I was saddened to hear that the Detroit Science Center would be closing in an effort to allow the museum to continue to operate within their budget. It's never good news when a museum or learning institution like the Science Center has to make a desperate move like this in order to survive. The financial issues facing the Detroit Science, and too many others like it, are an annoying reminder about the budget problems everyone seems to be facing.

My first exposure to the Detroit Science Center probably came the way many of you first had your exposure to it - via the good, old-fashioned field trip. Field trips were "the best" when I was my son's age! Has anyone else noticed that class field trips aren't what they used to be?

Maybe I was just lucky in my elementary school days... My class, usually once or twice per year, seemed to go everywhere. I can vividly recall going to some neat places all over Metro Detroit on my schools' field trips. For the price of a sack lunch and my mom's signature on a permission slip, we hopped on the big yellow bus for some serious road trips! I remember going to the Detroit Science Center, the DIA, Greenfield Village, the Detroit Zoo, Cranbrook and even farms. Anyone else remember 6th grade class trips to Boblo? My old school district even had a week-long, 6th grade trip to Camp Tamarack. Class field trips were a big deal back then and, though I didn't care much at the time, they were extremely educational.

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I didn't become nostalgic for field trips until my kids began the elementary school grind and I noticed  - they don't really get to go anywhere. Our school district still has field trips but the budgets (and probably some lawsuit fears) have wiped out the fun out of going to cool places like the Detroit Science Center or the Detroit Zoo. Instead, kids in our district get to take short trips to a local museum or a local high school for a couple of hours to watch high school kids put on a singing performance. Still neat, but not all-day-at-the-Detroit-Zoo-neat. At least half of the joy from the field trips from my youth involved the long bus rides. Whether it was the hustle bustle of the big city of Detroit to visit the DIA or fanning out to Armada to see a working farm, we went to places we weren't accustomed to visiting.

I'm not trying to rail the schools. Budgets are tight and gas isn't cheap. I get it. Sometimes I wish kids today would have the opportunity to experience some of the field trips and other "simple pleasures" we enjoyed as kids. I guess it is up to me to take my kids to the Detroit Science Center sometime after it reopens. But, it just won't be the same without a big yellow bus, a bag lunch and a permission slip.