Our kids don't get exposed to plays or museums. They may see very little relevance in a lot of what we do. For example, the state standards ask students to 'compare and contrast,' but rural students may have nothing to compare or contrast with. Moss was dismayed when her district cut back on field trips for economic reasons recently. Sometimes kids need hands-on experiences they can't get out of a book.
Isolation affects choice as well.
Students have the same teacher year after year. There may not be enough students to have advanced classes like third-year Spanish or trigonometry. Mother Nature also makes transportation challenging. Transportation can eat up a big chunk of the budget, especially when it comes to special ed, says McWilliams. For example, in a big city, you can have lots of deaf kids grouped together.