Hiatus

hi·a·tus // [hahy-ey-tuhs] –noun, plural -tus·es, -tus.

1.a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

While there may be a post or two in the coming days, TBAP is going on a two week hiatus. There will likely be little activity during that time as Chrissy and I take our senior class on their trip.

Senior trip should be more than a week at Disney World. Disney World is great [I live in MI and I've been there six times--thanks mostly to my grandparents], but a senior trip is not a release valve. For my senior trip, I went golfing.

Instead of that, a senior trip is an excellent opportunity to add a capstone to an education. The philosophy that I have been implementing at Prairie is that senior trip should be important by being full of religious and American history. It should teach the students that the world is a lot bigger than their little sliver of routine. The goal is not to impart wanderlust; it’s to promote vision and depth and to peel away some of the egotism around our lives. Getting away from our routines is a huge help, walking in history steps is another, sitting in Whitefield’s church is another.

Four years ago, I started this big vision by taking the class to England and Paris for two weeks. It was really neat, and I have a lot to say about that experience. Metropolitan Tabernacle, Sacre Coeur, Blickling Hall and Castle Rising Castle were amazing and that is a great trip, but partly due to the value of the dollar and partly due to the fact that I had a great opportunity to reinforce the American genesis, the trip has become a two-week American history trip. The first week is all New-England and the second week is NYC and Philadelphia.

I don’t take the students to NYC for the history (although we do talk about what happened there in 1776 when Washington and his troops occupied the city, go to Ground Zero, go to some old sites). We go to NYC to see the great swath of humanity. Souls! Souls! Souls! Scurrying to nothing.

This is the fourth year for this New England/NYC/Philly trip. It’s not Disney, but you couldn’t tell from talking to the kids…or me.

Here is our itinerary (the PDF conversion wasn’t perfect): Sr. Trip 2008