An item crossed my screen today - a study - Field Trips to Art Museums Improve Critical Thinking, Promote Historical Empathy, and Increase Tolerance

Its too bad because there has been sharped declines for school field trips. “In recent years, cultural institutions have experienced sharp declines in the number of school tours attending their exhibits. More than half of schools throughout the country eliminated planned field trips in 2010–11 according to an American Association of School Administrators survey.”
http://educationnext.org/field-trips-to-art-museums-improve-critical-thinking-promote-historical-empathy-and-increase-tolerance/

There has also been sharped declines in Canada as well. As I have observed in the last 35 years or so, my school life was peppered with at least 1 or 2 school field trips each year,  starting in grade 3 to grade 12. but the same thing can’t be said about my children. If it wasn’t for me, none of them would have known the world of museums and other interesting places that are educational.

Of course today, going to the museum is rather a costly affair in Canada. However, in the United States it is relatively a very cheap outing to take the kids to. Kudos for the LA museums for thinking of the children in their city. That can’t be said about the museums in Canada, and more so for the national museums who are more interested in profiting off birthday parties and pricey summer play sessions that cost an arm and leg.

In Canada, the access doors are locked to to museum doors and open only to those who have the larger pocketbooks. As for field trips…............the public school boards and schools have it down as a low priority on their list.