Okay, I get that the Shelby County School board wants to salvage students&8217; precious time in the classroom.

I can see how &8220;non-academic&8221; field trips might not be a great use of a day.

But will this do the trick? Will students&8217; time actually be freed?

I have a much bigger bone to pick than whether student&8217;s should go on a field trip or not &8212; standardized testing.

If our country, state and county really wanted to free up teaching time in the classroom, why keep pounding in form test after form test?

This way, teachers wouldn&8217;t have to spend either a month solid or 10-20 percent of class time all year prepping students to make the grade.

That is, for the school to make the grade.

Can&8217;t there be a better way to look at school&8217;s performance.

Do the cold, hard facts of an A-F school grade really tell if a school is awesome or poor?

I don&8217;t know all the ins and outs of the school system, but I&8217;m sure there must be someone who reports area schools&8217; academic performance to the county and state.

Why can&8217;t we have more boards like the non-academic field trip committee to help assess problems and award stellar schools, instead of making students and teachers take test after test.

Let teachers teach to students, their needs and abilities and not a test.