Global warming school trips

I’ve nothing to say about the rights and wrongs of this girl’s alleged elopement with her teacher, but I did raise my eyebrows when I learned that they had begun the relationship on a school trip to Los Angeles in February. Los Angeles?

I thought the education budget was tight. I guess the parents paid for the pupils, and I hope the teachers also paid their own way.  But why Los Angeles? Have the pupils already done all of Europe? Have they done Rome, Paris, and Berlin? All three would enable the pupils to practice a foreign language.  Indeed why not Stratford on Avon, Edinburgh or Belfast. Do school trips have to be intercontinental now?

It’s not just the money. It undermines other educational messages. If Bishop Bell is anything like other state schools, it will have an extensive programme of education into the dangers of global warming and how to reduce our carbon footprint.

Jim Thornton