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In seriousness, how would holding your child benefit them? How does holding them prepare them for the life ahead? What do THEY gain by limiting their experience? Helps to know what Grounds you're considering for holding (they going to a factory that makes condoms and you're die-hard Catholic who doesn't believe in birth control? They going to a factory that makes caffeinated sodas and you're a Morman?)
In general, limiting the experiences a child has is bad. Without a vast assortment of experiences, bad and distasteful as well as good, they can not develop their sense of "self". You have a couple generations of kids who were coddled/protected to see how poorly that works out (if you're trying to "protect"), if you care...
Is it wrong to hold back a child from going on a class field trip for some reason other than illness?
As a teacher, most of the time we don't care if your child doesn't go on a trip. The alternate assignment is usually harder for them to do than for us to grade.
As a parent, I suppose whether or not it is "wrong" would depend upon why you are doing it.
My daughter had a couple of field trips this year that caused me to pause. One was $30 for the child and $20 for the parent to chaperone. I thought that was outrageous. I allowed her to go, and they had trouble getting parents who wanted to pay $20.
Another one, the kids were $6, but the parents were $20 plus $10 per car. We didn't know about the $10 per car, or more of us would have made an effort to carpool. I didn't volunteer for that one, because I didn't want to pay $20 to walk around a museum for an hour, when I feel we could have gone back later and spent a longer time for the same amount... but as there weren't enough parents, the teacher asked if I could go.
Otherwise, not allowing your kid to go just makes them feel singled out. Why do that to them?
Are you asking as a parent who wants to keep their child from going on the trip? Or is this a situation where a child is being excluded from a trip for disciplinary reasons?
As a parent, I can't imagine keeping my child from a trip for any reason but illness or a family emergency. We are in a large urban district where the school collects funds up front that cover whatever trips they take that year, and the PTO and school budget make up the difference for kids from families that qualify for free or reduced fee lunches, so finances should never be the reason the a child can't participate.
But I have heard of cases where a child is excluded because of something that happened at school - I don't mean an incident that rises to the level of a suspension so that the child is not at school when the trip happens, but more that they say the child misbehaved so they lost the privilege to go on the trip. Or they say the child is out of control, they think he or she will run off, or some other similar statement. With the latter, they will sometimes say that if a parent goes, so that they are responsible for the kid, then they are allowed to go, but not every parent can take the time off work and/or afford whatever expenses there might be for them to participate even if the child's expenses were covered.
What kind of field trip is this, and why would you prevent your child from participating? There's a big difference between a day at an amusement park and a visit to a museum or historic site. While you might prevent a child from heading to the amusement park as punishment, this would not be correct with the museum/historic site.
So: Entertainment end of school field trip: can skip if need be. Educational field trip: no skipping other than for illness, injury, or family crisis.
Most popular field trip destinations have group rates for classes, btw, and often accompanying teachers get in free and chaperones at reduced rates.
Not being vague would help you get better answers. What's the worry? Too far of a drive? Danger in the city? Lack of supervision?
Yes, exactly. How old is the kid, how far are they going, how are they getting there, what activities will they be doing, and what are your particular concerns? (note that all of these can be answered without giving any personal info except I guess the age and that's pretty generic but also pretty important to giving relevant opinions)
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