In October 2009, I served as a guide for the Harker 8th grade students on a 7-day educational field trip to the East Coast. In visiting historic sites in Williamsburg, Jamestown, Pamplin Park, Washington, DC, and the Gettysburg Battlefield, I found the Harker students well prepared, nicely motivated, appropriately inquisitive, and generally among the very best of thousands of students I work with ever year. Not once did I hear any of the typical middle school student’s comments/complaints --- ‘When do we get back to the hotel?’ or ‘Do we have to go to one more museum?’ or ‘Can’t we just go back to the hotel and swim?’ The Harker students are a credit to themselves, their families, and the Harker faculty and administrators who have --- along with the students themselves and their parents/care givers --- done an excellent job in preparing the students to get the most out of their East Coast experience. I also observed that the faculty and administrators who travelled with the students were truly dedicated to assure that those students in their care had a safe, healthy, and engaging learning experience.