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by Jack Rothschild
As seven-year-old Mary swung on a rope to a small platform
of the low ropes course, she shouted to the other girls in her unit, “I’m
a good friend because I share my things!” Then Adina swung to the
platform and yelled, “Because I say nice things to people!” Susie
shouted, “Because I’m fun to play with!” Before long,
Mary’s unit of ten girls stood on the small wooden platform hugging
each other to avoid falling off and having gained a new understanding
of why they were such good friends. Friendship, a character value of
the camp’s philosophy, was being reinforced in the adventure ropes
program.
Integrating character values with curriculum is a positive
way of teaching campers important life lessons. In fact, many organizations,
such as the YMCA, include character constellations in their mission statements
or learning objectives. At Camp Thoreau, in Concord, Massachusetts, the
character curriculum program is named ROPES (recognition of performance
and excellence in skills). In the program, campers complete age-appropriate
activities that help them develop character values (see ROPES sidebar
on page 20).
Integrating Values
When integrating character values, it is important to
make sure that they align with and support the camp program’s curriculum.
At Camp Thoreau, the character values that are considered to be crucial
to camper development and growth include friendship, respect, responsibility,
teamwork, and risk-taking. The ROPES’s curriculum is designed so
that while the group grows together as a team, it also grows in self-confidence.
For example, Camp Thoreau’s risk-taking goal provides initiatives
that require the group to take risks and support each other to be successful.
Incentives Help Motivate
As the campers arrive at the hanging vines station of
the low ropes course, they are told that it will be lots of fun if used
responsibly. The instructors ask them what they need to do to be responsible
for one another. In unison, they shout, “SPOT each other.” They
practice the correct “stance,” “positioning,” ways
of correctly “observing” the person, and how to “take” the
fall (SPOT). After the campers successfully demonstrate their spotting
techniques, they are awarded green stickers for completing the responsibility
level of the character value curriculum.
While integrating curriculum and character values, staff
members find it worthwhile to use incentives to increase motivation.
To create a sense of team cohesion, campers are presented with colored
stickers when all the campers in a unit complete the requirements for
that character value level. The colors of the stickers correspond to
the camp’s character value flag and are applied to a certificate
that describes the programs in which the campers earned their award.
Another advantage of motivating campers with incentives is to get them
interested in doing more than just focusing on climbing on the high ropes
course so that they will fully participate in group initiatives, games,
and trust activities.
Teamwork in action
Ten-year-old Keith came to camp as a shy and remote boy. He was much smaller
than the other boys, had a speech impediment, wore thick glasses, often sat
on the side throwing a ball to himself, and would try to run away. Occasionally,
he would join the group for some course initiatives and, to the surprise
of many of the other campers, understood and participated fully.
One day, shouting echoed through the woods as Keith
attempted to cross the catwalk, a horizontal log suspended thirty-five
feet above the ground. “You can do it! Don’t stop! Way to
go!” the other campers and staff shouted. As he got to the end
of the log, the boys in his unit were so excited and pleased that he
had climbed the tree and crossed the catwalk that they couldn’t
hold back their enthusiasm. Keith’s smile continued to grow as
he was lowered on the belay line, and as he touched the ground and removed
his carabiner, he screamed and jumped into the arms of the other boys.
They had just completed their risk-taking goal! But more important was
the bigger picture of how far Keith had progressed with the group’s
help.
The first time Keith tried to climb the catwalk, he
got just to the top of the 10-foot ladder. On his second attempt, he
got to the second foothold on the tree, which was about 15-feet high.
Thanks to his team’s support and his increased courage, he was
successful on his third attempt. The next day, Keith couldn’t wait
to go on the zip line. He was the first one up the tree to the 40-foot
platform and never hesitated to zip down the 200-foot cable.
Key Ingredients to Integrating
Character Values
When integrating character values with your curriculum,
consider the following key points:
- Have a vision, a purpose for the program, that helps
set the objectives that you want campers to learn.
- Choose a set of character values. Understand these
and how your camp or organization defines them so you maintain consistency
through all programs and so that campers clearly understand these
values and can start using them at camp and at home.
- Develop a curriculum that relates character values
to your program activities.
- Choose group and individual incentives or levels
to encourage participation in activities; match incentive levels
to appropriate curriculum activities. Use stickers, certificates,
cards, or equivalent to reinforce achievement.
- Design the program so that all levels of the program
can be completed within the time allotted for the camp session.
- Make sure the program is age-appropriate and can
accommodate the size of the group; increase the difficulty of the
activities and the length of briefings and debriefings for older
campers.
- Provide staff training and a program manual. Discuss
how you have designed the program with the staff and your expectations.
Provide further details for staff to reference in your manual or
guide as there is usually limited training time provided and the
program director is not always available to answer questions.
- Track campers’ progress on appropriate forms.
Instructors may need to change groups due to scheduling conflicts,
so it is important for each group to have a record of activities
completed and suggestions for what to do next. It also allows instructors
to vary initiatives and other activities as the program is repeated
during new camp sessions.
- During and after the program, survey program participants
and make necessary adjustments.
Feedback Enhances Program
At Camp Thoreau, the ropes instructors and camp counselors
provided helpful feedback on the program. Overall, they felt the structure
of the program was well designed and accomplished the intended objectives.
The instructors found that the ROPES manual was an important guide, especially
at the beginning of the program, as it made it easy to prepare for each
group and keep track of which units had already been completed.
The staff also contributed constructive revisions and
suggestions for the next year’s program. Revisions included:
- reducing the number of adventure activities required
at several levels due to time constraints
- replacing a group challenge with a cooperative game
for middle campers as it made it easier for them to discuss and understand
teamwork
- acknowledging camper units with verbal recognition
as levels were achieved
- distributing cards or stickers at the end of the
session
Campers and counselors helped with the course evaluations
by completing surveys and offering verbal responses. In general, responses
to the program were positive. Counselor comments included:
- “They improved on their teamwork.”
- “Stepping stones and Mohawk walk built teamwork
abilities with my unit.”
- “Flying squirrel and name games were very
helpful.”
Camper comments included:
- “When can we climb?”
- “Our unit has friendship, respect, responsibility,
teamwork, and risk-taking with each other.”
- “I love coming here.”
There were many touching and memorable moments of campers
climbing the ropes course initiatives and breaking through by meeting
the challenges — taking one more step when they didn’t think
they could and then taking another and another! Mary, Keith, and the
other campers had an opportunity to go beyond a normal ropes course program,
to participate and grow more confident, to learn to trust and be trusted
by their peers, and to experience having fun as part of a team.
Originally published in the 2001 July/August
issue of Camping Magazine.
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