Your Giving in Action: Transformative Travel in France

“Eye-opening.”
“Life-changing.”
“Boundary-pushing.”

That’s how Principia students on both campuses describe the extended educational travel experiences offered each year. And Principia educators agree—curriculum-based travel is an incredibly powerful teaching and learning tool.

October’s Upper School trip to France illustrates perfectly the value of on-site learning. The trip leaders—French teacher Veronica Kline (C’01), history teacher Keith Preston (US’72, C’76), art teacher Caitlin Heimerl (US’06), and Integrated Arts teacher Sara Phillips de Borja (US’93, C’97)—developed an integrated curriculum for students in French 3. All activities and sites on the trip underscored the historical relationship between France and the United States and the two countries’ interwoven political, artistic, and architectural development.

While painting in Monet’s garden at Giverny, visiting World War II sites in Normandy, and navigating the Paris Métro, students made connections across disciplines, better understood the relevance of their learning, and used their skills and knowledge in an authentic context. Several students even gave testimonies in French at a Wednesday evening testimony meeting!

Although this trip had not been built into the annual budget, timely support from Principia donors ensured that all students enrolled in the French 3 class were able to participate.

“This trip has broadened how I see language, art, and history, and how these and other subjects all interconnect,” said one student. Another commented, “It’s incredibly cool to realize that the whole world is a giant history lesson just waiting to be learned. And I now know the worldwide connection that Christian Science gives us.”