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This intersects with my previous post, to some extent.
Certain summer Camps are a Thing in this part of the country, in a way that I can't say I've ever experienced elsewhere.
These are the kinds of summer Camps where children as young as 7 or 8 are sent away for the majority of the summer to a place where they have the opportunity to learn about all kinds of sports (field sports, waterskiing, etc, as best I understand it). These Camps are not cheap; that is apparently a defining characteristic. I suspect these children do not stay in the same sort of rustic cabins or tent-cabins that we stayed in for our Catholic summer camps in Washington. I wonder if these kids learn what a BIFFY is. I also suspect they do not have overnight trips where they sleep in tents. But maybe they do, maybe I am wrong.
Apparently this kind of Camp often employs counselors from different parts of Europe - young European people seizing an opportunity to be a counselor at an American camp, working for a pittance in exchange for a chance to practice lots of spoken English (and learn about a specific sector of American culture).
Also apparently on weekends when parents come out to visit their children at these Camps, the roads surrounding the camps will be overflowing with all kinds of brands of expensive luxury cars, with occasional exceptions (which are most likely parents who have flown in and then rented a car instead). This is apparently still an important form of social signaling, the luxury car.
I suspect the notion of going to camp and not bathing properly for the better part of a week would be considered utterly ghastly; I suspect kids who attend these Camps won't have the experience of ocean salt building up in a crusty layer on their skin. On the other hand, perhaps they will get to gather around a campfire and smell like campfire smoke. Perhaps they will also do all kinds of ridiculous craft projects, the candles and the tie-dye. Perhaps there will be equal tragic sunburns and insect bites.
Across aspects of my life I suspect I have encountered more than one person who is a product of this kind of Camp; individuals who now possess some sort of hopeless bored ennui who just don't know what to do with their lives. I find it difficult to relate; if I'm not already doing enough other things, I should be feeding the hungry or housing the homeless with my own two hands.
Can there be a more egalitarian way for kids to spend their summers, that precious free time for play and dreaming?
Certain summer Camps are a Thing in this part of the country, in a way that I can't say I've ever experienced elsewhere.
These are the kinds of summer Camps where children as young as 7 or 8 are sent away for the majority of the summer to a place where they have the opportunity to learn about all kinds of sports (field sports, waterskiing, etc, as best I understand it). These Camps are not cheap; that is apparently a defining characteristic. I suspect these children do not stay in the same sort of rustic cabins or tent-cabins that we stayed in for our Catholic summer camps in Washington. I wonder if these kids learn what a BIFFY is. I also suspect they do not have overnight trips where they sleep in tents. But maybe they do, maybe I am wrong.
Apparently this kind of Camp often employs counselors from different parts of Europe - young European people seizing an opportunity to be a counselor at an American camp, working for a pittance in exchange for a chance to practice lots of spoken English (and learn about a specific sector of American culture).
Also apparently on weekends when parents come out to visit their children at these Camps, the roads surrounding the camps will be overflowing with all kinds of brands of expensive luxury cars, with occasional exceptions (which are most likely parents who have flown in and then rented a car instead). This is apparently still an important form of social signaling, the luxury car.
I suspect the notion of going to camp and not bathing properly for the better part of a week would be considered utterly ghastly; I suspect kids who attend these Camps won't have the experience of ocean salt building up in a crusty layer on their skin. On the other hand, perhaps they will get to gather around a campfire and smell like campfire smoke. Perhaps they will also do all kinds of ridiculous craft projects, the candles and the tie-dye. Perhaps there will be equal tragic sunburns and insect bites.
Across aspects of my life I suspect I have encountered more than one person who is a product of this kind of Camp; individuals who now possess some sort of hopeless bored ennui who just don't know what to do with their lives. I find it difficult to relate; if I'm not already doing enough other things, I should be feeding the hungry or housing the homeless with my own two hands.
Can there be a more egalitarian way for kids to spend their summers, that precious free time for play and dreaming?
