HILLSDALE—Within weeks, Hillsdale eighth-graders will travel to Washington D.C. to tour our nation’s capital. This three-day field trip is a longstanding tradition here: For generations, our young people have traveled nearly five hours for hands-on learning experiences through touring historic landmarks and other sites.
It’s an invaluable immersion in art, architecture, civics, and American history.
Kristin Beuscher, president of the Park Ridge-based Pascack Historical Society—and author of our popular Back in Time feature—provided us with photos and newspaper clips that detail trips made by the Hillsdale Junior Police and Safety Patrol and former Hillsdale Middle School turned George G. White Middle School.
The photos, dated May 1962 and May 1966, portray well-dressed students from George G. White Middle School in front of the Capitol Building. The newspaper clippings, originally posted in The Record detail Hillsdale’s first and second annual trips, on a cusp-of-history May 1940 and 1941.
From May 17, 1940, through May 19, 1940, members of the Hillsdale Grammar School Junior Police and School Safety Patrol attended the first annual Safety Patrol convention in Washington, D.C. Members were brought to the capital under the supervision of Police Chief Henry P.N. Koelsch and vice-principal Blanche Smith. Participants included Captain Fred Schumacher, Richard Elliot, Erwin Winters, Robert Merton, George Lipschitz, Vincent Arnold, Walter Johnson, Abbot Davis, Lorraine Leonard, Lenore Amlung, Marilyn Schumacher, and Evelyn Acker.
The second annual trip, May 15–17, 1941 included 14 members of the Hillsdale Grammar School Junior Police and School Safety Patrol under the supervision of Police Chief Henry P.N. Koelsch and vice-principal Blanche Smith.
During this trip, the Hillsdale group traveled with the Junior Police of Hackensack. These groups traveled to Newark by bus, then by train to Baltimore, where they boarded a second bus to take them to Washington D.C.
This group included a new set of participants, including Walter Parrasch, Richard Newman, Robert Borders, Charles Beuerlein, George Woerdemann, James Heins, Richard Metz, Marie Kwiatkowski, Joan Blair, Joyce Thomas, Clare Mann, Ruth Dunsenbury, Alice Bush, and Deborah Partridge.
According to the Westwood News (it’s archived at the Westwood Free Public Library) the trip to Washington D.C. became a tradition for the Borough of Montvale in the 1940s as well. That outing is accredited to Ethel Stalter, then-principal of Fieldstone Middle School, who believed that education consists of learning through experience and personal contacts in addition to books.
She said this field trip provided students with first-hand knowledge and critical self-reliance skills by being away from home.
Stalter’s belief in the power of education has proven true throughout the years. Field trips and hands-on learning experiences allow students to connect what is happening in the classroom to what is happening in the real world.
Generally, she said, field trips give a fresh perspective on the subject matter and make learning more engaging and memorable. A field trip to Washington D.C. in particular, she said, allows students to see American history with their own eyes.
In an email to Pascack Press, George G. White Middle School Principal Don Bergamini explained that students visit essential national sites such as Arlington National Cemetery (timely, with Memorial Day on May 27), which includes watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Bergamini told us, “Students tour memorials and museums including the Washington Monument, Smithsonian Institution, and memorials for Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War, Korean War and World War II. Trips have included tours of the Capitol Building, White House and FBI Building.”
There have been quite a few changes to the trip due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bergamini explained, “It has been more challenging for places to accommodate large groups.” He cited Ford’s Theater, the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, as an example of a site that is no longer an option for students.
And, he said, many restaurants are unable to accommodate the large group of “130-plus people.” Bergamini also said there’s been a steep rise in the cost of busing, which has taken a toll.
However, he said, these challenges don’t pose a threat to this longstanding tradition. This field trip has been an essential part of the curriculum for over 80 years and remains one of the fondest memories of many residents.