On April 21 I had the privilege of taking 24 eager young historians to Philadelphia for an historical day trip. I am a believer in the “power of place”– experiencing history in the classroom can be fun and interesting, but experiencing history where it happened is magical. By being where our founders, invisible and visible, actually laughed, yelled, cried, and fought, students are able to connect with them and the past in a way they simply can’t in a classroom. If you are able to take your students on outside experiences- go! There are many grants teachers can apply for to help defray the cost of student trips.
If you are unfamiliar with trip planning, your first one can feel a bit arduous. Don’t worry, as long as you stay organized, you’ll be okay. First, you need to have a general plan for your trip (I will share our Philadelphia itinerary below.) to present to your administrators. Have a couple of dates in mind and the places you plan on visiting, as well as pedagogical justification for each historical site and the cost per student. It is vital to have your trip approved by administration first, as they are the ones who will help you get a permission slip with all the legalese necessary for liability purposes. Once you have a general permission slip in-hand and the go-ahead from your administrators, call the sites you wish to visit and make a temporary reservation with an estimated number of students. Most places do not require an immediate deposit so you can collect any money due for the trip prior to putting the deposit down. Additionally, you’ll need to arrange transportation. Use your school district’s busses, if possible. Next, secure the necessary chaperones for the trip. Most places require one chaperone for every 10 students.
After you’ve done all of that background work, send permission slips out to parents. The trip I coordinated for Philadelphia was optional, but if yours is mandatory make sure you have about two weeks to collect funds and permission slips. Keep permission slips in a file and deposit funds wherever your school requires. Call historical sites to confirm reservations, including the final student count, and send final payments. Be sure to bring phone numbers for the places you’ve booked in case you are going to be late or if there is a snafu on the trip. Prior to trip-day, be sure parents and students are familiar with the itinerary and any other information necessary for travel. On trip-day, have a great time!
You can view my Philadelphia itinerary by clicking here (this will lead you to a GoogleDoc).
Now: to review Philadelphia.
Constitutional Walking Tour Philadelphia, http://www.theconstitutional.com: We began our day with a what was supposed to be a 3-hour walking tour of Philadelphia through The Constitutional Walking Tour. For an additional fee, The Constitutional Walking Tour also arranged our tickets to tour Independence Hall. Students were taken to several different sites in Old City Philadelphia and given a brief history of each place. Sites included the Liberty Bell, the President’s House, Independence Hall, Franklin’s print shop and remains of his home, Congressional Hall, the first public library, the First and Second National Banks, Carpenter’s Hall, the Betsy Ross House, Ben Franklin’s grave, and the Arch Street Quaker Meeting House. The information given by our tour guide was enough for an 8th grader, but the expertise could be a little deeper for those who really know their history. Our tour guide allowed plenty of time for our students to explore each place they visited, to ask questions, and to take pictures, and she made sure to talk about some of the invisible founders: the enslaved who lived and worked in Philadelphia. Our tour began at 9am. Because The Constitutional Walking Tour knew we were beginning before many of the sites opened their doors, it would have been nice if they’d recommended a later start-time, as students were unable to enter several of the sites. Additionally, our tour ended at 11:10 instead of at 12:00. While the tour and the guide were good, the timing threw us off a bit because we had an extra 50 minutes. Luckily, we were able to eat lunch early and check into the National Park Service’s security at Independence Hall early, so we added some impromptu visits to our trip.
Independence Hall (National Park Service Tour), https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehall.htm: After having lunch at the Independence Visitor’s Center Cafe and some relaxation time outside on the mall, we took students to Independence Hall and went through security forty-five minutes before originally scheduled. The benefit of eating in the Visitor’s Center was that the employees there gave me the tip to head over to Independence Hall early because there was more to see there prior to our official tour. In order to visit Independence Hall and the surrounding buildings, you must have timed tickets. Again, we arranged these through The Constitutional Walking Tour, but you can arrange them on your own, as well. I included the link above.
When you enter the Independence Hall complex, you can visit the American Philosophical Society Museum, you can bring students to see original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, and if you time it well, students can also tour Congressional Hall, the site of the first House of Representatives and Senate meetings. We were able to take advantage of all but Congressional Hall, and students were thrilled to see originals of the founding documents as well as some artifacts in the APS Museum, including Jefferson’s portrait, letters written by Jefferson, and original books from Franklin’s library. The tour of Independence Hall was exciting because students knew where they were and what had happened in that building, though the delivery of the NPS guide could have been slightly more energetic. Overall, I’d say this complex was the highlight of their trip.
The National Constitution Center, www.constitutioncenter.org: The last leg of our trip brought us back across the mall to the National Constitution Center. Here, students were able to explore the museum with a chaperone. Students must be with a chaperone at all times. I personally prefer to give last-semester 8th graders a little more freedom than that. After some time looking around, students went to a Rights and Responsibilities Workshop. This was supposed to be a “game-show,” and while the presenter was energetic and knowledgeable, it was not what I expected. It was more of a PowerPoint presentation with props. If your kids aren’t really interested in history and the Constitution, I wouldn’t recommend this program. After the presentation, students did a short lesson on the First Amendment and Supreme Court decisions. Again, I took a group of students on a Saturday who elected to go on the trip and who had just finished studying judicial review and the Bill of Rights. Students with less interest and less knowledge would likely not receive this programming very well. If I could do it again, I’d simply take them to the museum. Signers Hall, the exhibit with life-sized statues of the signers of the Constitution is not to be missed, nor is a lot of the museum content. Next time, we’ll simply go to the museum.
There are so many amazing places in Philadelphia to see. Walking around the city is a must, as it gives students the feel for the history there, and there’s no way you can skip the Independence Hall complex. I’m also interested in taking them to the new Museum of the American Revolution, located just down the block from Independence Hall That’s something to check out for next year.
Place is POWERFUL. Get out of your classroom if you can. Let your students live history and understand it from a totally different context. You can work a lot of magic in your classroom, but the true magic is outside your walls if you can get there.
