Camp is still the answer in 2025!
Barreling into 2025 I am taking a moment to reconnect and recommit? to the work ahead, and this note from Peter Gray on his vision for the future of education, is just what the doctor ordered.
I wonder whether Peter Gray has thought about camp, I imagine he has. After all, every idea proposed here is answered by camp in one way or another. Yes, friends, in 2025 camp is still the answer. In fact, at Frost Valley we are thinking deep and hard about how our program approaches help young people develop, and the notion of self directed education plays a large role in how we think about the camp experience. Camp, if nothing else, is a learning environment where every child can learn what they need to learn, at their pace.
I don't necessarily share Gray's optimism for the pending and inevitable end of the current system of education but altogether agree that sanity ought to prevail - learning and growing up should be full of joy - there, too, camp shines a light. The participatory play and direct involvement in the learning process that is so central to camp is actually the secret sauce of what makes summer camp experiences (and their cousin the overnight school trip experience) so powerful, and such an obvious educational model: a focus on social experiences, paired with knowledge and skill development and healthy pushes out of one's comfort zone, and ample exposure to nature and art. Rocket science? I truly don't think so.
Over the years, my notion of camp being the answer to many or all things education has expanded to Grays second phase: exploring a career path. It continues to be an under-emphasized value and opportunity, in spite of efforts like Project Real Job, that camp or outdoor education center work is comprehensive life and adulting training. Name any so-called soft skill, and camp work teaches it in spades. Remember this oldy but goody?
They may not require talent, but camp teaches these things, faster, and better, hand down.
So that's my start of 2025, recommitting to building educational environments where young people can learn to become adults, and young adults can develop the skills that will make them successful. What a privilege! Happy New Year everyone!
Director of SOAR Summer Day Camp, SEL Coordinator, Science Educator, Presenter, Coach
1 个月Great share! How do we fold the idea of Camp into the current education model…and vice versa? I believe in Camp! All children should experience it AND all educators should work at a camp as a part of their education to become teachers! My time as an educator and camp director at FV set the foundation for my current teaching philosophy and model!
Program Development, Leadership, Event Management, Nonprofit
2 个月Thanks for sharing Peter Gray’s article… very interesting and is a cousin to the late Ken Robinson’s (??) argument that schools kill creativity and taking chances. It’s all linked. And it’s why I walked away from persuing a career in formal education. Camp and outdoor education are magical (we’ve seen it first hand a thousand times) but just part of what is needed to address the lack of curiosity, thirst for learning and presumption that credentials equate to merit. We need to think bigger than what we can provide for our campers through programming and train staff how to think critically and the importance of incidental learning / growth opportunities that focus on critical thinking for the campers. I believe that’s where the ripple effect will build to waves... Instill Gray’s ideals (or thereabouts) to the future generation of educators and policy makers to hopefully move the puritan-based education system to one with less structure, more individualism and learning for the joy of learning.