by Marla Coleman
The core culture of the camp experience has always been a community
of caring, compassion, and cooperation. Now, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary
adds an additional passion and a new dimension to camp's mission, giving
song and extra heart to the efforts. By harnessing the power of music
and art to transform, inspire, and build skills in children, Peter has
created the "Don't Laugh at Me" project for use at ACA-accredited
camps.
This multimedia resource is loaded with activities and ideas to help
camp directors provide an even more just and caring environment for children.
Peter, a former camper and counselor who refers to his camp experiences
as an epiphany, underscores, "Know that you are far from alone in
this work. A virtual movement is gathering strength as more and more
educators agree that children must . . . acquire the tools to help them
grow up to be ethical, compassionate citizens of strong character, healthy
self-esteem and humane sensibilities."
Peter Yarrow's resource is a priceless package containing a CD, a video,
and a guide, which focuses on giving children the experiences of learning
in a caring community that is characterized by a healthy expression of
feelings, compassion, and cooperation; the creative resolution of conflicts;
and an appreciation of differences. The activities are designed to give
camps tools to raise awareness, to explore feelings, and to help children
connect to themselves and to one another.
Creating a Ridicule-Free Zone
The project, which is the result of a collaboration among leading organizations
working in the fields of character education, conflict resolution, and
diversity education including Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR)
and the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, offers myriad ways to
create a "ridicule-free zone" at camp — a place where
children are committed to ending name-calling, teasing, put-downs, and
other unkind behaviors.
The guide features five major implementation components:
- campfire program comprised of group activity sessions
- a cabin program linked to the week's campfire theme, such as affirmations,
problem-solving or empathy-building
- a kick-off ceremony for using "Don't Laugh at Me" as the
theme of the season
- a closing ceremony to wrap up the experience
- a community day — July 20, National
Camp Community Day — which will be synchronized with camps
around the country to signal that children can change the world
The activities draw on old camp favorites, like "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowin'
in the Wind," along with new skits dealing with teasing and setting
limits around other behaviors that might be hurtful. Conflict resolution
skills such as using "I" messages plus fun cooperative events
round out the handbook. Also included are staff training and orientation
agendas, strategies and tips for coaching concepts and skills by theme,
and suggestions for partnering with parents.
Putting an End to Bullying
The roots of uncaring behavior — of bullying, taunting and teasing — are
complex. Laura Parker Roerden, author of the guide and an outdoor education
instructor who has worked with ESR, the Resolving Conflict Creatively
Program, and Project Adventure, explains that many children simply are
reflecting a society where these behaviors have been modeled and even
encouraged — on television, by their peers, perhaps even in their
families and by other important adults in their lives.
"For these children, teaching a repertoire of alternative, more
skillful behaviors is important," says Parker Roerden. "Other
children are passing on the hurt they have experienced — bottled
up now into unresolved feelings of grieving, fear, anger, or sadness.
These children need help releasing these feelings in a caring setting.
All children who bully or hurt other children, as well as their targets,
can get stuck in these patterns of passing on their own hurt to others
for many years. They need caring adults to help them break out of these
roles."
Scapegoating, Parker Roerden continues, occurs when a group bullies
an individual. "Sometimes one child initiates bullying and others
join in by laughing at the target child, not letting him join the game,
etc," she says. "Children may join in on bullying because it
seems like fun, they want to be part of a popular group, they think the
targeted child deserves to be treated poorly, or because there are no
negative consequences for joining in. Any effort to alter the behaviors
of a child or group of children must address the systemic nature of the
problem and strive to alter the culture."
Tactics addressed in the guide include:
- establishing a range of consequences for bullying behavior
- sending a letter to parents about what bullying is and what your
program
is doing to prevent it
- pairing unpopular children with friendly, helpful buddies
- encouraging and affirming children when they demonstrate kind,
helpful behaviors
- playing cooperative games and doing diversity appreciation activities
Other techniques tackle intervening with targets, intervening with bullies,
involving parents and guardians, and recognizing when professional intervention
is necessary.
Motivating Social Change
The "Don't Laugh at Me" project puts at your fingertips important
facilitation guidelines to create an anti-bias camp: ways to foster inclusion,
provide appropriate materials, create diverse groups, acknowledge differences,
prevent exclusion, extend thinking, empower children, meet with parents,
and avoid activities that exclude. The guide also includes activities
for teaching creative conflict resolution, such as "turning the
problem over," giving starters, paraphrasing, validating feelings,
giving time to cool off, promoting creative solutions, bringing conflict
to closure, and evaluating solutions.
Drawing on his contributions as a folk singer and activist, Peter observes
that "the ethic behind songs of conscience doesn't change." The
same pulse that energized the civil rights movement of the 1960s fuels
this grassroots crusade of 2000. "Song works as a different kind
of rhetoric, one that can reach the fence-sitters," he explains.
A good friend of ACA, Peter received the Allard K. Lowenstein Award
for his remarkable efforts in advancing the causes of human rights, peace
and freedom. But he's not about to rest on any laurels, or rest at all,
until each ACA-accredited camp creates a "ridicule-free zone" where
children can become aware of their prejudices and see that stereotypical
thinking is based on misinformation.
Related Topic
Don't Laugh
at Me
Originally published in the 2000 May/June of Camping
Magazine.
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