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by Jeffrey Leiken, M.A.
When TIME magazine ran its cover feature on "Being
13 in America" in the summer of 2005, they wrote about
the complex pressures and surprisingly advanced behaviors
showing up in many thirteen-year-olds as new phenomena. The
good news is that camps serving teenagers have been adapting
to these changes and offering increasingly sophisticated program
choices to address the challenges teens experience growing
up in the shifting world of American culture.
Because of the broad and rather unique educational role camps
have in youth development, in particular supervising and interacting
close-up with groups of young people away from home often
for weeks at a time, camp staff has an immediate perspective
on the trends and issues in kids' lives that are only
beginning to surface in the larger, cultural parade.
One of the most challenging aspects in helping to raise young
adults is how to best guide and support them as they go through
the turbulent adolescent years. Recent events have exposed
to the public the extent to which modern teens can go if they
are left too much to their own devices, and on the positive
side, the often boundless energy and idealism which need appropriate
nurturing and role modeling to really take hold. Perhaps this
has always been true, but good camps know that the consequences
of inaction in either direction can make all the difference.
Kids often report that their lives are stressful, socially
complex, and they feel pressured to be involved in activities
that are for all intents and purposes, beyond the range of
where they are developmentally comfortable. The TIME
survey found for the first time in our history, the majority
of young people interviewed thought the world would be a worse
place when they grow up than it is now. Having incidents like
September 11 serve as the defining moment in the history of
their lives will do things like that. Camp, with its supervised,
developmentally appropriate activities may just be one of
the antidotes to changing those individual perceptions.
The universal struggles of adolescence—well chronicled
in the lives of all of us who survived the struggle of separating
from being dependent on our parents to being able to stand
on our own in the world—can be hard enough. Adding these
other complex and, at times, highly volatile factors to the
equation have made the struggle of going through the teen
years significantly more challenging, not just for the teens
themselves, but for those of us who work with them as well!
Looking for That Something Extra
There is no homework at camp and no grades and thus no need
for camp staff to be offering an evaluation that compares
one camper against another. This also means staff is free
to focus attention consistently on kids' strengths and
how to nurture these strengths in ways which build confidence.
This is about helping all kids become great, regardless of
how far along that path they already are.
Not all camps approach their roles in the lives of young
people identically, although on the surface they may sound
as if they do. Some camps view their primary role as providing
a place for kids to "get away from it all," and
these camps focus their programs around fun and recreation.
There are many other camps—and more moving in this direction
each year—that view summer camp as a place that fulfills
the much needed role of teaching kids the kinds of "growing
up" skills and vital life lessons which are not taught
in schools, yet which are essential for being able to grow
up and thrive in the world as adults. These camps organize
around the idea that they have the opportunity to be a substantial
presence on a young person's journey through childhood
into young adulthood, and thus a substantial influence on
shaping who they become as adults. These camps generally have
a well-defined mission, and their programs reinforce specific
values such as personal accountability, responsible decision
making, making commitments and following through on them,
being a positive team member, and being respectful of others.
These camps will offer different programs with different
expectations for young people as they proceed through each
age range at camp—ones which introduce varying levels
of responsibility, including expectations for teens to take
on leadership roles and special programs designed to discuss
and guide teens as they handle difficult life situations such
as peer pressure or resolving conflicts. While the experience
of being at camp will still be fun (how could it be otherwise
with such a range of positive activities), there will be something
extra being addressed. Many teens are hungry for the opportunity
to talk about and learn more about themselves and the world
they are entering, and when presented thoughtfully and with
purpose, many teens report these aspects of camp as being
the best part of their summer experience.
Determining the Right Camp for Your Teen
First of all, decide what it is that you want your teens
to learn and develop—skills they may not be offered
the opportunity to learn and develop during the school year.
If it is self-confidence and leadership, the ability to stand
up for themselves and be more assertive, there are camps that
offer extraordinary learning opportunities for this in fun,
safe, and effective ways.
Camps that do this most effectively tend to put countless
hours of thought and preparation into designing and implementing
their teen program. It is useful to know the kinds of questions
to ask and the kinds of answers to look for when finding the
right camp for your teen.
In your research process, look first and foremost for camps
that emphasize a special program for teens that is about personal
growth or leadership development. Although it is common to
find CIT or "Counselor in Training" programs in
camps, some are much more invested in the training aspect
than others, and it is useful to research further. Finding
out if there is a full-time staff member in charge of supervising
the CIT program is a good starting point.
Ask Camp Leaders the Right Questions
How extensive is the training/education component
of the teen program?
A camp which offers weekly forums where camp leaders meet
with their teens to discuss life's growing-up issues
is offering significantly more than a camp that meets with
campers twice a summer. A camp offering creative programs
where kids get to role play different scenarios and practice
skills is doing much more than one that has just a discussion.
A camp that provides a "special trip" to the
wilderness is offering much more than a special trip to an
amusement park.
How is the staff who run these programs selected?
A camp that tells you "we look for counselors who are
good with teens" is one thing. A camp that can define
for you what the qualities are that make somebody effective
with teens, including things like "they are young adults
who truly model the behaviors we want to be teaching,"
tells you much more about how comprehensive the camp is being.
Ask them to give you referrals of several parents
who have had success sending their teens to their camp.
In particular, ask to speak to the parent of a child who
went in to the program with a skeptical and even reticent
attitude. These families are often the ones who tell you the
most about why a program works.
How do they train their staff to work with
teens?
Look for camps that offer a separate training for the counselors
who work with this age group. It takes extra effort on the
part of the camp and speaks volumes about their commitment
to the program. Again, you are looking for more than just
training counselors on how to respond to certain behaviors,
you are looking for training on the issues today's teens
face and how their counselors can facilitate growth in their
teen campers.
Any camp can use inspiring clichés to describe their
work with campers and, in fact, many mission statements sound
very much the same. It is the "digging deeper"
as a parent that will help you determine which camps approach
working with teens in a truly professional way versus those
that ultimately are offering fun and recreation.
While there is without a doubt a value in offering fun and
recreation amidst the stressful lives of teens, there is potentially
a tremendous value in having experiences as well that are
intentionally designed to address the issues they face and
to empower them to be more successful when they return home.
Camps are uniquely positioned to be able to do this, and with
the growing number of them who are committing themselves to
this task, the right match for your teen is out there, and
maybe closer than you think!
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