Fri 2 Oct 2009
Reframe the Issue
Posted by Peg Smith under General
As the debate continues around education reform and summer learning loss, ACA is advocating that we re-frame the issue. What do children and youth need in order to learn? What conditions and experiences cause a young person to be ready to learn? The solution must be child-centric. Teaching children to pass standardized tests doesn’t necessarily teach them to think for themselves. Placing children in traditional education environments ‘longer’ does not necessarily prepare them for life.
ACA has been reaching out to organizations and institutions to re-frame the current discussion around education reform in an attempt to introduce the importance of understanding how children learn - not pass the test. Our national board of directors and a number of our volunteer committees that work on media relations, public policy, and research are doing the same - suggesting an alternative assessment of the problem and the solutions. Many of the questions I have posed in the past are the questions we have asked ourselves as we have prepared to proactively respond to the debate.
Learning is active. Camp is active and child/youth centric. We are a part of the solution.
October 2, 2009
Camps are now in a unique position of being able to offer learning experiences that children are not getting in their schools.
I agree with you Peg, learning is active! ACA can be a force in reshaping learning experiences and summer camps can offer supplemental learning environments to fill a void in the school year curriculum.
It is part of my mission to bring music and drumming programs to summer camps so that campers will be exposed to, and provided with the opportunity to make music in this sacred place we call CAMP!
[Reply]
October 16, 2009
Peg:
When you present the benefits of camp and the parallels of camp and school to teachers there is no question that they would agree with all that we feel camp offers. It’s selling the ideas to politicians, bureaucrats in state gov’ts, and policy makers where we will have problems. If we can make a connection between camp and school funding or test scores I truly feel they would take us seriously. At this point, we need some “Big Guns” to take up our cause and say, “These camp guys are right, we should listen to what they have to say, and how can we include them in the solution of our education problems. The key is being considered a desirable asset to education and being included as part of the solution. We may want to present “the camp experience” the way they did “Charter Schools.” Charter schools have been looked upon as a valuable alternative to the public school. We may not be seen as an alternative, but we sure can be considered a way of enhancing the education process. We have to get some people in close with the entities that make educational policy and start writing acceptable curriculum (for schools) that include the summer camp experience. The ACA should be the ”Body” that would provide this service.
I taught for 32 years and have used classroom strategies in camp and camp strategies in the classroom. I have use the camp venue to teach undergraduate and graduate courses to my staff for local colleges. We caught the eye of the colleges who have seen the value of the camp environment to teach their students. We now need to catch the eye of the people that control primary and secondary education in the various states or these days the federal gov’t. It just seems so logical to seek help from the camping industry to solve some of the problems of education in this country. Many people involved in camps are educators like my self. (I have more years in camping than I do in education) However, if they do not seek us out, we should take the initiative and create a division of ACA solely responsible for writing curriculum that match certain Federal or State Standards. Kids could then get school credit during the summer while attending an ACA Camp. If you find these ideas intriguing, please include me in the development stages. I would love to be part of this exciting evolution in the education process.
Peter Trupia
Hidden Pond Day Camp at The Rinx
Hauppauge, NY - NY Section
[Reply]
Don Jennings reply on November 12th, 2009 1:41 pm:
I’m with Peter on this one - after 15 years in the classroom (Montessori Elementary) and a lifetime spent at camp I’ve found that the best classrooms function like a solid cabin group, and a good camp is very much like a good school community. The parallels are too many to list at the moment, but count me in on any work toward developing a strategy within the ACA.
As an aside, I think that the teaching we do at camp needs to catch-up a bit with best practices in education. Attention to experiential activities (less top-down instruction) and environments that encourage self-education (child-sized, child-maintained, access to tools/materials/resources) will go a long way toward adding authenticity to our efforts. We’ve already got the multi-age thing happening - let’s go the rest of the way!
End of my $.02
Don Jennings
YMCA Camp Mason
Hardwick, NJ
[Reply]
November 15, 2009
We fondly recall that what stuck in our minds, the learning that motivated us to learn more usually happened in an atmosphere of fun and play: a State Capitals poem, the Table of Elements set to music, a game that tickled fine motor skills, toys that challenged mental muscles - all prepared us for life.
In that setting five year olds learn optical physics; tweens joyously connect with 16th Century history; teens grow entrepreneurial skills! It’s happening – with Morph-O-Scopes - multi-award-winning optical illusion activities by OOZ & OZ. No hype.
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