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by Marvin A. Raps
It is often said by people who mean well that working with children with
special needs “requires the patience of a saint.” Not true.
What it does require is human compassion — something more of us have
than we seem ready to acknowledge.
Elevating the status of someone who works with a child with special needs
to that of a saint is a not-so-subtle way of saying that the work is so
challenging that it requires extra human effort. At the same time, it
establishes the justification for not even considering such work. After
all, if one is only human, let the saints among us help the physically
disabled, lead the blind, comfort the emotionally disturbed, and tend
the sick. It’s the “I’m no saint” defense.
If it is evidence that is required to demonstrate the attitude many young
people have about working with children with special needs, you need go
no further than a special needs camp director who has attended a summer
camp job fair. It matters little whether the fairs are organized by career
placement offices at colleges in the United States or by international
counselor exchange agencies abroad. The directors can describe how students
stroll by table after table looking at the attractive pictures of happy
children playing at camp. However, when they come to a table for a camp
that serves special populations they often pass by a little too quickly,
occasionally adding, with some embarrassment, that they lack the patience,
experience, or ability to cope with such work. It’s the “I’m
no saint” excuse.
Overcoming the “I’m No Saint” Excuse
Students who do choose to work at a special needs camp, in spite of their
initial concerns, will usually discover at the end of the season that
their first cautious reaction was well worth overcoming. This is particularly
true of young men, who find themselves in a culture that does not value
care giving as a sufficiently masculine trait. Their decision to defy
custom is more difficult than for young women, while their feeling of
satisfaction at the end of the summer is just as great.
Start with the idea that the desire to help people with disabilities
is a very human characteristic. There are simply no other creatures that
we know of who have developed similar behaviors. Compassion, after all,
has a human face. Those who incorporate it into their lives allow themselves
to become more human or humane, while they help others, less fortunate
than themselves.
As a camp counselor, your care giving may start with the physical and
take the form of guiding a blind child through the woods or lifting a
child with a disability from a wheelchair into a swimming pool. However,
human compassion also demands a degree of understanding. It thrives on
the ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another and to ask
some very profound questions about life’s vagaries. Understanding
is essential to providing good care. It is the growth in sensitivity and
the wisdom that emerges from it that will eventually provide you with
the biggest reward.
Taking the Risk
You are taking a risk when you make the decision to work at any sleep-away
camp for the summer, particularly if you have not grown up as a camper
in that camp and do not know its physical surroundings or unique culture
from first-hand experience. You must be prepared to leave the comfort
of your home for a more primitive place in the country many miles away
at which you will live and work for two months. Will you like the kids?
Will the kids like you? Will you get along with the other staff members?
Will you be able to sleep in a non-heated, non-air-conditioned cabin or
tent? Will the food be edible?
But what if you choose a special needs camp? You face the additional
challenge of interacting with campers who may have behavioral deficits,
orthopedic appliances, physical care needs, speech defects, learning disabilities,
and other problems which affect their ability to adjust to camp. You will
be reaching out to children who are often isolated from mainstream society
and trying to help them have a wonderful summer camp experience.
Different risks for international staff
International staff members face those risks as well and more. Working
in America may be a dream come true, but it is not without some very extraordinary
hurdles to overcome. Obtaining a visa, flying to the U.S., negotiating
through immigration, and making travel connections to a rural camp that
may be located miles from a remote train station are all daunting. Then
there is the change in time, food, and culture, which can challenge the
spirit as well as the digestive tract. There are language issues, which
can be overwhelming, even for those who have studied English for many
years, as they have to deal with American idioms, slang, and a barrage
of camp expressions.
International staff will arrive at camp with the knowledge that their
fluency in English is going to be put to the test. They often hone their
English skills by watching American TV, but there are few TV personalities
with speech defects. In the beginning, trying to communicate with campers
with special needs can seem insurmountable.
Quite remarkably, the potential communication problem disappears in short
order. As it turns out, American and international staffs develop alternatives
to verbal communication when necessary. Words are not always the only
or even the best way to convey feelings of joy, sadness, fear, contentment,
anger, and love. In time, the “language thing” disappears as
an obstacle to understanding. After all, understanding human emotions
needs no words and has no grammar. It has its own universal language.
Try laughing in Greek or Samoan or Urdu. It’s all the same. A child’s
tear is a tear in all languages, and the comforting that stems its flow
is universal.
In spite of the difficulties, most who make the decision to work at a
sleep-away camp negotiate the minefield of risks and adjust to their surroundings
with great courage and grace.
A Resume-Building Experience
One of the many rewards of working with children with special needs is
resume building. If you are exploring a career in special education, physical
therapy, occupational therapy, or similar professions, a hands-on experience
can teach you what you cannot easily learn from a classroom or textbook.
You will have the opportunity to test the depth of your own commitment
to that kind of work and have the chance to redirect your career if necessary
before you make the full investment in education and training.
Even if you don’t have career goals in those particular fields,
you can find working at a special needs camp to be professionally valuable.
Resumes which reveal a social interest in the well-being of others are
well received by prospective employers. It speaks to the issue of values
and often allows the interviewer to see beyond grade point averages and
test scores.
Special needs camp directors will confirm that some of their best staff
are students who do not have career goals in the field. While they, too,
learn a great deal about the impact of disability, they often focus less
on technical issues and more on the job of giving kids a wonderful, joy-filled
summer. This is a goal that is no different than one would have in a non-specialized
camp. Yet the impact on staff of achieving a valuable goal with children
with special needs can leave them with something unique at the end of
the summer.
Learning Life Lessons
Working with children with special needs will teach you very important
lessons in life. You will come to the realization that you don’t
have to be a saint to succeed in meeting the needs of others. You will
acquire a better understanding of the problems such children face in their
development. This awareness can be of significant help to you in your
own life, especially as you may face critical decisions about the development
of your own children one day.
You will also learn that some of the difficulties special children face
have to do with the way they are perceived and treated by society in general.
As a result of your heightened sensitivity, you may never pass by a blind
man waiting to cross the street without asking to be of help. You will
never express impatience as a New York City bus driver takes the time
to lower the hydraulic lift to enable a wheelchair user to board. Your
attitude toward people with special needs will be forever altered for
the good, and you will function as ambassadors of better understanding
for everyone.
Rewards are proportional to risk — the bigger the risk, the bigger
the reward. The difference you make during the summer in the lives of
children with special needs becomes a valuable experience from which you
will benefit for a lifetime.
It is important that young people see working in a special needs camp
as something that does not require extra-human qualities. It’s a
matter of changing attitudes. It is also important that working with children
with special needs is viewed as an opportunity to gain valuable life experience.
This is certainly not to suggest that working with children without disabilities
is less rewarding. However, the consideration of work in a special needs
camp should not be rejected out of hand. In the best of all possible worlds,
you should feel free to explore both work experiences with equal passion.
| An Ad Campaign with Special Appeal
The Association of Special Needs Camp Professionals (ASNCP) delivered
an ad campaign sponsored by United Way of New York City. From February
to May 2002, ads were printed in seven New York area college newspapers.
The ad featured Greg Comella, a New York Giant football player,
and a child in a wheelchair. The tag line, “the difference
you make is now, the experience you gain is forever,” was followed
by Comella’s message urging students to consider working at
a special needs camp. The ad referred students to the ASNCP’s
Web site, www.specialneedscamps.org, where they could view information
about summer jobs. Links to each of the fourteen member camps were
available on the site.
In evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign, member camps found
it difficult to trace applicants to the Web site or the ads. However,
the number of hits increased significantly as the ad campaign developed.
While staffing special needs camps with qualified college students
still is a challenge, especially with young men, the campaign was
a step in the right direction.
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Originally published in the 2003 May/June issue
of Camping Magazine. |
