So my son who is in year 3, is going on an excursion
they are walking to the local supermarket to learn how fruits and veggies are grown
He is 9 years old
Personally I think it is more suitable for kinder/ year 1 students
is this a bit dumb for year 3 students?
Asking this is the context of the Australian education system lagging behind other countries internationally
Talk to the teacher and ask what they're learning for this.
My first thought is it's a free excursion - a lot of schools find it hard to get excursions in under budgets. Some schools don't do excursions!
Talk first. If you don't get a good answer, take it up with the principal. Also, you can exclude you're child if you wish.
No point complaining - it means nothing.
Just let him on the excursion and sigh…
Blame Coles minis.
At least they aren't going to the sexatorium!
That is lame as, I hope there is no fee involved for a walk to the shops. To learn how fruit and vege are grown they should be going to a farm, milking some cows, getting some mud on thier boots. The least they could do was send them strawberry picking. Time to join the P&C my dear and get involved in the school.
What educational merit is there in milking a cow or picking strawberries?
Not everyone is going to push pens around when they grow up, hopefully some will be primary producers and skilled tradespeople or we are doomed.
Oh right, so you're thinking a 9 year old will milk a cow and find it so exciting they'll try and pursue a career as a cow milker? Even though such a job doesn't really exist given they're generally milked by machines.
Or even more exciting - they can join the hordes of backpackers and spend their life picking fruit. Aim high!
Umm, yeah you really are not from the country are you?
Very very small amounts of people are born in cities that no ties to the country go out and be primary producers.
Milking a cow or picking fruit does not make skilled tradespeople.
Are you talking about the Woolworths Discovery Tour?
As a teacher I thought it was great. They take you through the store and you get to see the different areas and what goes on behind the scenes to keep the supermarket running: the cool rooms, what happens to all the packaging and how it is recycled, what happens inside the bakery, where fruits and vegetables are cut up and packaged.
You would be surprised how many children did not know the difference between a fruit and vegetable and on what part of a plant the fruit or vegetable grows.
They also showed unusual fruits and vegetables and the kids got to have a tasting. The kids all came back to school with an activity pack and loved it!
I think it’s a great initiative, especially for disadvantaged schools.
I suspect that this is what the OP is talking about. Assuming it is, then I agree it's not such a bad thing. There's usually a store within walking distance (so it's cheap to get there), and some kids may even end up working at a supermarket when they're older, so it's almost a work experience thing.
they never did this tour, but to enable our kids to learn where food actually comes from our primary school actually had a garden and encouraged the kids to grow veggies etc. Also had (just for the eggs) chickens! There were some things about our local school we didn't agree with, but that I liked.
Yes, we have a school garden too but it’s just another experience to add to their learning, and often little excursions like this lead to more in-depth learning in the classroom. We used this excursion to finish off a topic on healthy/unhealthy foods in health and it tied in well.
Upvoted. The tour sounds interesting, and the parents discussion with the kids after will be most important to help understand context/marketing. Maybe its a good opportunity for an innocent kid to ask questions like "why do you use so much plastic, the bananas don't need to be wrapped!" and develop critical thinking.
So much negativity on here without even knowing the full facts of the excursion. I hope the parents on here don't let that attitude spill over into the minds of the children. No wonder good teachers leave the profession with this attitude baying for blood in the background.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Friend's daughter went on Woolworths backroom tour incl butchery area when she was eight. Never ate meat again, and still a vegetarian to this day at 21. She says it distressed her and turned her off meat for life. So not sure if this excursion is age appropriate or not??
in 2000 butchery department were blood and guts not now they are shelf stacker with meat jackets
Oh the horrors. She realised she had been eating animals this whole time ?
Dude she was 8 calm down
That seems like a good thing to me… While I'm not a preachy vegetarian who insists everyone joins me, you need to at least know and accept how the meat gets to your plate if you want to make an informed decision.
Wait until she walks down the dairy/eggs aisle and finds out how that stuff is made. Then she'll be a vegan.
Have they grown a garden at school? ask teacher for more details
You would be surprised how many children did not know the difference between a fruit and vegetable and on what part of a plant the fruit or vegetable grows.
Not saying this excursion will not be educational. Just saying it sounds like it should be aimed for kinder/ prep/ year 1.
If we are saying that many 9 or 10 year olds don't know what a fruit or vegetable is, doesn't that indicate that our education system is lagging. Not simply blaming teachers, but what is it that we as a society are doing wrong that causes us to lag behind?
The person giving the tour will ensure that it is age appropriate and differentiate accordingly. If not, then the class teacher would/should step in.
Why is it that you just mention the Education system lagging, let’s include parenting in that conversation too!
I work at a disadvantaged school and many children don’t have the same opportunities for learning/ conversations at home that others have.
No, it's the parents fault.
Not only should they have been taught basic survival skills like what food is well before then, they should have been taught how to figure things out for themselves.
It's disturbing how many people expect to be spoon fed every little piece of information these days instead of just working something out for themselves.
If we are saying that many 9 or 10 year olds don't know what a fruit or vegetable is, doesn't that indicate that our education system is lagging. Not simply blaming teachers, but what is it that we as a society are doing wrong that causes us to lag behind?
Do your kids know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? I'm a university educated professional* and I'm not 100% sure I know. (Is it that fruits contain seeds?)
* I'll concede that this qualifier is debatable
I think fruit comes from a flowering plant.
Seed inside can be wrong. Like a strawberry.
Op talk to your child's teacher. You clearly need to hear the schools explanation
For those of you suggesting a trip to a farm (from a teacher's perspective):
Organising an excursion that is packaged and ready to go with a reputable supermarket - ~2 hours of work (paperwork, forms distributed and collected, organising transport, etc.). Location is likely to be close by, safety is not much of a concern.
Organising an excursion to a farm (unlikely to be packaged and quality would not be guaranteed) - I'd estimate ~4-5 hours of work. Farm likely to be far away, because of nature of excursion will need more staff to accompany (thus more expensive as relief need to be paid), etc.
Not saying it's a bad idea to go to a farm but there are costs and schools don't like costs or risk.
Risk and cost seems to drive everything these days….. I wonder how much we benefit by it.
I am sure the person running the tour will have knowledge suitable for even the most intelligent of adults. Is it the education system falling the students or rather the parents?
Primary school teachers often struggle to fit in the curriculum with all the things they are now expected to teach. Child e-safety, cyber bullying, basic manners, work ethic,… ect. It is also harder teachers to engage students these days because kids are overly stimulated by digital devices.
It is becoming more difficult to teach because parents often rely too much on the teachers. When kids struggle to read or do maths, the blame is on the teachers. Parents ask what the school is doing for the child. Back when I was growing up, my parents made it imperative that I knew my times tables, alphabet and manners before being taught at school.
Despite all this,it is sad that year three students are being taught these things, rather than by their parents during their weekly grocery shopping trips.
Had this conversation with a colleague of mine just last week. He had a relative's kid that have zero idea where milk comes from. His world is surrounded by supermarkets. My colleague was shocked when he casually asked, do you know where milk comes from and the answer was a straight matter-of-fact response "Coles" ……. he is 8 years old.
In contrast, i bring my kids to Bali just few weeks ago visiting rice fields, fruit farms, corn farms, etc. To me, that's back to nature kind of learning and they loved it. my kids are in Kinder and Year 1, knows more about rice than myself when I was at their age.
I'm sure those organising this would be knowledgeable in all respect but nothing beats actually seeing it right there, on the field.
No harm going to these 'excursions' - i'm sure the parent goes very often anyway - but make sure they understood what they see in supermarkets were sent there by trucks, unloaded and stacked there by people….
Its a failure of the parents, not the education system (yet).
Don't worry, your kids will be tech whiz when they get iPads in year 5. That is the most brain damaging thing the schools can do to kids and they are doing it without any regard for kids intellectual development.
Most kids are whizzes at iPad by age 5. Not year 5.
All the more to their detriment.
Not really, they master it and move on. If you let your child use an iPad for 8 hours a day to watch YouTube and play games, yeah maybe.
@serpserpserp: That's why I said year 5. When iPad is compulsory and all the work needs to be done on iPad. Try keeping away from iPad then.
@serpserpserp: Definitely. Computer requires a desk and a chair. iPad can be used in the bed, or lying down or sitting on the toilet etc.
@serpserpserp: You can twist it the way you like, but I would prefer my kids to sit down properly and do the work. Not lying down in the bed and doing it. That's just me though.
@[Deactivated]: I'm not trying to twist it, but it is just a tool for learning, or a platform to do work, if kids use it and get good grades then I have no problems with it. If they start playing games on it when they should be doing homework, then yeah it is a problem.
@serpserpserp: It is a tool for learning, that's only one side of the coin. It can change in an instant from learning tool to an entertainment unit. Kids are smart enough to realize that and of course they do push the boundaries with everything.
Think of it as work experience
With the education system the supermarket system is all they'll be prepared for anyway!
As per the latest report in 2015, Australia is number one on the education index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index
Nice link. Hadn’t seen that one before. 👌
That was in 2015
This link
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/education/un-…
is from 2017
The reality may be somewhere in between
That data is separate from the education index itself however
That index only measures years of school attendance though, not any kind of learning outcomes. If a country had prison 'schools' with no education they would score a perfect 1 on that index…
(It's a useful index, but not all that relevant to OP's complaint that the schools are failing to educate their kids when OP is just as able to teach them…)
upvoted.
North Korea is not on the index - they should get added to it!
Probably teaching them how to scan the expensive stuff in as carrots
It's teaching them where to go when the cafe they wait for runs out of avocado for their smashed avo and toast meal.
Teacher here. Have you asked the teacher? It is so hard to get any kind of excursion going. The amount of paper work and justification is just stupid. Talk to the teacher about your concerns. Be curious and non judgemental. I'm sure you will get a direct response.
Year 3? You mean grade 3.
Anyway I do think it's appropriate.
I'm sensing a "High Expectations Asian Father" stereotype here.
Not every state uses grades e.g. NSW where it's Year 3
First world problems. Let them enjoy it, 9 year olds can still learn and still enjoy activities. Lighten up.
Considering we have adults who believe in complete nonsense, and children who don't understand where various foods come from, I'd say this is entirely appropriate.
Teacher here: there's nothing wrong with the excursion. Anything can be modified to make it engaging for all age groups. You can have an excursion to the supermarket for uni students and talk about agricultural practices and marketing. If you're concerned, speak to the teacher organising the excursion and ask exactly what will be taught.
Unusual excursion but I agree with shiny1. It all depends on how the excursion is being used, who is talking to students (and their qualifications?), etc.
There are some adults who could do with an excursion to the fresh produce section. I did a cooking class once where this guy was adamant that the turmeric was mislabeled and was in fact carrots.
Perhaps the expectations from a year 3 student would be greater than those of a year 1/prep student. e.g. Greater understanding of the process of getting the food from the farm to the supermarket; greater use of mathematics to determine how much 2.5kg of apples would cost; etc.etc. Simply looking at where the excursion is going to, without looking at what the student expectations are, can be misleading.
9-10 year olds must be an exaggeration? I was 7 in year 3 and turned 8 during the year. 8-9 year olds is more accurate but still, I think this thread is just an excuse for people to have a circle jerk
I personally think that this type of excursion works better in aisle 5 ;)
Not sure if this is a troll post or not. I find it hard to believe that your child at 9 years old knows everything there is to know about fruits and veges. You need to lighten up a little and look at the tour as an opportunity.
Wow, so much negativity on here. I tell you what I work at Woolworths and in Produce department. Kids loves it, they are all curious about everything. I had amazing questions from them a couple of a times. We cut all different kind of fruit that their parents probably never bought it for them to taste. We also support local school with donations.
The whole point, was to promote healthy habits. Promote eating more vegetables and fruits instead of chips and soda drink.
If you dont like it. Pls dont send your kids.
Australians love having a whinge about literally anything.
"We also support local school with donations."
you spell long term investment wrong
Thanks for correcting me
so tell us, where do you think we should take a year 3 student for excursion?
The only people that can make that suggestion are those with a knowledge of the curriculum for that class for this year.
My understanding is that primary teachers integrate subjects into a 'theme'. If that is correct, an excursion related to that overall theme would provide topics for subsequent use back in the classroom.
well of course op can make suggestion, at the end of the day, it's a suggestion :)
learn how fruits and veggies are grown
It would depend on how much details they are going to cover. Hope they would do to the extent to keep the year 3 kids interested.
There is a Chinese saying "Travel a thousand miles is better than read a 1000 books". Nothing is better than to go out and see and experience for oneself
Excursions are always great for any age as there are always something new to learn.
they are walking to the local supermarket to learn how fruits and veggies are grown
This will not be the last time, they going to make sure the kids get it, Australia is geared towards agriculture :).
I didn't know local supermarkets grew their own fruits and veggies.
Take him to the supermarket before hand and ruin the excursion for him/her/ze/it/etc…..
It comes down to what the kids are studying I suppose. If they're learning about agriculture or healthy food choices, then visiting a supermarket might be a good idea. The other factor that you may not have considered is that the paperwork involved for teachers to arrange an excursion is massive. The risk assessments you have to do can be lengthy. Most likely the supermarket has done a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to paperwork, allowing the school to provide an excursion which is relevant to the curriculum without taking up loads of time to prepare.
Let me guess, they don't attend a private school, do they?
You don't do something, people whinge. You do something, people whinge.
The fresh air and hanging out with friends off school grounds is surely better for the kids than sitting indoors memorizing shit for naplan. A stressed out teacher probably worked really hard to get this thing happening, too. Heck.
Sorry but am I the only one who thinks the OP is being a pompous ass? So at Kindergarten your child would be so advanced and mature they'd take all the info in and understand it? Wow, (s)he must be a genius. Or maybe, most probably, not.
How about just going with the flow and letting the teachers work out how best to teach their class instead of having helicopter parents like you constantly meddling. Or better still if you are so confident you know better then how about you become a teacher and organise your own excursions. And put up with parents like you.
Year 3 would have far greater capability to understand what's going on than a kindy class. Get real ffs.
It would surely be worth finding out exactly what they're doing before complaining. Despite the (well placed!) cynicism here there are lots of genuinely educational things they could be learning about.
A school trip to Woolies is never going to trick a kid into avoiding Coles for the rest of their life so I'm not sure why so many of you think that's their primary goal! Do you always let your kids decide which supermarket you'll do the shopping in?