Educational Value

[Ckfan21]

My family and I will be visiting Disneyland for the 1st time at the end of this month. I will be taking my son out of school for 3 days - he's 14 and is in the 9th grade - his school requires a "Pre-approved Trip Request Form" to be completed stating the educational value of the trip in order for his absence to be excused.
What educational experiences can you share with me regarding the educational value of Disneyland?

Thanks for your help!!
CJ

 

[Amberle3]

Okay now, this might be reaching a little BUT...

There are 3 things in DCA:
1 - Mission Tortilla Factory - they have a little pre-show where they tell you the history of tortillas and some other stuff I can't remember because I wasn't paying attention
2 - There's a sourdough bakery tour at DCA, same idea as above with samples and a pre-show story
3 - Golden Dreams show at DCA - it's a movie explaining the settling of California. That ought to be educational.

Could always work in a visit to the Queen Mary.

 

[iceskatejen]

Soarin' over California has the educational value of showing CA's geography. You pretty much go over the 3 largest cities (though not CA's capitol city) and several other interesting geographical regions--forests, mountains, desert, coastline, farmland (ok, not a geographical region, but part of CA's economy).

DCA is more educational than DL, but DL does have Great Moments w/ Mr. Lincoln. The Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour is probably very educational (I haven't done it yet, though someday I will). There's a lot of historical value to DL--before it was there that whole area was orange groves and now look at it--not an orange grove in sight.

The Queen Mary could certainly add an educational value to the trip, though I think the guided tour there is now more about the ghosts that haunt the ship than about the ship's historical significance. There's always a visit to one of the CA missions--San Juan Capistrano is probably the closest (and I think the prettiest). It's probably a 35 minute drive or a 45 minute train ride away. Certainly a lot of educational value there.

 

[year2late]

Better yet, how about real life education on budget and finances. Seriously!

 

[Blackunicorn]

There are some really wonderful educational websites on the internet which have material that you can print out and give to a child. Some things I have done on trips in the past:

Study the history of the state. Find websites with information/articles that are relevant and print them out.
Find out the state bird, the state tree, the state fossil, etc. Discuss the geography of the state. Discuss places of interest in the state, even if you don't visit them. Discuss population, economics. Talk about the psychology of Disney--seriously! Why do so many people find it necessary to trek across the country for a theme park? What demographic are they? Of course, it's already been mentioned that you can also use the economics of the trip for education, also. Are you driving? We also enjoyed talking about the various ecosystems that we drove through. Driving through reservations spawned talk about the history of Native Americans.

So many things that we take for granted are education in disguise. I could go on and on! Just kind of look at the trip you intend to take, and try to see all of the things that "could" be educational. You'll be surprised!

 

[Amberle3]

Oh! In along the same vein as the psychology of Disney, why not look at the management of Disney. Not as in the Eisner thing, but Disney is looked upon as a prime example of job standards. You could get into why employees are called Cast Members, how they're trained and why (for instance why you should never see a CM point with one finger) and how culture and appearance have shaped how CMs interact with guests. Also the various factors that have typically put into putting on "good show". So many details that the typical guest doesn't even see, but that help to create the experience.