. Through it all, the students are meant to learn about their world, gain independence and build long-lasting friendships.
To accommodate for the lack of overnight trips now, WMS administration offered new plans. In his email to families, Steffey briefly explained the field trips that will be taking place for the foreseeable future and how they connect to each grade’s mentor-inspired curriculum. The sixth grade’s Walden Pond field trip will remain local and partially outdoors, but students will no longer bike, and will instead spend their time touring a museum. The seventh and eighth grade’s field trips have been changed more significantly, as the overnight aspect of the trips has been completely eliminated. The new trips will occur throughout multiple days in May.
“Trips will include service learning, Boston-based museum trips, a theater experience and a Red Sox game,” Steffey wrote in his email.
Despite WMS administration’s attempts to implement new field trips, some parents believe that the impact of overnight field trips cannot be replaced. According to WMS parent and Vice Principal of Kennedy Middle School Mark DiStefano, field trips like the Cape Cod and D.C. trip offer invaluable learning experiences that in-classroom learning cannot provide.
“As educators and as parents we can talk until we’re blue in the face about what goes on in the world of history,” DiStefano said. “But there’s something about actually seeing something happen in person that is irreplaceable. You cannot recreate that.”
When DiStefano was a classroom teacher, he traveled to D.C. with his students several times. He reported that, on each trip, students proved that they were capable of managing themselves and their emotions. DiStefano believes that the field trips provide students with a unique opportunity to prove that they can handle themselves in a new and unfamiliar environment.
“[I remember] 170 eighth graders [who], unprompted, shook the hands of two veterans [at the Vietnam Memorial],” DiStefano said. “It was a single file line that stretched almost the entire Memorial, and they all made it through. [When I saw that] happen from afar and organically, I had tears in my eyes. They were kids stepping up because it was the right thing to do, to thank veterans for their service. [Then I heard] those two veterans say that was the thank you [they] never got. That doesn’t happen in a classroom. That’s the real world, that’s raw. Those are the experiences that the kids need.”
According to Interim Assistant Superintendent Betsy Gavron, who was the WMS principal until last year, the decision to cancel these trips was made in part due to increasing concerns about meeting students’ needs while away on the trips. In recent years, the WMS administration first tried to adapt existing field trips and work around the challenges caused by COVID-19. The school also changed the structure of the Walden Pond trip by adding an alternative field trip in which students met up with their peers at the pond without having to bike there. However, the WMS administration did not see the adjustments as impactful enough. In a survey sent to WMS students, administration found that 25% of students – a higher number than in past years – opted for the alternative trip. Gavron, who says the number of students who are unable to bike has been increasing, also estimates that there is often another 10% who do not finish the biking portion.
“I know there were some surveys sent out around what [WMS administration’s] concerns were,” Gavron said. “They tried many, many different things and at the end of the day, we thought we really needed to listen to the teachers, listen to folks who are down there in the trenches doing the work and support a decision to make some changes.”
While surveys and various ideas were floated around for an extended period of time as concerns grew, the ultimate decision to cancel the trips was made close to the time of the announcement.
“When we came back in the spring from D.C. last year, there were [already] significant concerns around the trip, and we were really hoping that with some distance and some time, that folks would feel better and more confident [about] the trips,” Gavron said. “But at the end of the day, there was too much concern. There was a really strong feeling throughout the building that [we] needed to make some changes. I would say that the decision was made just a few weeks ago and then house leaders were working on alternatives so that we weren’t just presenting the cancellation [of the trips].”
According to Steffey, changes to the field trips had already been underway before his arrival at WMS and becoming the interim principal on July 1.
“My understanding is that these conversations started before I arrived at WMS,” Steffey said. “This was a building-based decision, [and] groups of teachers at every grade level and WMS administration were involved in this decision. What feels important for the community to remember is that these decisions represent the culmination of years of consideration.”
However, some Wayland residents, including Wayland parent Karen Kelly, disagree with the recent changes to overnight field trips at WMS. Kelly is currently in the midst of starting a new community hybrid mental health platform, so she is familiar with data about adolescent and Gen Z mental health.
“Kids who have not been given the freedom to build their resilience and challenges, and feel competent navigating the real world, not just a world of school, are experiencing significantly more mental health issues than those who have [been given the freedom],” Kelly said. “So if mental health is in fact what’s holding back this trip, it feels like we’re working against the betterment of [middle schoolers] by not allowing them to go out and have this experience navigating the real world.”
Additionally, Kelly believes the cancellation of the overnight field trips is a diversity, equity and inclusion issue.
“Many students would never have the opportunity to visit our nation’s capitol without this trip,” Kelly said. “[Also], particularly at this moment in time in Wayland, it just feels more important than ever, [for all students], to come face-to-face with critical lessons about the horrific events of the Holocaust.”
Due to the feedback from many Wayland parents, the WMS administration held an open community forum on Tuesday, Dec. 12 at WMS to discuss the recent changes to the field trips. During this meeting, the panel of Wayland Public Schools (WPS) faculty included Interim Superintendent David Fleishman, Gavron, Interim Director of Student Services Debby Dixon, Steffey and WMS teachers Joanna Posner, Bethany Monahan, Dylan Merry and Stephanie Galvani. Each person shared their past experiences with the trips and what they believed were the appropriate steps moving forward. They also left some time at the end for parents to ask questions.
“We were going on the trip as a teacher, [but] we also were parenting, we also were playing nurse, we were playing therapist, we were playing psychologist, we were playing all of these roles because that’s what the students needed, and we did not feel safe playing these roles,” Posner said. “We did not feel like the students’ needs were being met because we were stuck in these situations that felt uncomfortable for us because that’s not our expertise.”
While some teachers who have chaperoned these trips had to handle situations that they felt transcended their professional capabilities, multiple faculty members have emphasized that there is no student, incident, cluster or class that is to blame for the cancellation of these trips. They also expressed disappointment with the loss of the traditional field trips, but stand by the decision to change the trips.
While DiStefano believes that some learning will be lost without the D.C. trip, being an educator has given him the ability to be patient with the administration. He mentioned that he hopes families can remain rational through understandable anger.
“Even though we don’t necessarily agree with this decision, I do believe [the administration is] making this decision in the best interest of the kids,” DiStefano said. “We don’t have to agree with it. I think people are wrongly attacking the schools for not doing the right thing and I think we’re losing sight of the amazing opportunities our children have [through] WPS, and the dedication of the educators and the families.”