Guest Contributor:
Don Stinson, Director of Bands, Joliet Central High School, Joliet, IL
The first time I ever took a group of high school students on an overnight trip, I barely slept. The hotel was fine, the students were fine – but my brain wouldn’t turn off. I was sure something would go wrong at any minute. For hours, I was lying awake in my bed, waiting to hear from the nighttime security that a kid came out of their room.
Around 2:30, I finally walked out of my room, figuring I would check it out for myself. Security waved: “All good here!” (I now know this was unnecessary – those kids were so wiped out they could’ve slept through a fire drill.)
The next morning, I stood backstage and watched my kids line up for their parade block. They looked like they belonged there – calm, confident and ready. And when they played, they sounded like an entirely different group than the one that left our school just 24 hours before. I realized, right then, that all the stress was worth it.
The Itinerary’s Not the Point – It’s the Growth
If you’ve been involved with schools at all in the past ten years, you’ve probably heard the word “growth.” Nothing grows kids like the opportunities that come from a trip.
A trip doesn’t just give them new scenery – it changes who they are.
When you travel, you see kids who barely know each other sharing snacks on the bus because one of them forgot to pack their own. You hear them describe a memorial or museum in a way that tells you they’ll never forget it.
I’ve seen kids who rarely talk in rehearsal become the group comedian on the trip home. (It’s funny. At first…) I’ve watched section leaders truly become leaders because they were put in a situation where someone had to step up.
That kind of growth doesn’t happen in a 50-minute class period. It happens when students have to figure out how to be part of a group outside the walls of the school – and realize they can handle it.
Remember the “Why” When You’re Overwhelmed
It’s easy to focus on the logistics – rooming lists, permission slips, the endless reminders about bringing black socks. By the time departure day comes, you might be wondering why you ever agreed to this.
That’s when I go back to my “why.” For me, it’s not about who the students are before or during the trip – it’s after.
In the weeks following a trip, we have a different band. Kids connect more. They buy into the group more. And if it’s their first trip, they’re already talking about the next one. They’re invested because they’ve shared several days out of state with the same group of people.
We have alumni who are fiercely proud of our program. When you ask about their favorite memories, they can barely remember the pieces they played – but they remember performing at Virginia Beach. They remember the bus rides and detours, long before our band had a tour director handling the details. They remember the late-night pizza that was definitely not allowed, but somehow still made it to the third floor.
And when we run a fundraiser to help current students travel, the money comes in within a week. Some of our donors graduated 60 years ago. That’s how much these trips matter. One of our alums just visited last week and explained to me that were it not for the band trip, he never would have left the city. Now, retired and in his early 70s, he travels every chance he can get.
If you don’t have a personal “why” yet, you’ll find it on your first trip. And once you have it, hang on to it.
Keep a Story File
I keep a folder that I call the “feel good file.” When a day’s gone sideways, I pull it out. It’s full of notes from students, a picture of the kid who swore he hated jazz standing in awe during a club set in New Orleans, the selfie from two students who became friends because their hotel keys didn’t work and they had to wait in the lobby together.
One of my favorites is a thank-you card from a senior who admitted they only joined band because of a trip they’d heard about as a freshman. They weren’t even sure they liked playing an instrument at first. Four years later… they still didn’t like playing their instrument. But they were committed, and our band was better with them around.
When the stress hits (and it will), I go back to those stories. They remind me that travel isn’t an extra – it’s part of how we teach.
The Mess Is Part of the Trip
No one ever sits around the dinner table telling stories about how perfect an event went. That’s not fun.
Instead, you hear stories like, “I’ve never seen my teacher so mad as when he found out he left all of our music three states away! Luckily, our tour director and a few other directors figured it out, and we borrowed sheet music from a local high school within the day.”
Or: “Remember when we got to the parade an hour early, so you made us rehearse in a parking lot, and then the parade got rained out anyway?”
Problem. Solution. Laugh about it later.
Even the most perfectly planned trip will have hiccups. Someone will forget a tie. Someone will get a little homesick. Sometimes, a meal stop will go completely off the rails because the restaurant didn’t realize “60 students” meant “60 students ordering at once.” (Side note: one of my favorite tour directors once went to the back of the house to help the kitchen staff get our orders out more quickly so we didn’t miss our performance. I will keep his name anonymous Brett.)
I’ve learned that the messiness isn’t a sign of failure – it’s part of the learning. Students see how adults handle small problems without panicking. They learn that a delayed dinner or a last-minute schedule change isn’t the end of the world. And you learn that letting go of a little control can actually make the trip better.
The Payoff Is Long-Term
Trips take a lot out of you in the moment, but they give back over time. Students come home more confident. They rehearse differently. They treat each other differently.
One student told me that after our New York trip, they felt “like a real musician” for the first time – not because of the concert, but because, after getting separated from the group, he figured out how to navigate a crowd to meet us in the lobby. (He was fine – in fact, we could see him the whole time. He just had his back to us).
And years later, when they visit, the first thing they bring up isn’t the concert we played – it’s the trip. Those overnight experiences become part of their personal history. The fact that they nailed the clarinet feature in the second movement? That’s a footnote. But the memory of laughing with their roommates at 1 a.m.? That sticks.
Final Word
Student travel fills your days from the first suitcase on the bus to the last wave goodbye. You’ll answer more questions than you thought possible, keep track of a small army of kids, and solve a hundred tiny problems before lunch.
And then you’ll see it – a student who’s more confident, more connected, and seeing the world in a way they hadn’t before. That’s when you realize: this isn’t an “extra.” This is the work. And it’s worth every mile.
Don Stinson is the director of bands at Joliet Central High School in Joliet, IL, with 18 years of teaching experience and seven student tours under his belt. In addition, he is the author of High Needs, Monumental Successes: Teaching Music to Low-Income and Underserved Students and co-author of Harmonizing Ethics: Scenarios for Music Educators, both available from GIA Publications. Don is the founder of Stinson Non-Profit Solutions – visit www.donstinson.net for more information.