Field Trip: Learning to Fly, Without Crash Landing

My son’s school has taken him to some interesting places on field trips. The latest, yesterday, was to a place I never knew existed until we heard about the excursion.

The students went to The Actor’s Gymnasium, a school for circus and performing arts. Their tagline is “learn to fly – physically, emotionally, intellectually, and creatively.”

In addition to teaching people the skills to become physical theater artists, they also occasionally put on performances that showcase their work. When I was a kid, we never went to such fascinating places.

Field trips are always dicey with Kai. He always looks forward to them, usually enjoys them immensely, but often has trouble with his behavior, as the trips are a departure from the usual routine.

When Kai came home from school yesterday, I eagerly greeted him and could not wait to hear about his day. But before he could say anything, my wife broke the news to me – Kai had had a bad day.

He walked in the door and threw his hat down. Something had happened on the field trip and he was still angry.

We opened his backpack and found a note from his teacher. She explained that Kai did a wonderful job during most of the trip. He was very patient on the bus going down there, and was very engaged and entertained during the 30-minute performance.

After the performance, the kids participated in group and partner activities. Kai was enthusiastic and patient for the first two stations (juggling and silks), but then became very upset when he was not called first at the third station (tumbling). After that, his behavior deteriorated as he became verbally abusive throughout the remainder of the time.

It is still sometimes hard for me to believe how he can go from being engaged and patient to angry and abusive in a moment’s time. What happened in his mind to change him from being happy to mad so suddenly?

I guess Kai is still very early in the process of learning to fly emotionally. We have a lot of work to do yet to cut down on all the crash landings.

Field Trip

It was field trip day at my son’s school yesterday. These days are always a bit nerve-wracking, as any change from the usual schedule can potentially affect Kai negatively.

Field trips have been hit or miss with Kai as he has surprised staff with perfect behavior on some trips, while others haven’t gone as well. One time he couldn’t even go on the trip because he had an incident at school before they were to leave, and school rules forbid students from going once they have been unsafe.

This trip included a relatively long drive into the city to go to the Museum of Science and Industry to see two special exhibits: one on holiday lights that includes Christmas around the world, and the other on Dr. Seuss.

We packed a couple of games in his backpack to keep him occupied on the school bus, and hoped he would be okay.

It turns out that Kai did well.

His point sheet from school indicated that he behaved well and stayed safe.

As usual, it was difficult to get much information out of him. But he did say that he enjoyed seeing all the Christmas trees, and now wants us to get our tree and put it up this weekend.

He also said that he played the games we packed with the student sitting next to him on the bus, a somewhat rare social interaction.

When we asked him how the Dr. Seuss exhibit was, he said he did not want to see it and sat on the bus during that time. We know that this museum, which is very large, can be overwhelming for Kai. So it is not surprising that he would have had enough with just the one exhibit and want to leave.

The point sheet indicated that he was safe, so we are hoping that he handled the situation by expressing his desire to sit on the bus with appropriate words, and not with anger. We are fortunate that the staff at his therapeutic school knows how to deal with such situations, and their flexibility and skill likely kept it from escalating.

Most of November was rough in terms of incidents at school. It’s nice to get off to a good start here in December.

Field Trip is More Than Just a Puppet Show

My son’s class had their first and only field trip of the school year yesterday, and the first field trip since he started attending the school a year and a half ago.

When I was a kid, I recall that we went on a couple field trips every year. I am guessing that Kai’s school doesn’t have more trips because it is a therapeutic school for kids with behavior issues. If issues come up in school, they are equipped to handle it. But it is a lot more difficult when you are out in public.

We found out about the trip last week when Kai’s social worker at school called to talk about it. His class, she said, had just received an opportunity to go see a puppet show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Chicago. As that would mean about an hour drive each way, she wanted to know how Kai had been doing in the car lately.

She sounded concerned, maybe a little nervous, and a bit apprehensive. This was going to be a new experience for the staff, too. She said that she wanted to make sure that they took every measure to keep the kids safe and well behaved throughout the excursion. The anxiety I perceived in her made me a bit more anxious about how my son would do on the trip.

The school developed a social story to prepare the kids for what they would experience including the ride in the van to get there, parking, waiting for the show to start, how to behave in the theater, and the drive back.

We spoke to Kai for several days about appropriate behavior. I felt like we had prepared him as best we could, but nothing was ever certain with him.

The school asked parents to send along anything that might keep the kids occupied in the ride down to the museum. For Kai, we packed his favorite book about elements and a handheld electronic math game.

All day long, I wondered how he was doing. I was happy that at least we didn’t receive a call during the day to tell us to come get him.

In the afternoon, my wife went to pick him up at school. When she came home she said that Kai’s teacher had walked him out to the car. Usually, an aide brings him out. The teacher normally only comes out if there is something bad that she needs to tell us about.

But this time it was different.

She said that Kai did a wonderful job on the field trip. He read his elements book, chewed gum, and had a snack in the van to and from the puppet show. She said he really enjoyed the show, and afterward told her that he wanted to have more field trips to downtown Chicago. She wrapped up by saying that with Kai’s positive attitude and patience today, there is definitely the possibility of more field trips in his future.

For most, the purpose of a field trip is for kids to learn something beyond what they experience at school. And based on Kai’s enthusiasm afterward, I think that goal was met. But for us, nothing was more important than our son just being able to go, and then behave well enough for the opportunity to go again. And in that regard, the field trip was an unqualified success.


For Chicago area readers, there will be three more performances of the puppet show that Kai saw, The Man Who Planted Trees, at the Museum of Contemporary Art.