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by Jon C. Malinowski, Ph.D.
In the 1993 hit comedy, Addams Family Values, young Wednesday and Pugsley
are sent to Camp Chippewa, a white, upper-class camp where the owners,
Becky and Gary Granger, saturate the campers with sappy, over-the-top
happiness. When the Addams children don’t conform, they’re sent
to the “Harmony Hut,” a small, gingerbread-like cabin full of
mawkish posters and decorations designed to transform a problem child
into the typical Camp Chippewa camper. When they escape from the hut and
try to scale a fence, the children are confronted by Becky, Gary, and
a group of brainwashed campers. Convinced that the children can be converted
to Pollyanna-ish drones like all the other campers, the owners launch
into a cornball rendition of “Kumbayah.” The Addams children
are not enthused.
This scene sums up what I call the “kurse” of Kumbayah —
a view of summer camps that does not reflect what most good camp professionals
aim to create. To be blunt, the camp community is plagued by a series
of stereotypes, including that camps and camp staff are either excessively
or falsely happy, of poor quality, focused on partying and debauchery,
scary, or overly strict. These clichés are perpetuated by the American
entertainment establishment and sometimes encouraged by our peers.
More importantly, these attitudes affect the way that new staff approach
their summers — often hindering our noble efforts to turn them into
role models for our campers. While there are books and short stories about
camping, movies and television are more important transmitters of popular
culture for a discussion about where stereotypes about camp are perpetuated
and what we can do to reduce their hold on new staff.
As a disclaimer, please do not interpret any negative comments as a complete
panning of a particular movie or work. On the contrary, as pieces of entertainment
they are thoroughly enjoyable. However, it is important to recognize that
the very entertainment that we enjoy also complicates our jobs as camp
professionals. If you are not familiar with the works discussed, I encourage
you to rent or buy them as professional development. Be warned, however,
that many contain adult material and are not suitable for children or
the camp library.
Camp Perpetual Happiness
Camp Perpetual Happiness is a place where the staff is unnaturally enthusiastic
and attempts to handle all problems by forcing the campers to be cheerful.
Here, camp staff often refuse to recognize or accept that a camper may
be unhappy, or if they do, think that all problems can be solved with
a smile, a song, or a game.
The finest example of this is the Addams Family Values scene previously
mentioned, but there are others. In the “Fat Camp” episode of
the popular cartoon South Park, Eric is sent against his will to a weight
loss camp (Hopeful Hills) by his parents. When he arrives, visibly upset,
a counselor greets him with, “Hello, camper, my name is Rick. How
are you doing?” to which Eric responds, “Well, I’m *******
off Rick, how are you?” Rick’s thoughtful, caring response to
a distressed camper is, “I’m doing great!” thereby ignoring
the camper’s problem and inserting an overly positive statement to
mask the unhappiness of the moment.
From the 1979 movie Meatballs to 2001’s Happy Campers, counselors
are often portrayed as sappy, perma-happy robots who fail to realize the
true nature of their situation. Why this stereotype is dangerous lies
in the failure of the counselor to react appropriately to a camper in
need. A homesick camper may sometimes need an enthusiastic, goofy counselor
to cheer her up, but at other times that same child may need a quiet listener,
a sympathizing friend, or a stern parent figure. While we obviously want
happy counselors who have a lot of enthusiasm, our staff have to realize
that there are times when emotions other than happiness might be appropriate.
In fact, staff who are always in high spirits can ignore serious issues
because they’re trying to make their campers happy at any cost —
even if that means breaking camp rules, such as sneaking in candy or violating
taps.
To be honest, we often perpetuate this stereotype at camp conventions
by dedicating long sessions to games and icebreakers that are supposed
to pass as staff training. Icebreakers should be just that — short
exercises to get people interested in the training. Directors or staff
trainers should not have to dedicate long portions of staff training time
to games designed only to “build teamwork” or “promote
camp spirit.” An experienced staff of seasoned veterans might be
able to spend hours on building teamwork, but sadly most camps have large
numbers of inexperienced staff every summer. These young men and women
need practical skills that prepare them to manage camper behavior and
run the camp safely. You need to do more than simply tell them what time
breakfast is and how to get to the archery range. Properly skilled counselors
are usually happy counselors — but happiness alone does not solve
all camp problems.
Break the kurse
To break the hold of this curse on your staff, consider the following
strategies:
- Make sure that your training teaches multiple ways of dealing with
common problems. Role-play a fight between campers where the counselor
must break it up using an upbeat demeanor or humor. Then redo it but
require that the leader be stern or disappointed. This allows your staff
to see that common situations can be dealt with in a variety of ways.
- Emphasize that different age groups might require different leadership
techniques. Goofiness might work with pre-adolescents more often than
it does for teenagers. In fact, teenagers will often react better to
a counselor who is more realistic in his or her personality. The fifth
rainy day in a row can still be fun, but let’s not try to convince
a child that it’s the best thing that’s ever happened.
- Make sure that you express a range of emotions with your staff. Show
the happy, goofy side of your personality that makes camp fun, but also
talk about the emotional importance of camp in your life or how it helped
you get through a tough time. This shows new staff that the camp environment
in which they’re working is one in which a range of emotions can
be expressed.
Camp Crappy
Camp Crappy is another stereotype of the industry. This camp is run-down
and operated by an uncaring, often absent staff. The finest example of
this may be the “Kamp Krusty” episode from The Simpsons. In
this episode, Bart and Lisa go to a corporate-run camp that is advertised
as heaven-on-earth. When they arrive, the place is falling apart, the
staff ignore their pleas for help, and they are fed gruel in the mess
hall.
Variations on this theme show up repeatedly. In some movies or shows,
the camp is bad because the staff is apathetic or absent. In the 2001
movie, Wet Hot American Summer, a camper drowns after a counselor ignores
his pleas for help. Granted, this movie is meant as a comedic parody,
but it still reinforces the stereotype. In Friday the 13th, Part 2, a
staff trainer actually says to a counselor on the first day of training,
“We worked a few seasons together, right?” Talk about apathetic
— a senior staff member who barely remembers that he worked “a
few seasons” with another staff member shouldn’t be senior staff.
At other times, a camp’s physical plant is woefully lacking. For
example, in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), graffiti and sub-standard plumbing
are clearly evident, and a group of new campers is moved into a cabin
that would not pass a safety inspection anywhere in the country. The song,
“Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh,” by Allan Sherman, which no camping
expert can escape when on television or the radio, also reinforces the
bad camp stereotype. Even if the end of the song makes things look okay,
few people remember those verses.
This curse is dangerous for three reasons. One, it may reduce the number
of children that come to camp. Second, it creates an attitude among the
staff that run-down buildings and grounds are normal at camp, thus promoting
a careless attitude with equipment and infrastructure. Third, it trivializes
safety issues that often topple excellent camps through lawsuits and bad
press.
Break the kurse
- Make sure that your grounds are not like those portrayed in these
movies. Many of you will likely be insulted by this statement, but the
truth is that there are camps that allow broken windows and screens
to remain unfixed, hornets nests in bunk areas, and garbage to be strewn
everywhere. These are not exaggerations — I have witnessed each
of these problems.
- Include in your staff training an appreciation for caring for equipment
and infrastructure. Tell your staff how much money is spent on painting
or repairing windows. Share an electricity bill with them or the invoice
for new sports equipment. Or better yet, talk to your staff about liability
insurance. Read newspaper accounts of unfortunate cases where campers
were injured because of staff negligence. Several of the insurance firms
that serve the camp industry will send representatives to your camp
to address these issues and emphasize the consequences of carelessness.
- Create a culture that doesn’t allow your camp to be dirty or
run-down. This can include, for example, an organized system to report
problems to the maintenance staff. At the camp at which I work, senior
staff report routine maintenance problems to the property manager every
day before lunch. More serious problems are dealt with immediately.
In addition, make it clear to the staff that certain issues — like
mistreatment of equipment or garbage on the ground—are important
to you.
Camp Party-All-Night-Long
To look at many camp movies and television shows, camp is the most decadent
place on earth. In Meatballs, Bill Murray’s character brings alcohol
on an overnight camping trip with a group of CITs. Sex follows. In Friday
the 13th, the first night of staff training involves sex, strip poker,
and smoking marijuana. In Happy Campers, staff spend the entire summer
discussing sex with their campers, allowing them to see pornography, and
teaching them how to pick up the opposite sex. Little Darlings (1980),
Oddballs (1984), Camp Nowhere (1994), and Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
all portray camp life as little more than sex, pranks, and/or substance
abuse.
The problem with this stereotype should be obvious. New staff may show
up expecting a summer of sex and partying only to find that they have
to tend for sick campers, clean the stables, and figure out what to do
when fifty-five kids show up at archery. Being a counselor, as we know,
is a tough job that has great, but sometimes sporadic rewards.
Break the kurse
- Prepare your staff for the realities of their job — first and
foremost. This can start even before camp begins by suggesting books
on child behavior or preparing a precamp staff manual that addresses
common responsibilities or problems. Why not prepare a document that
outlines a whole week in a counselor’s life to highlight the times
a new staff member will be on duty or free?
- Don’t sell them a bill of goods you cannot deliver. If you promise
them that camp will be non-stop fun, you’re setting yourself up
for trouble. Be honest about the joys and pains of working with children,
and counselors will be better prepared mentally to start the summer.
- Make sure you don’t promote this stereotype through policies
that are dangerous or overly liberal. For years, some camps had party
houses on camp grounds where staff members were allowed to drink and
socialize. The argument was that this is safer than having counselors
leave camp, but we all know that some staff will still drink and party
when they leave camp, as well. Other camps offer three or more nights
out-of-camp nights-off a week, which often encourages staff to leave
grounds and party instead of learning to enjoy downtime at camp. Some
camps even give a whole day-off during a five-day staff training week.
While a night off may be okay, and even beneficial, if you don’t
have enough topics to cover during a staff training week (whose length
is mandated by the ACA), you’re either the best camp in the country
or woefully neglectful.
Camp Blood n’ Gore
There are times when an inexperienced staff member gets off to a bad
start by telling an inappropriately gory or scary story on the first night
of camp. Camps are often dark and wooded, which research has shown can
scare many children. Popular culture has reinforced this stereotype. Many
camp movies, such as Addams Family Values and Meatballs, contain scenes
in which a staff member tells a scary story around a campfire. More damaging
is the whole genre of horror movies set in camp environments. The most
well-known movies might be Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2.
In each of these, counselors are slaughtered in revenge for a child drowning
years before because neglectful counselors were having sex instead of
life guarding. In an odd way, these movies support the theme that sex
and partying in camp have negative consequences. Unfortunately, these
“Hollywood” consequences are often violent.
Many directors might not be aware of other movies in the genre, most
notably the Sleepaway Camp series, a trilogy released in 1983 and 1988,
and recently packaged as a deluxe DVD box-set. The movies have a wide
cult following. The plot line of the first movie revolves around a gender-confused
camper who kills incompetent staff and campers. In later movies, the homicidal
camper secretly becomes a staff member and continues hacking, burning,
and mutilating campers and counselors.
Break the kurse
How these movies affect staff is hard to determine. You can bet that some
of your new staff have seen at least one camp horror movie. Some will
use this cultural stereotype to scare campers (and sometimes other staff).
- Decide what level of scariness your camp population can handle.
- Set a policy about what kinds of stories can be told to certain age
groups and in certain settings. This can be incorporated into discussions
about the appropriateness of a wide range of popular culture in the
camp setting. Explicit music in lyrics, inappropriate logos or slogans
on T-shirts, and overly revealing personal discussions can be discussed
at the same time in the context of age-appropriate leadership. Scary
stories are an important camp tradition, discretion remains important.
Camp Young Fascists
The final curse is the stereotype that camp counselors are authoritarian
jerks who only bark orders at campers. In Heavyweights, Happy Campers,
The Simpsons, Ernest Goes to Camp, and Meatballs 2, counselors or directors
are portrayed like fascist dictators. Campers are inconvenient problems
who must be tolerated, ordered around, and punished.
How this affects staff is clear. Every summer, there are a few people
who cross the line and try to discipline through fear and intimidation.
This leadership style is, frankly, easy for an inexperienced staff member.
As stresses mount and new staff realize they are unprepared for some of
the situations they face, some will resort to yelling and screaming in
situations where an experienced staffer might use humor or simply a stern
voice.
Break the kurse
Just like dealing with perpetually happy staff, you must train counselors
to use a variety of tools in dealing with camper behavior.
- Role-play situations using experienced staff with different personalities
or leadership styles.
- Talk through common camper issues and solicit suggestions from your
staff. Allow as many divergent opinions to be expressed as possible
and explain the range of rewards and punishments that are allowed in
your system. The more strategies and options a counselor has, the less
likely he or she will choose rage as a solution.
- Make sure that staff have ways of dealing with stress. Free time during
the day, counselor athletic tournaments, a staff psychologist, and variations
in duties can provide outlets for stress.
In a Different Light
In an ideal world, every depiction of a summer camp would feature positive
counselors obeying camp rules and nurturing their campers. Sadly, Hollywood
and Madison Avenue often choose to depict camps in a much different light.
While no camp is free from the curse of these stereotypes, camps with
high turnover rates among the staff or with staff who have not experienced
camp life before are most vulnerable because there are few positive role
models for them to emulate. Sure, there are positive camping movies, from
Henry Aldrich: Boy Scout in the 1940s to Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown
to the sweet Indian Summer. But I’d be willing to bet that these
movies are much less influential then South Park, the Simpsons, and camp
horror movies. That is the reality of our society and we, as staff trainers
and supervisors, must address it in our training.
Originally published in the 2003 May/June issue of Camping Magazine. |
