Are Summer Camps Necessary?
Every year, when summer comes around, summer camp programs are held all over the United States. It used to be that summer camps were all similar – bonding with nature and other kids, learning to socialize, learning outdoor skills, and the like. Today, however, there are many different kinds of camps that children can participate in during the summer.
I have a question in mind, though. Are summer camps really necessary? Why do we send our children to summer camps? Can’t they have a perfectly good and fun summer at home? After all, the latter choice would save us parents a considerable amount of money. Indeed, why do we regard summer camps as a must during this time of the year?
I tried looking for answers to these questions but it seems that everyone thinks that summer camps are part of life – and that’s the end of the discussion. I thought that maybe it is a cultural thing – like, it has always been part of American culture. However, it seems that the rest of the world are into summer camps as well, despite the fact that summer occurs at different times of the year. In fact, there are quite a lot of summer camps held in different countries year in and year out.
So what is it with summer camps? I think that I shall read more on this for the next post. Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against summer camps, I am merely thinking aloud here. Maybe some of you have answers to my questions?
Photo courtesy of bluviolin
June 24th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
My understanding is that they exist primarily because the parents do not get 2 months off in the summer just because the kids do. So working parents need somewhere to send their kids to while they are at work.
In the case of stay-at-home parents sending their kids to camp, I don’t fully understand the rationale either unless their child has a special interest and goes to a special camp for a few weeks to pursue that (e.g. space camp, soccer camp, violin camp).
June 26th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Makes sense, Annie. Do you send your kids to summer camp?
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] The same thing is happening in the United Kingdom. In fact, this has come to the attention of some premier publications. The Guardian, for one, has an article about this: Recent studies confirm that we run the very real risk of bringing up a generation of children who simply have no understanding of – or connection with – the natural world. [...]