Field Trips on Public Transportation

One interesting thing I’ve noticed while on the bus and UBahn in Vienna are the number of school groups using public transportation to get to wherever it is they are going. And I’m not talking middle school, these kids are YOUNG, grade schol aged. And what’s even more interesting is that there are usually about two adults to every 10 kids. I remember field trips when I was young where there seemed to be a parent for every 4 kids. I am amazed that these kids know exactly what they are doing, especially the youngest group I saw (the kids couldn’t have been older than 4 years old). The kids got off the bus and all lined up against wall so they could be counted by their teachers; none of them ran away or had any hesitation about what they were doing. Sometimes the groups are as large as about 25 kids, and I couldn’t imagine being the teacher that has to account for them – I would be a nervous wreck that one of them got off at a wrong stop or didn’t get off when he or she was supposed to. I guess if you grow up using public transportation it’s just another day at the office to take the public bus for a field trip.