Hanna brought home a permission slip from school the other day outlining the details of their upcoming class trip to a Pioneer Village.

The student cost was $19 which I immediately assumed was a misprint.

Typically, the outings (of which there have been some exciting and educational ones) run about $2.50 and I must admit I assumed that money went toward ensuring the bus driver had a sufficient supply of smokes to get him through the day.

I remembered visiting the Pioneer Village when I was a kid. I have no idea what the cost was to visit then but it couldn’t have been more than a jar of molasses and a home-sewn bonnet. This was of course before we knew how lice were spread at which time, the bonnet clause was lifted.

I found the trip lacked in bells and whistles and in an era before video games, we were all hungry for colour, high energy excursions and forward thinking information. Corey Hart’s “Boy In The Box” was suffocating. We were ready to break-free and explore our surroundings.

The idea of kneading spelt flour into bread which we may or may not have had enough time to eat after slightly burning it on some hot stones, barely held my attention. We were moving onto the next station—“The Trading Post” before we had the chance to digest our one and only over-baked, somewhat flavourless (not to be confused with flourless—there was plenty of that) snack. I also remember kneading the dough with twenty other classmates digging into the same raw ball on a giant slab of rock and even then, in a world before hand sanitizers and germ obsessions thinking “man, this is totally gross.” Actually I was probably thinking, “Billie Jean is not my lover.”

We were ushered into an old log cabin with some stuffed dummies lying on the floor simulating some sort of horrible “we all sleep in one room on the hard floor” life I was thankful to have no part of. Come to think of it, that might not have been a dummy. It could have been the bus driver having a snooze after eating the spelt bread leftovers we didn’t have time for. Again, this station didn’t seem to require anything more than some old nylons, newspaper and a cabin that was likely already on the land so why the high price tag?

So for $19 (assuming this includes the bus ride and smokes) what are the children paying to see?

Don’t get me wrong, I adore class trips, a break from the day-to-day desk work and I think it’s important to learn about our heritage in an educational way so forgive me for suggesting this. Aren’t the Pioneer Villages tripping over themselves to get schools to come and visit? Isn’t this basic supply and demand? Why hasn’t Groupon picked up on this and gone after a better deal than $19 to hear the most energy efficient way to roast a squirrel?

Have you been asked to pay an absurd amount of money for a school trip?