I was recently a chaperon on my son’s overnight fifth-grade school trip to Gettysburg. It was a chance to go on a road trip, spend some quality time with William, and see his teachers in action, but I also had a more professional interest in the traveling with Mr. K’s class. I hoped it might give me a little insight into one of my interests, the relationship between informal education and schooling. William’s class had been studying the Civil War for weeks and was working on several creative projects that had to do with that period in American history; this trip was a way of helping to make some of that history come to life.

All three fifth grade classes went — P.S. 9’s G&T and Renaissance programs. After a planning meeting with the teachers and other chaperones, I ended up being a little stressed out about my chaperoning duties — each parent was responsible for a group of four kids, and there were a lot of do’s and don’ts that we had to keep in mind. Most involved ways to maintain order, centering on potential pitfalls at the museums, the restaurant where we’d have dinner, and our hotel. The teachers mentioned it would be very exciting for some of the kids, since it was their first overnight trip and would also be the first time some of them had stayed in a hotel.

The kids were loaded onto two buses, Bus A and Bus B, and we were on Bus A. A lot of the kids have DSs and PSPs (handheld game consoles) and that kept them quiet and occupied on the bus trip to Pennsylvania. I’m willfully oblivious to the whole world of video games, and it was interesting to find out that they’ve advanced enough so people can play games with each other wirelessly — one of the kids said that if the other bus was close enough, they’d be able to play with students riding along behind us. It was kind of amazing thinking about the total cost of all of the electronics on the bus, including the iPods and cell phones. I brought a deck of cards to play with, but it didn’t get used on the whole trip. The bus was also equipped with a DVD player, but no one remembered to bring movies (G-rated only!) in our group, and I was content to read the New Yorker and look out the window.

It was another parent’s birthday, and his wife supplied donuts which I helped to hand out as the bus bounced along. By 9:30 am, some of the kids had already started working on their brown-bag sandwiches for lunch. We were in the back, sitting near the bathroom, and early in the trip one of the girls threw up all over the aisle and the side of the bathroom door. The teachers and chaperones sprang into action and the mess was cleaned up in no time. William doesn’t like riding in vehicles where the windows don’t open, and it was enough for him. He moved to the front of the bus for the rest of the trip to Gettysburg.

The teachers had given us packets of material for the trip, including the itinerary and worksheets for us to do in the museum at the Gettysburg National Military Park, but since the museum has been renovated and expanded recently, we quickly discovered that the worksheets were out of date. The museum featured chronological videos about the battle of Gettysburg on big screens and interactive computer activities along with more traditional exhibits, so I don’t think the kids missed much by not being able to fill out the sheets.

After touring the museum, we returned to our bus for an entertaining guided tour of the park, and we’d get out from time to time for a group activity. In one spot, our guide showed us how soldiers would have to move to protect their flank and how important the flag bearer was; at another stop, he showed us how cannons were loaded, aimed and fired (without ammunition). One of the highlights was our trip to the summit of Little Round Top, with its amazing panoramic view of the battlefields. It was such a beautiful day it was hard to imagine it was the scene of so much violence a century and a half ago.

We returned to the museum gift shop, where a lot of the kids rushed to buy souvenir toy rifles — no school rules had been established about buying them beforehand, and some parents didn’t think it was a big deal, while others said there was no way they’d buy one for their own son or daughter. The teachers made the kids keep the toy guns on the bus, rather than allowing them to take them to their hotel rooms or into other places, which I thought was very wise. Throughout the school trip, the boys in my group – William, Cass, Omar, and Eleazar – were great, though they were a little difficult to keep track of sometimes.

Another personal highlight of our trip to Gettysburg was the next morning — a visit to the American Civil War Museum, which I imagined would consist of more historically important rifles, swords, and uniforms, but turned out to be a fantastically creepy wax museum with one life-size diorama after another of scenes from the Civil War, ending up in a big auditorium with a narrated slide show and a giant pit filled with wax figures that would move and be lit up, one after another, illustrating various battles. We were seated in a big row above, closest to the goriest scene — General Sickles having his leg amputated. At the end, amazingly, a zombie-like animatronic Abe Lincoln rose from the floor and delivered the Gettysburg Address as a group of wax figures looked on.

We had time to spare before eating lunch and going back on the road, so the teachers walked the kids over to a huge grassy field and let them do pretty much whatever they wanted to as long as they didn’t tackle each other or wander off beyond certain boundaries. At one point, the kids in all three classes spontaneously joined hands and formed a gigantic circle, running around in a ring. It was a beautiful moment, like something from a Winslow Homer painting.