|
|
 |
by Stephen Wallace, M.S.
Ed.
The shiny coach bus rumbled to a stop just in
front of a small, white bungalow bearing a faded
green sign reading: Camp Office. Our chaperone,
a freshly scrubbed college kid charged with maintaining
some sense of order on the four-hour caravan
ferrying fifty boys from the metropolitan New
York-New Jersey area to the quaint confines of
Brewster, Massachusetts, gave us our marching
orders: check in, unload, and head off to tryouts.
Tryouts here meant, in succession, turns at
bat and feet-first slides into second base; dribble
drills and jumpshots from the top of the key;
and dizzyingly fast rotations in goal attempting
to block penalty kicks energetically launched
from just a few yards away. And all this before
the first bed was made, song was sung, or meal
tray placed on the serving line. Such was life
at a boys' camp more than a quarter-century
ago — and light-years away.
Not that I
particularly minded. While never a great athlete,
I enjoyed the rough and tumble of competitive
athletics and had the bumps, bruises, concussions,
and hospital receipts to prove it. Plus, there
really wasn't all that much more to do.
Sure, I made my share of ceramic ashtrays and wood
cutouts proudly displaying my name: S_T_E_P_H_E_N.
I was even conned onto a sailboat or two. But,
the overriding gestalt here was team, competition,
winning.
Then came the merger.
It started innocently
enough — "limited joint programming" with
our sister camp just down the beach. The infrequent
trips from Camp Monomoy to the less rugged, better-equipped
facilities at Camp Wono were softened a bit by
our sudden access to a more fully stocked camp
store — one we actually walked into as
opposed to just up to! None of this, however,
awakened the machismo machines of Monomoy to
the likelihood of, gasp, co-educational summer
camp!
With that move just a few years later came
the inevitable conflicts: which camp's
site would we use? (The girls' won.) Whose
motto would we adopt? (Chalk one up for the boys.)
Which traditions would win out? (Christmas in
July – are you kidding?) But, amidst all
the hubbub crept a subtle wave that would transform
both camps, creating a level playing field, if
you'll excuse the analogy, that benefited
both boys and girls and challenged each to reach
beyond traditional, perhaps stereotypical, interests,
thus allowing for a full sampling of skills and
expression of interests.
The Blurring of Gender
Boundaries
Like many camps, the Cape Cod Sea Camps
(Camp Monomoy and Camp Wono) today cater to a
broad range of aptitudes with gender boundaries
barely visible. Of course, baseball attracts
more boys — just as field hockey attracts
more girls. But in sailing, swimming, tennis,
drama, waterskiing, kayaking, and windsurfing,
each sex enjoys ample spots on the roster. And
in one area more than most, the genders (and
an incredibly broad range of ages) mix in a creative
whirlwind that produces some of the most ingenious,
stunningly beautiful, and remarkably practical
displays of young minds untethered from distant
norms of what's for boys and what's
for girls: the arts.
Here, art comes in many
forms. Classics such as tie-dye, macramé,
and, yes, wooden name signs are pursued with
great vigor alongside advanced clay pottery classes,
courses in digital photography, dance, cinema,
creative writing, and theater.
During my rounds
through camp, one of my favorite sites to behold
is the very gender-boundary blur that allows
for girls to be carving sailing ships from blocks
of wood or boys spinning pots at the wheel. Should
this be surprising in the 21st century? Not to
anyone involved in education. Nevertheless, it
represents an important alternative in a broader
culture that still too often adheres to stricter
definitions of what constitutes normative expression
by boys and by girls.
And that's the point.
Attributes of the Arts
Self-expression, perhaps
especially at summer camp where fewer social
mores dictate a child's choices, is a cornerstone
of healthy psycho-social development. When it
is artificially limited, children of all ages
fail to fully thrive. When it is accommodated
or, better yet, encouraged, it allows for experiences
that help to shape identity and interaction with
the world. Artist and educator Debby Greenwood,
who supervises our fine and media arts students,
says, "Camp is a place and a time where
kids can reinvent themselves," pointing
to the satisfaction, and resultant uptick in
self-esteem, many campers experience when aesthetic
awareness of their own capabilities kicks in.
Fourteen-year-old Adam, an art, pottery, and
woodworking student at camp, says, "Art
helps me to express myself because I can paint
or draw or carve the feelings and thoughts in
my mind onto paper, canvas, or wood. Pictures
in my mind that can't be said or explained
can be talked about through my art. It makes
me feel different and special."
Ten-year-old
Anna also enjoys expression through art, explaining, "It
makes me feel secure and alive and, of course,
very creative."
Charlie, also ten, offers, "Art
helps me use my emotions to power creativity," revealing
that it allows him to be more "wacky."
And
Brooke, eleven, explains, "I love to give,
so I always make things for other people. It
makes me feel good about myself. If I am in a
not-so-great mood, expressing myself makes me
feel better."
The Creative Side of Camping
In addition to advancing self-expression and
self-esteem, there is research to suggest a broader
benefit from the creative side of camping. Indeed,
in an article last fall in The Boston Globe,
professors Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland, co-authors
of the book Studio Thinking:
The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education, offered up their own
data documenting a series of "studio habits
of mind" taught to children through visual
arts classes, including persistence, observing,
envisioning, innovating through exploration,
and reflective self-evaluation. Referring to
problems such as global warming, terrorism, and
pandemics, Winner and Hetland said, "For
students living in a rapidly changing world,
the arts teach vital modes of seeing, imagining,
inventing, and thinking . . . . Those who have
learned the lessons . . . are the ones likely
to come up with novel answers needed most for
the future."
Such "transferability" is
often overlooked but significant from a broader
educational perspective. Seventeen-year-old Danny,
a dancer at school, enjoys art, photo, and cinema
at camp, pointing out that the skills he learns
aren't just "art" skills. "I
learn to be a better listener by following the
instruction," he says, "and I have
become more independent by creating my own projects."
Anna
and Ben, thirteen, both point to woodworking
as a place where they learn math skills. And
Brooke says that art has taught her perseverance. "I
never give up on a project, and that has taught
me to use willpower in other things, like sports.
If I put my heart into it, I will succeed as
long as I don't give up."
Adam has
another angle: "Explaining things that
are in your mind can bring people closer to you
and even introduce you to new people. By doing
a certain genre of art, people can connect with
you."
The Art Alternative
Summer camp art
programs also offer important activity alternatives
for campers, providing opportunities to excel
in less regimented ways. Debby Greenwood shares
the story of her son Dan, who, she says, arrived
at camp as a nonathletic nine-year-old only to
discover art and acting, a career he is now pursuing
at age twenty-two. Our other artists have weighed
in as well.
Brooke: "Not everyone can do — or
participate in — sports and other things
camps commonly have, but almost everyone can
do some form of art at any age."
Danny: "Certainly
it is very important to have as wide a range
of activities as possible. Soccer, tennis, and
baseball appeal to a large number of kids in
our athletically driven world, but there will
always be the kids who sit on the sidelines.
It's essential that there be means for
those kids to find their voices."
Ben: "I
think that art adds a lot of diversity to activities.
Part of the reason I sign up for art is because
I don't necessarily want to play sports
all day."
Adam: "Art is important
in a child's life. It's good to get
your feelings out, and it is good to stretch
your imagination."
Got Art?
For years, educators
have bemoaned shrinking budgets for everything
from athletics to the arts. More recently, the
federal No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB)
fueled fears that rigid academic standards for
such things as math and reading would only exacerbate
shortfalls in art, music, and sciences. While
the NCLB includes the arts in its core academic
subjects and contains a provision authorizing
the Secretary of Education to direct funding
to art education programs, some, such as the
Arts and Culture Observatory, say that NCLB has
failed to address a growing art gap because of
a lack of funding and inadequate time in the
school day. Others point out that the law does
not require assessment of student progress in
the arts as it does in other subjects such as
reading and math.
In response to rising concerns
over cuts to arts programs and public concerns
that over-reliance on testing for English and
math to rate a school's performance will
mean less emphasis on art, music, and other subjects
(78 percent of those surveyed in a 2006 Phi Delta
Kappa/Gallup Poll), groups like Americans for
the Arts are fighting back by advocating for
increased federal funding, better access to core
academic subjects, improving data collection
and research related to the arts in school, and
increasing vehicles through which others can
voice their support for arts education.
Greenwood,
too, cites the trend toward limited arts education,
saying, "There's not enough room
for the arts in even the best schools, given
the competitive academic requirements. And that
makes camp arts programs all the more important." Or,
as Anna says, "Having arts programs at
camp is great because happiness is definitely
one of the most important things in life."
Having
happy campers is pretty important, too.
Reference:
The
Boston Globe. (2007, September 2) Winner, Ellen
and Hetland, Lois. Art for Our Sake. www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/02/art_for_our_sake/
(4 Aug. 2008).
Originally published
in the 2008 November/December issue of Camping
Magazine.
|
