The Po Show

Final Field Tripping

I went with Matthew on his last field trip as a student of Post Road School today (it's still up in the air which school he will go to next year, which is driving us all crazy!). We went on a 2 hour boat trip up the Hudson River to West Point, which was really interesting. They've been studying Colonial New York all year, and have studied a lot about points along the river that relate to that period, so it was a great way to tie it all together.

We got to tour the fort up at West Point, which dates back to the Revolutionary War (this was special, since after 9/11 they stopped letting people into the fort, but some of the teachers were able to work some contacts so that we were allowed in). Then we went to the Military Museum, which is very large and houses tons of items from every American war. Matthew was really interested in the exhibits on atomic weaponry, including the shell of a "Fat Man" atomic bomb. It was all sort of weird for me, since I'm a committed pacifist, but I'm also a historian, so seeing display after display of weaponry was interesting as well as sort of disturbing. Plus, Nagasaki is not that far from where my family lived during the war, so all the atomic bomb stuff was rather chilling. It was really fun discussing it all with Matthew, from a historical perspective, though.

It was pretty bittersweet for me that this was Matthew's last field trip before he leaves his school. He had some serious rough spots during the trip, though it ended up being okay. I realized that I have been sad and relieved at the same time, over the years, that I haven't been able to go on a lot of his school trips. Until last year, I always had Tessa, so I wasn't able to go during the day. It's SO difficult to deal with Matthew when he's out of his routine and having to deal with kids that he doesn't get along with (he was incredibly upset that the boy in his class who has bothered him all year was in our group when we got to West Point, and a girl who has tormented him for years really made him mad when she stuck her tongue out at him while we were walking back to the bus. His teacher and aide dealt with it well, though, and I was able to take him off by ourselves at the museum, which helped calm him down).

It was interesting for me, also, to see how "typical" 10 year olds act. Matthew is so atypical, so I haven't really seen much of the world of his peers. It was very interesting, to say the least. So much interpersonal drama and funny behavior; it was kind of nice to experience.

It won't be his last field trip ever, but it was his last trip during this period of time, his "mainstream" time, a time of pretending, a time that was so very hard for him. I hope with all my heart that by his next field trip, things will be so much better.