Everything Tagged with 'camp'
A Summer Without Camp
With the current tumultuous state of the economy, many parents are finding they can’t pay for their kid to go to camp this summer just as a number of school districts are finding they can’t pay to run summer school either. Might this one actually be a summer for many without camp or summer school? A summer where kids might actually (gasp) be left on their own?
While I had to laugh at how the New York Times tried to paint summer school as some fun, nostalgic thing for kids – I think “living nightmare” might be closer in description to how many students regard it– the Times did make a fair point in highlighting how a lack of summer program options seems to have a disproportionately worse effect on lower-income families. Many of these families live in perhaps less play-friendly or safe neighborhoods, in addition to having fewer resources and finances to spend on “constructive” outlets for the summer hours. Without these other options, often these kids can just end up at home in front of the TV. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but speaking as a former kid it is nice to have options.)
Still, not having summer school around - regardless of how important you portray its benefits - doesn’t necessarily have to mean kids’ summers are devoid of substance, no matter the kids’ socio-economic status. As Parent Dish points out – while considering the threat of a summer without another hallmark pastime, summer camp – there’s plenty of perks to just not planning anything:
Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, psychiatrist and author of “The Overscheduled Child,” tells Newsweek, “Boredom is not necessarily our children’s enemy. It can stimulate [children] to think, create, and hear the soft murmurings of their inner voice, the one that makes them write this unusual story, draw that unique picture, or invent some new game.”
It really is all a matter of perspective. We don’t have to have our schools and camps direct every moment of summer for our kids “so they won’t get bored” – and we don’t even have to worry about making those three months out of school “productive.” If we just give kids a library card, a couple of bucks, and full permission to roam the neighborhood, good things are bound to happen on their own.