“We are what we repeatedly do . . .
therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.”

– Will Durant, paraphrasing Aristotle

Every camp director wrestles with the same essential challenge. How do we help young people grow into the best version of themselves while also creating a safe, joyful, well-run community?

It turns out one of the most valuable guides for that question lived more than two thousand years ago.

Aristotle spent his life studying how people flourish, how character develops, and why some communities bring out the best in us while others do not (Aristotle, trans. 2000). His ideas were never meant to stay in a classroom. They were meant to be lived. If he were alive today, he would recognize summer camp immediately. It has the same spirit as the Lyceum he founded — where learning happened by walking, reflecting, and taking action.

Camp is a living classroom. Campers and staff try things, fail at things, practice new habits, and slowly figure out who they want to become. Aristotle would have loved that.

What might a summer camp look like if Aristotle were the director, and what lessons can camp leaders take from one of history’s most influential thinkers?

Virtue Is a Skill, Not a Lecture

Aristotle believed the good life is built by cultivating virtues. Not by memorizing them or hearing speeches about them. By practicing them.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, he makes a simple but powerful point: We become courageous by practicing courage. We become patient by practicing patience. We become generous by practicing generosity.

Virtue is not a personality trait. It is a skill.

This is the part of Aristotle’s philosophy that aligns most naturally with summer camp. Every activity is a practice session. Every community moment is a chance to try out better ways of acting. Every day offers dozens of opportunities to discover who we are when things are easy and when they are hard.

When a camper attempts the climbing wall for the fourth time, that is courage in practice. When a counselor helps a homesick child for the third night in a row, that is compassion in practice. When a kitchen team works through a chaotic lunch rush without snapping at each other, that is self-control in practice.

Aristotle would say each of these moments builds a person’s character like a muscle, one repetition at a time (Aristotle, trans. 2000).

This is the big idea at the heart of his work. You become what you practice.

The Good Life Is About Flourishing

Aristotle used the word eudaimonia to describe the highest human goal (Aristotle, trans. 2000). It is often translated as “happiness,” but that misses the richness of the idea. Eudaimonia means flourishing. It means living with purpose, energy, curiosity, effort, and joy.

Young people often experience glimpses of eudaimonia at camp when they:

• Discover a genuine friendship
• Learn that challenge and joy can coexist
• Find activities that let them lose track of time
• Feel the satisfaction of doing something well after struggling with it

Aristotle argued that flourishing comes from living in alignment with our best selves (Aristotle, trans. 2000). Camp gives children, teens, and staff a rare chance to practice that alignment in real time.

The question for directors is simple: How do we design our culture, policies, and training so that flourishing is not accidental but intentional?

Some camps treat character as a nice extra. Aristotle would say it is the whole point (Aristotle, trans. 2000).

Practical Wisdom Is the Heart of Great Leadership

Aristotle placed enormous value on phronesis, which we call practical wisdom (Aristotle, trans. 2000). Not book knowledge. Not theories. The everyday ability to make good decisions in real situations.

Practical wisdom is knowing:

• When to step in and when to let a camper work it out
• How to respond when a staff member is overwhelmed
• The difference between strictness that teaches and strictness that crushes
• How to match the right tone to the right moment
• How to stay grounded when the day gets noisy or chaotic

Practical wisdom grows from three things: experience, reflection, and feedback.

Camp already provides experience. What is often missing are the other two.

Regular reflection helps counselors and directors understand why they made the decisions they did. It helps them spot patterns, celebrate progress, and see their blind spots.

Feedback does the same but from the outside. Aristotle believed that we become better people when others hold up a mirror for us (Aristotle, trans. 2000). The question is whether a camp creates a culture where feedback feels safe, expected, and normal.

If a director makes reflection a daily practice and trains staff in how to give and receive helpful feedback, the entire community becomes wiser.

The Golden Mean: Finding the Middle Path

One of Aristotle’s most helpful ideas for camp life is the golden mean. Every virtue sits between two extremes (Maden, 2023). Courage is the middle point between recklessness and fear. Patience is the middle point between apathy and irritability. Generosity lies between selfishness and overextending oneself.

In Aristotle’s view, the goal is not perfection. The goal is balance (Aristotle, trans. 2000).

Camp is full of moments when people tip too far in one direction:

• A counselor may be too strict in the cabin or too lenient.
• A leadership team may overprogram the day or leave too much unstructured time.
• A staff member may give too much or not enough of themselves.

Aristotle recommended aiming a little past the middle so that, over time, we naturally find our balance (Aristotle, trans. 2000). Some days we miss the mark. That is normal. What matters is learning to notice where we landed so that tomorrow we can aim closer to the middle.

This idea alone can transform staff training. It replaces shame with curiosity. Instead of “I messed this up,” counselors can learn to ask, “Where did I land on the scale today, and what small adjustment could bring me closer to the middle tomorrow?”

That is the kind of leadership Aristotle admired (Aristotle, trans. 2000).

A Summer Camp as a Community of Practice

In Aristotle’s world, you become good by doing good with others (Aristotle, trans. 2000). Character is built in community.

A summer camp is exactly that. A place where people practice:

• Being patient
• Being brave
• Being helpful
• Being honest
• Repairing relationships
• Finding joy in effort
• Making a positive impact

When directors design staff training and camper programming around these ideas, the entire season becomes a character laboratory.

A few questions Aristotle might ask if he toured your camp include:

• How are you teaching your staff to reflect?
• Where in your schedule do campers experience purposeful challenge?
• How are you helping staff use feedback well?
• What habits do you want people to practice every day?
• How do you model flourishing as a leader?
• Is your culture one that encourages the pursuit of becoming a better person?

These are not philosophical questions. They are operational questions. They shape recruiting, training, daily structure, and community expectations.

The Four Cardinal Virtues in Modern Language

These four virtues form the backbone of healthy leadership at any summer camp:

Wisdom: Thoughtful decisions, good judgment, reading the moment, choosing the right response when things get stressful

Courage: Trying new things, learning from failure, advocating for a camper, standing up for what is right, and offering a kind word when it is easier to stay silent

Self-mastery: Managing emotions, staying calm under pressure, pacing the day, respecting boundaries, and modeling healthy self-care for campers and peers

Connection: Treating campers fairly, being a good teammate, including others, sharing responsibilities, and repairing harm when mistakes happen

When these virtues are built into training and culture, they transform how counselors and directors show up every day.

Five Reflection Prompts for Counselors

• What moment today showed me the kind of counselor I want to become?
• When did I react too quickly, and what might a wiser response look like next time?
• What did I learn about managing my own emotions?
• Who helped me today, and how can I support them tomorrow?
• What small change could I make tomorrow that would move me closer to the counselor I want to be?

Reflection is not extra. It is the bridge between experience and growth.

If Aristotle Ran a Summer Camp

Aristotle would not design a camp filled with lectures or endless rules (Aristotle, trans. 2000). He would build a community where people learn by doing. He would focus on habits, reflection, feedback, practical wisdom, and the daily pursuit of becoming good at being human.

He would tell campers and staff the same thing: You become what you practice. Practice well, and you will flourish (Aristotle, trans. 2000).

That is the vision at the heart of every intense summer camp. It is ancient philosophy applied to daily leadership — and it is entirely within reach.

References

Aristotle. (2000). Nicomachean Ethics (R. Crisp, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.

Maden, J. (2023, January). The ‘golden mean’: Aristotle’s guide to living excellently. Philosophy Break. philosophybreak.com/articles/the-golden-mean-aristotle-guide-to-living-excellently/

Jeff Kaplan, MEd, is a Los Angeles-based trainer with years of experience working with camps and youth programs. This summer, he is offering two 90-minute workshops: The Reflective Camp Counselor and The Counselor’s Compass: Four Virtues for a Strong Summer. For more information, contact him at [email protected].