Knightly News

Episcopal class trips have long been an important school tradition. Whether it’s an Upper School senior retreat or a Middle School Mo Ranch adventure, these trips are opportunities for students to connect as a class. Recently, Episcopal seventh graders traveled together to Memphis, Tennessee. The two-day trip included visits to the National Civil Rights Museum and Graceland. Students also tried Memphis BBQ and worked in teams to escape an escape room.

Seventh grade leader Julie Weaver says the trip was planned to promote bonding with classmates. “Students are placed into groups for various activities where they have a friend they are comfortable with but are also with classmates that are not part of their typical friend group,” she says. “With activities like an escape room, problem solving and collaborating with new people can develop new bonds and grow friendships.”

Of course, any school trip also includes learning opportunities that can’t happen within the classroom.  Weaver says the best example of this on the recent trip was the visit to the National Civil Rights Museum. “I can (and did) teach the Civil Rights Movement during class, but the hands-on opportunities including seeing/touching (and in one case, walking on) real artifacts and hearing first-hand accounts of people involved at various events make the learning so much more meaningful than learning in a classroom,” she says. “Standing in the spot where James Earl Ray allegedly shot Martin Luther King, Jr., is sobering and is a far more memorable experience than me teaching about his assassination in my classroom.”

Hopefully, the Memphis trip is one seventh graders will remember for some time. Soon, they’ll be preparing for their next adventure to Mo Ranch as eighth graders next fall.

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.