The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-25
THE PUBLIC
 SCHOOL CAMP A Substitute Proposed for Vacation Schools - Ad- vantages Over Present Summer Camps Expense Not Prohibitive.
Henry s. Curtis elusive Service The Sur nVnnaIr


 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 For the last two decades the num- Der of camps for school children has been increasing rapidly all over the country. There are farm camps and mountain camps, nature study camps and athletic camps, study and scout camps.
 In response to the demand for physi- cal trainers to take charge of camps during the summer many schools of physical education now require all students to take a. course in camping. Tn Germany and Denmark many thou sands of children are sent to the country every year at public expense. We have a few municipal camps in this country and a few belonging to if the camp, bringing as it does a contact with nature and the possibili- ty of intimate. social relations, does not belong to education in general.
 Civilization has grown away from the life of nature but we all seek to ge back to it to rest. During the long summer vacation there is little for the girls and nothing for the boys to do in the city. Conditions have improved with the establishing of playgrounds but no city playground can satisfy the nature hunger of the child. None of us choose to stay in the city during the summer, but for the child who has nothing to do it is ten fold worse.
 For .the average parent it is often not possible to make any suitable provision for his children during the summer. EveA if the family has a country home would be better for the parents and the children, for a part of the summer at least to be separated in order that the parents may rest and the children gain the self-reliance which nose from a more independent life.
 We have three common types or camps: the institutional camp of the church, Y. M. O. A., settlement or boys club: the fresh-air or charity camp: and the private or pay camp. Each of these suffers from adverse conditions which are not inherent in the idea of camping
 r In the institutional camp the chil- dren usually know each other and are thev know. But the camp is usually ', for two or three weeks only and the children are still in the city for most of the summer. The fresh-air char ity camps are doing good work but the children cannot be we'll selected. The timid child is often not reached and the more aggressive one is some times sent out by several public in- sfitutions The children do not usu- ally know each other or the people in charge of them. The private camp keeps the children for a longer time but often they do not know each oth- CT Or those in charge and the expense is prohibitive for the average parent. If the summer camp has come in re- sponse to a general and not a special need-if in other words it is a re- quirement of most. children-there should be some public provision for i.
 As everyone knows the English idea of a school is a boarding school in the country. From the time he is nine years old until he finishes in the uni versity,s the son of an English gentle man lives at the school and sees his parents only during the vacations. The English educator claims that this life is necessary in order to secure the social and moral training which comes from many-sfded contact of the pu- pil with his masters and fellows We in America, do not accept this ideal. We believe that such m extended sep aration of parent and child is bad, both for the home and the younger children, but it certainly does produce