Day 5: Bubblefest: Hands on Learning a Thing of the Past

Today we took Reef to The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA. We attended an event called Bubblefest.  This is the fifteenth year that the center has had the event. We watched Fan Yang, an internationally renowned bubble artist, (who knew that existed) perform an amazing show full of bubbles, lasers, and smoke. It was amazing! We ended the trip with a family picture taken in a bubble. Not some fake mock up of a bubble, but a man literally blew a giant bubble around us. The trip was amazing. I was engaged, excited, and amazed throughout the entire experience. On the drive home today's trip got me thinking.

The Discovery Science Center is amazing, but fairly expensive. An adult ticket is around $13 and that does not include special programs such as Bubblefest. A children's ticket costs around $9. So for a family of four you're looking at $44 dollars just for entry. The trip is well worth the money, but that amount of money is not really reasonable for many families, especially during this time of financial uncertainty. In the past, many families counted on trips to places like The Discovery Science Center to be part of a child's school experience as the center and many other facilities offer free admission for schools. However, in the current era of school budget shortfalls field trips are becoming a thing of the past. Even if a facility offers free admission, the bus is often too expensive for the school to send classes on trips.  This is a shame because I know many of us remember field trips taken in school as some of our fondest memories and greatest learning experiences.  For children who come from families that can do these type of trips independently maybe the loss is not so great, but for our most at risk students the loss of these trips is stealing an experience from them that they are unlikely to receive any other way. They will not know these places exist and it will never offer to them the engaging learning experience that a field trip can offer.

I know that our educational system if facing bigger problems than field trips. Right now they can't even afford teachers.  Still I feel like these hands on learning experiences are an important component of education and I am sad to see them disappearing. This morning I saw parents and children alike with looks of awe and glee on their faces as Fan Yang created a mystical bubble world before our eyes. I was one of them. The sense of wonder and imagination is fragile in our children and any opportunity that we educators have to foster these ideas in them is valuable. However, it is just one more thing that is being cut from schools, and it is likely that it is our children that will pay the ultimate price.