The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-21

NENCluSlNe CtiNlCt LnC Aoot wy ASSo Bureau)
 For the last two decades the number of camps for school children has been
 rapidly increasing all over the country
 There are farm camps and mountain
 camps nature study camps and athletic
 camps, study camps 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 stu
 dents to take course in camping. In Germany and Denmark many thousands
 of children are sent to the country
 every year at public expense. We have
 few municipal camps In this country
 and few camps belonging to private schools but we may well ask if the camp, bringing as it does contact with nature and the possibility of intimate
 social relations, does not belong to edu-
 cation in general.
 Civilization has grown away from the life of nature but we all seek to get
 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 noth- ing to do 1t is ten fold worse.
 For the average parent 1t Is not pos sible to make any suitable provision for
 his children during the summer. Even
 if the family has a country home 1t 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 comes from a
 more Independent life.
 | We have three common types of
 camps; the institutional camp of the
 church. Y NJ. c. 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. l In the institutional camp the children usually know each other and are under the direction of people whom they 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 charity camps are doing good
 work but the children cannot be well
 selected. The timid child is often not
 reached and the more aggressive one is
 sometimes sent out by several public institutions. .Ine CnliuTenl uO not uSudl- ly know each other or the people in
 charge of them. The private camp keeps the children for longer time but often they do not know each other or those In charge and the expense is prohibitive for the average parent. If the summer camp has come In response to a general and not a special need if in other words it is a requirement of most chill
 dren-there should be some public pro- vision for it.
 | As everyone knows the English idea
 of school is boarding school in the country From the time he is nine years old until he finishes in the uni versity, 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 so-
 cial and moral training which comes i from a many-sided contact of the pupil with his master and fellows. We in
 America do not accept this ideal. We believe that such an extended separa- tion of parent and child is bad. both for the home and the younger children. but it certainly does produce gentlemen and
 manly. self-reliant young fellows But we regret the absence of social life in the public schools, the slender oppor-
 tunities for friendship between pupils,
 the absence of school traditions and
 most of all, the lack of intimate contact
 between the pupil and teacher.
 Does not the summer camp oHer an opportunity for the union of these two kinds of training? May 1t not well take up the social. moral and athletic work which is so important in English schools? The school seems to me to be the best attachment for the camp idea. should like to see each of our large citv schools possess a farm in the coun- trv' as a part of it's regular equipment. on this farm should be dormitories or cottages sufficient to provide for all the older pupils of the school. Soon after
 the schools have closed children should he sent out to these camps for the sum- mer either at their own or public ex- pense, as the circumstances demand
 Everything should be plain and simple.
 Nature would provide them with pure 1 air and water and they should have fresh vegetables every day from the ia rm. They should do most of tho work themselves. I would have half of each day devoted to working in the garden or the fields or the carpenter shop, ac-
 cordinS to the interest of the children