Almost eight and a half percent of the inhabitants of the Lower Franconian city of Miltenberg have made their way to the Eternal City. However, this is not a pilgrimage to Rome, although an audience with Pope Francis is also on the agenda for the Miltenbergers, but something that has almost been forgotten in recent years of a never-ending pandemic: a class trip.
The eight and a half percent are more than 700 students from the Johannes-Butzbach-Gymnasium and their teachers, a total of almost 800 people who left for Rome in no fewer than 16 buses. Headmaster Ansgar Stich came up with this as a thank you for the students who had to do without so much because of Corona. When he surprised the children and young people with it, cheers broke out. “That was the best moment I’ve had as a teacher so far,” he told Bayerischer Rundfunk.
One cannot admire this headmaster enough when one recalls one’s own school trips. Take skiing, for example. Finding the balance as an instructor on the slopes between the scaredy-cats who have to be escorted down the idiot hill and the kamikaze snowboarders who think it’s a good idea to take the shortcut through the forest is nothing short of miraculous. To keep track of which of the Wolfskin Columbia Northface jackets now belong to 6b and which of them just took off for après-ski.
But it all starts while driving. With 16 buses, the probability of forgetting one of the students at the car grill increases immeasurably. The whole college is there. But the mere fact that if you take all grades with you, you also take the entire spectrum of student nonsense with you makes things complex. While you – let’s say on a trip to Weimar with thirteenth graders – as a teacher you have to make sure that the pubescents in the Bauhaus Museum don’t stick chewing gum on priceless Mies van der Rohe chairs, it’s about the Hiking week for the fifth graders is more about whether little Xaver manages not to break his jelly bean diet. In addition, there is no privacy at all when several dozen students register every visit to the toilet.
One can only come to one conclusion: teachers who go on class trips are fearless. Thanks for that! And good luck and divine assistance.