Pekin-area middle school planning educational summer trip to nation's capital

This summer, students from Tremont Middle School will take an educational trip to Washington, D.C., to learn about American history and experience in person the social studies lessons that they learn in the classroom every day.

Thirty Tremont seventh- and eighth-grade students, 14 parents, and two teachers will be in Washington June 1-4 to visit the monuments and memorials that define American history and to explore the exhibits at the Smithsonian museums.

The trip is provided through the educational travel company WorldStrides, which offers hands-on experiential learning for students of all ages, including domestic and international tours for individual and group travelers.

“We spend a lot of time in my classroom studying the Holocaust and WWII,” said Tremont Middle School teacher Stacie Jost. “And while assignments include reading historical fiction novels to learn about American history, it is a whole different ballgame when they go to the Holocaust Museum and the World War II Memorial in D.C. It’s as if the students go back in time and are there witnessing these events for themselves. They stop and read the plaques and see the pictures of these moments in time and feel the realness of it all.”

Over the course of the four-day trip, students will visit the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. Capitol, the White House, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Pentagon Memorial, the Smithsonian Institution, the FDR Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen House, the National Archives, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, and the Holocaust Museum.

“The students love the Changing of the Guard and how the ceremony is put together,” Jost said of Arlington. “We have a lot of veterans in our community, so seeing the soldiers walk with such precision is mesmerizing to the kids. And if there’s a will, there’s a way. Sometimes parents can’t afford to send their children on these trips. WorldStrides will work with the parents to create a payment plan even if they are paying after the trip is done. It’s more important for WorldStrides to give every student the chance to take these trips.”

More information is available at worldstrides.com.

This article originally appeared on Pekin Daily Times: Tremont Middle School planning educational summer trip to Washington