All four of our children (Wiley and Liam - 14 yr old boys, Terrill - 13 yr old girl and Virginia - 10 yr old girl) attend first term and then go away to other camps.
We often talk about "Reasonable Risks". Today, I am taking one myself.
OK, this blog starts by giving you a word of encouragement as parents.
After writing deep thoughts for several days in a row, I want to just have a fun, campy submission for your approval.
Each term, we honor our oldest campers with the T-Bone Club. These young men and women have finished the 8th grade are in their final summer as normal campers. If they return next year, they enter the Senior Camper program.
As I have shared with you, Camp is really about community. The oldest campers are an important part of our community at Champions. An enthusiastic group elevates the spirit of the cabins below them. A group that is TC4CC (Too Cool For Camp Champions) can make a session seem boring and tiresome. Happily, we have not had many TC4CC groups in a long while. Even better, this group is particularly fun and positive.
The T-Bone Club is our way of acknowledging their leadership in our camp family and to thank them for it.
We invite them to a meal outside our home (now in the Outdoor Cooking Pavilion) during the Sunday picnic. The campers arrive dressed nicely (especially the ladies who all wore dresses) and are served by the Leadership Team. They get sparkling cider in plastic flutes and we toast them.
The meal consists of steaks with a special Dry Rub that Susie Ma'am and I developed, double stuffed potatoes, green bean casserole, bread sticks, mushroom sauce and strawberry cake.
Susie Ma'am and I dress up as well. I chose a kilt with tuxedo top. Perhaps my favorite part - no one seemed to think it even slightly odd. For those of you wondering, Scottish wool socks are not a great idea in a Texas summer.
Warrrior vs Worrier
Tonight we had our second and final Vespers. During this gathering, we sat at the sail point and talked about the final week of camp.
I wanted to suggest two things to the guys. First, I wanted them to appreciate everything around them - not just the activities and the site, but the people who support and love each of them.
Second, I wanted to share some thoughts about the way we approach the world. Since tomorrow morning is the Lake Swim for the boys, I chose to share some thoughts about embracing challenges.
The swim entails swimming across the lake and back (roughly 700 meters). We basically take over the lake, lining it with 26-30 kayaks with 3 boats providing additional help. It is one of the longest standing camp traditions and a true challenge to our oldest campers (the oldest gals go Tuesday morning).
As we talked about the Lake Swim, I offered a view of human nature.
In the cartoons, people are often shown with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Each is dispensing opposite advice to the main character. I think this cartoon has it wrong.
We do not have an angel and a devil, but we do have a Warrior and a Worrier. The Warrior faces adversity, tries new things and accepts challenges. The Worrier is rapt in fear and finds reasons to avoid new things or challenging situations. The Warrior says "I want to learn to snow ski. I want to try out for the play. I want to meet those new people." The Worrier answers back "Skiing is too cold. Theater is stupid. Why do I need new friends?" Note that the Worrier is clever - rather than say "I am scared", it instead finds excuses not to try.
The Warrior looks at a challenge and sees opportunity. The Worrier sees limitation and fear.
For parents and youth development professionals, we should look for ways to feed the Warrior and starve the Worrier. Let me be clear, I still believe that we should focus on Reasonable Risks (one of our "4 Rs"), not dangerous ones. In my examples, I am discussing challenges that are trying, difficult, out of our comfort zone, but safely attainable.
This week, each camper will have some Warrior/Worrier moments. It is my hope that we create an environment sufficiently supportive and loving to encourage each camper to listen to the Warrior!
I ended by sharing 2 stories from 5 years ago. In the first, a camper had decided that he did not want to swim. As a result, he jumped in the lake, swam 3 or 4 strokes, came back and declared that it was too far. He never even tried.
Later that summer, we had a 7th grader that was 6' 2" and not athletically gifted. I will call him Richard. Richard was a very poor swimmer. He, nevertheless, wanted to try the Lake Swim. In addition to the kayaks and lifeguards, we had a leadership team member swim with him.
During the swim, the next to last camper completed the swim in 35 minutes or so. This camper, along with the rest of the Aquanauts, went to the cabin, changed, ate breakfast and returned to the dock to root Richard on.
Richard's time? One hour and 25 minutes. Without question, it was the slowest time I have ever seen by half an hour.
Yet I remember Richard and his determination. I do not remember the winner of the race, but I can see Richard's face as he touched the dock: exhausted, worn and proud.
I concluded by telling all the boys that they have been strengthening their Warriors. While their friends might have been staying home and playing video games, they were climbing walls, making new friends and succeeding away from home.
While their friends stayed the same, they have become stronger and more confident.
What a pleasure to spend time with your warriors!
Steve Sir
I have shared this story with parents and with counselors for years. This year, a former camper asked that I write it out for a leadership class he was working on. When a parent also asked me about it, I decided to share it here,
The story originates in India.
There was once a malnourished pregnant tiger near death, determined to feed herself and her unborn cub. She came upon a herd of goats, picked a target, and attacked. The rush of the hunt brought about the birth of her cub as well as her death. The goats decided that even though this tiger had meant to eat them, they could not leave the cub to die and decided to raise it as one of their own.
Years later, a full grown male tiger was prowling throughout his territory looking for something to eat. He happened upon a herd of goats and decided to make his attack. As he crept up toward striking distance, he noticed something that confused him greatly: there was a another tiger milling around among the goats, eating grass.
The second tiger looked sickly and weak, so the first scattered the rest of the goats and confronted the second tiger, demanding to know what in the world he thought he was doing.
" Baaaaah," came the response.
"You're a tiger," the first said to the second. "What are you doing milling around with a bunch of goats?"
Once more, the second tiger replied, "Baaaaah."
Noting the younger tiger's condition, the larger tiger commented, "Friend, you look awful. I have some antelope back in the cave. Lets go there and get some meat on your bones."
"But I am a vegetarian. I eat grass."
"No! You are a carnivore. A tiger. You are top of the food chain!" The first tiger then thought of a different approach. " Come with me to the watering hole."
The watering hole was still as a mirror.
"Look at my reflection: the whiskers, the ears, the stripes, the piercing eyes. That is the face of a tiger. Look at your face it is just like mine."
But having spent all his conscious life as a goat, he could not believe him.
The first tiger became fed up with the second, and dragged him back to his cave, determined to teach the confused one how to be a tiger. Once back, the first tiger let out a giant, spine trembling tiger roar, and asked the second to do the same. The second tiger took in a huge breath, and let out a tiny squeak that could not have outdone a common housecat.
In the cave, the first tiger had some leftover antelope, and took a big chunk off with his giant paw and jammed it into the second tiger's mouth. The second tiger tried to swallow but (and this is the way the original Sanskrit text reads) he choked at first, as do we all on the truth. But he kept chewing and working, and finally managed to swallow the antelope. At this point, his body understood. This is the protein he has been missing. He came to understand. He then stood up, squared his shoulders, and let out his first real tiger roar.
I share this story with our counselors each year for two reasons. After the story, I tell them the following:
First reason is the fact that in this life, we are all born tigers. We are unique and powerful. We have our own singular confluence of passions, talents, goals and instincts. Yet, most of us end up living our lives like goat, milling aimlessly or following yet another goat through unfulfilled and unfocused lives. Madison Avenue loves goats much easier to sell fashion, brands and cars to. Tigers are entirely different. They know their own power and their gifts and goals.
The second reason I share this is because it often takes another tiger to help you find your "tigerness". This summer you will be surrounded by some of the cutest tiger cubs you have ever seen, but they might not know yet. But you cannot just tell them. Instead, you need to be a tiger everyday. You must see opportunity when others see problems. You need to embrace everyday as a gift to be treasured. If they see enough tigers, I believe they will know it is possible for them and they will soon find their own tigerness.
Steve Sir
We have them on Wednesday because it is Dance Night and all of the counselors are on duty, so almost everyone can attend the meeting.
Today was another delightful day at Camp.
We had two former counselors (from 2003-2006) visit today. They are now both teachers and have not been back for years. They told me that they made a special playlist to listen to on the 5 hour drive, but never listened to a single note, “We just could not stop talking about Camp memories!!” One said that camp enabled her to have the courage to switch schools and make new friends. The other said that teacher has been so much easier because she was a counselor.
Neither were ever campers, but found camp as college-aged counselors.
Both radiated happiness as they walked and remembered.
We get visitors all the time. One recent visitor explained, “I can leave Camp, but Camp never leaves me!” They also usually say that they cannot explain to their friends, colleagues or significant others why they love it so.
“I am going to Camp.”
“That’s nice. Be safe.”
“No, you do not understand. I am going to CAMP!”
“Allll riiight. Have fun!”
The visits are also great for the new counselors and campers. They see the passion and joy in the visitors’ eyes. It lets them know that this is a place that many people love – a place that people return to. In short, it lets everyone know that we are a true community.
Wild Water Creature Wednesday
As I was strolling today (this time with a hat the is a full tiger head), I once again came upon the Outdoors Skills class. They had the youngest girls (mostly 6 and 7) arriving.
It is time for some full disclosure. 6 and 7 year-olds do not really learn a lot of Outdoor Skills. Instead, the counselors see this time as an opportunity to stretch their imagination. As they arrived, the instructors declared (in the spirit of alliteration) that today is Throwback Thursday. As a result, they must travel back in time to yesterday (to Wild Water Creature Wednesday).
The counselor told them to put their “flux capacitors” (they looked like towels to me) over their heads, say “flux capacitor” 3 times and turn in circles. When they had done so, she explained that they were now back to Wednesday. First rule – they must not go where they went yesterday (or is it today?) because their present self must not meet their past self. They then declared that Wild Water Creature Wednesday would happen in the pool.
In the pool, another instructor led them in efforts to act out different creatures, including, dolphins, sharks, sea urchins, and otters. By the way, one of your daughters does a scary-good dolphin imitation. At the end, he also had them create the one thing that even sharks fear: a whirlpool. They huddled together into a circle and swam clockwise. The counselor, who weighs roughly 240 pounds, acted as if he were being knocked about by the midi-induced vortex.
In the Man Cave, we had a delightful chat with the youngest boys. I was delighted by what good listeners and sharers they were. You often do not know what you will get with 6 and 7 year-old boys, but they were funny and engaging. Must be good parents.
Tonight, the boys’ side of camp redeemed itself. Last week, the girls caught more fish than the boys (30-18). Much angst on the boys’ side. Today, they scored a clear victory 56-0!!! Of course, it helps that the girls were not actually fishing tonight!
Rather than fishing, the girls had Miss Champini tonight, which is a big deal. Every girl’s cabin dresses up its counselors as different people, places or themes from camp. The entire event was precious (or so reports Susie Ma’am). While I was not there, I got a report on the winners.
1. Most congeniality - Riggabamboo dressed their counselors as the two new pot-bellied pigs (Napoleon and Notorious P.I.G.).
2. Best costume – Cabin 6 whose counselor came dressed as the Arts and Crafts table. Looking like a Jackson Pollock painting, they think she would have perfectly blended with the actual Arts and Crafts table.
3. Best talent – Cabin 2 with the main character from the beloved camp song “Matalina, Catalina, Hoopsawhatalata, Hooka, Wooka, Pooka was her name”. Her talent was adding new ridiculous lyrics to an already ridiculous song.
4. Miss Champini was (drum roll please), Cabin 8 with the Rainbow Chair Queen. The entire cabin dressed as each of the Rainbow Chairs and she was the queen with songs and a great skit that included all the kids.
The boys had Open Mike night. We used to call it Talent Night. It might be best that “talent” is no longer in the title. I, however, was proud of the 4 campers who sang, the 4 the played instruments and the 3 that told jokes!
Until tomorrow, I hope you had a great day too!
Steve Sir
21st Century Skills and Camp
This last off-season has been a particularly exciting one for me. In fact, there are so many different areas of excitement, I will not attempt to enumerate all of them at once. Just be ye warned, I will be sharing lots of information about improvements at camp, research about children and the new projects.
Today, I want to focus on 21st Century Skills. OK, l admit, that sounds MIGHTY DRY. I'll give you a moment to wonder why your camp director is writing about something that sounds so non-campy.
Here you go. . .
OK, your time of contemplation is over.
Actually, this is very relevant to your children and their future success.
About 5 years ago, a group of forward-thinking companies and educational non-profits commissioned a study to determine what skills will be most important in careers in this century. They understood that we live in a very different world than the past.
200 years ago, if you could plow, plant and reap, you could farm.
75 years ago, trade skills like engine repair would provide viable employment.
Now, I could teach a Sophomore everything about the hardware and software of an iPhone and the technology would be outdated by graduation.
Specifically, they noted the following:
� *Market is global
� *Competition is fierce
� *Businesses innovate
� *Technology advances
� * Workplaces adapt
� *Individuals create and participate
� *Jobs and lives change rapidly
So they went to multiple organizations and surveyed, studied and formulated. The organizations include Apple, Sesame Street, Dell, Corporation of Public Broadcasting, Intel, Discovery Channel, Microsoft, American Associates of School Librarians, Cisco, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Ford and many more.
There is a LOT in the study, but I want to give you some of the key points.
First, they look at skills in 2 categories: Basic Skills and Applied Skills. Basic Skills are what we get in school and are best known as the 3 R's (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic). Applied Skills refer to "those skills that enable new entrants to use the basic knowledge that have acquired in school to perform in the workplace . Rather than 3 R's, the Applied Skills refer to the 4 C's: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.
Here is where it gets interesting. They then ranked the skills in order of importance in the workplace and the success of the individual. Here are the Top 5 for workers with a four-year diploma:
1. Oral Communications
2. Teamwork/Collaboration
3. Professionalism/Work Ethic
4. Written Communication
5. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
Notice that these are essentially all Applied Skills. Where are the classic school-related skills? Writing in English is #6, Information Technology is #11, Math is #15.
Also, the area rated as having the greatest deficiency among workers is Leadership . Leadership is #10 on the list, but it is the area that companies would like to see the most improvement.
Singapore is adopting this model as a core to their education system. Different states in the US are doing the same, but with little real reform.
The frustration is that our schools tend to focus on those skills that are easy to measure. Math scores are easier to evaluate than teamwork skills, so teachers are rated on the former rather than the latter.
Where might a child develop and refine these skills that will enable success?
Camp Champions.
Communication, collaboration, creativity are infused into everyday. Cleaning a cabin for inspection requires all of these aspects (cleaning is only part of the job; amusing the inspector has become a tradition as well).
Campers are placed in a group of unfamiliar people and then develop their own rules, norms and traditions. This happens through oral communication and teamwork.
Counselors model superior work ethics. Remember, they are on 7 days a week with 2 lunches and 2 evenings off in a non-air conditioned environment. Few work harder than a summer camp counselor.
Critical thinking is also a big part of camp especially for Senior Campers (high schoolers) and counselors. Imagine planning every detail of an evening event and then learning of an approaching rainstorm. You now have one hour to find a way to amuse 10-50 9 year-old children GO! Solving problems and adapting rapidly to change are part of every day at camp.
I passionately believe in the power of the summer camp experience in general and the Camp Champions experience in particular, but have been searching for the right ways to articulate it and prove it. As you know, we are partnering with Shawn Achor to study how camp affects optimism, positive social connections and resilience. I am also almost giddy about this framework because it focuses attention on skills that are not readily provided through traditional schools, but ARE readily provided in a quality summer camp experience.
Your child is getting these skills and they will be better for it.
Steve Sir
PS I know that it is a long time before your children have to think about all of this, but isn't it nice to know you are doing things today that set them up for success later?
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Today, our oldest daughter (and third oldest child) turned 13. That means we now have 3 teenagers at the same time.
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