I remember a teacher friend from the UK once telling me she felt quite stressed whenever she took the kids abroad on a school trip because she was expected to be with them 24/7, or follow their whereabouts using an iPad tracker program whenever they were out of her sight.
Léon's off today on a two-week school trip to the south of Spain, where he will be living with a Spanish host family and attending Spanish school. But the Danish approach is quite different to what I know from Scotland.
He and the other seven or eight kids in his class were given:
- a train ticket from Odense to Copenhagen Central
- a train ticket from Copenhagen Central to Kastrup airport
- a plane ticket to Brussels
- a plane ticket from Brussels to Malaga leaving three hours later
- a note of where in Malaga to go to meet the Spanish teacher from Colmenar high school
- and the same in reverse for 2 weeks later
And that was that! There was no boarding pass, there are no accompanying teachers. If they get lost in Brussels, I guess the eat some moules frites and waffles, then have to come up with a survival plan themselves! Denmark empowers its young people in a way they really don't back home, and I am not sure why we don't question that.
I'm sure he'll manage, but I may just turn off my phone until he gets there, just in case!
