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I’m finally getting back to this series about a late-March 2023 trip my school’s ninth- and tenth-graders took to Washington, D.C.  I put it on hold due to a number of factors, few of which I can recall anymore.  Travel posts with tons of pictures are always a bit time-consuming (even as I’m realizing I don’t have any pictures for this post—d’oh!), and the end of the school year likely left me with inadequate time.  Whatever the reasons—lame or otherwise—I’m continuing the saga of the field trip that nearly made me quit education for good.

Our school trip to Washington, D.C., was going pretty well up to this point.  Despite the kids being knuckleheads and talking over the tour guide, we were at least herding them efficiently from one place to another on this rather frenetic trip around our nation’s capital.

What struck me on this trip is how little common sense teenagers possess.  I should know this truth by now, having taught fourteen-to-sixteen-year olds for over a decade.  Still, some lingering bit of vestigial optimism clings stubbornly to my mind, and I always think they know better.

Nothing dissuaded me of that incorrect notion more than what happened when we got back to the hotel that second night in D.C., and a group of rowdy teens overloaded an elevator.

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