Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Technology and Summer Camp

Cross-posted at Jewish Techs

Just about every summer camp today has policies in place regarding the use of technology by campers. Rules governing whether campers can bring their cell phones, iPods, digital readers, and smartphones to camp (and if so, when they can use them) have been part of ongoing discussions as new forms of technology are introduced into the marketplace.


The most important thing to remember about these rules is that they are being created by people (AKA, adults) who know far less about these gadgets than the young campers. And where there is a will to use these devices at summer camp, the campers will find a way to use them.

Marjorie Ingall, who wrote a wonderful parenting column in the Forward newspaper for many years under the pseudonym "The East Village Mamele," argues for keeping kids unplugged at summer camp in Tablet Magazine. She writes:

The most significant difference between my kids and me, though, is that they can’t imagine being unwired. I showed them a picture of Gordon Gekko holding his then-super-futuristic cell phone in the movie Wall Street, and they asked if it was a giant walkie-talkie. Josie recently quizzed me about Superman: What was a phone booth, and how did he change clothes in it? When I tell her we had to stand up and walk over to the television to change the channel and that we only had telephones attached to walls, she stares at me as if I’m speaking Urdu. I showed her Atari’s Pong, the antiquated video game we played on my TV growing up; she thought I was playing a joke.

So, is today’s sleepaway camp—with its lake, trees, cabins, chadar ochel, and drama and crafts bungalows looking exactly as they did generations earlier—an artifact, an artificial construct belonging to an earlier time, like some New World version of a Roman Vishniac photo? Is it ridiculous to expect kids to give up their iPods, handheld computer games, Facebook, Twitter, IM? Can we really trap them in this historical setting, like bug-spray-scented, cell-phone-less flies in amber?

My answer: We not only can; we should. Kids need unplugging... [I]n the summer—the last vestige of carefree childhood in a high-pressure, high-connectivity world—kids should be forced to interact face-to-face with each other, with their counselors, and with a sylvan world. It’s one of the last great communal spaces for kids. Every camp has its own rules about the use of technology, of course. Some allow cell phones but let kids use them only right before Shabbat or right before bed. Others allow iPods in the bunk only. (In my day, at rest time, we were allowed our giant, awkward Walkmans that seemed the height of techie cool.) But whatever a camp’s written rules, compliance varies. One Jewish website is rife with whispered tales of texting in bathroom stalls.

A June 2008 article in TIME Magazine by Nancy Gibbs titled "The Meaning of Summer Camp" also lamented the use of cellphones in what is supposed to be a euphoric environment for children. She wrote, "So I applaud the effort of traditional camps to pull the plugs: the ACA found in a 2007 survey that at least 3 out of 4 camps make kids leave their gizmos at home. It probably tells us something that the resistance often comes not from the kids but from Mom and Dad. Parents have been known to pack off their children with two cell phones, so they can hand over one and still be able to sneak off and call. Camp expert Christopher Thurber reports that parents grill directors about why they can't watch their kids' activities from a webcam or reach them by BlackBerry. Services like CampMinder and Bunk1.com do let camps post news and pictures to 'help our families to feel as if they are with us at camp,' as a Texas camp owner puts it. But that just invites inquiry about why Johnny looks sad or how Jenny's jeans got torn."

The problem is that children today are already wired to be, well, wired. The know about connectivity. They own the latest, greatest gadgets. Asking them to be stripped of their iPods and cellphones before boarding the camp bus is like asking them to board the bus naked. And yet, there's so much to be gained from experiencing a summer unplugged. A summer in which a child cannot text Mommy and Daddy after every skinned knee or breakup with the boy in Cabin 3.

There is a slippery slope in the question of just how unplugged campers should be at summer camp. After all, if campers of previous generations were allowed to pack their boom box, and then their Walkman cassette player, and then their portable CD players, shouldn't it follow that today's campers should be able to listen to their Apple iPod on their bed during rest hour?

And if they are allowed to bring an iPod, what about the Apple iTouch with WiFi capability? What if the iTouch is used to surf the Web and email the parents back home?

And if books are allowed at camp (and of course, they are!), what about an Amazon Kindle? Or how about the new Apple iPad? What if the iPad is used to text friends back home?

Of course, the children who go to a day camp can return home each night to plug into their technological universe, but they are missing out on so much that the overnight camping experience has to offer. While there is something quite cool about little kids living in tents and wood cabins in "the middle of nowhere" still being able to connect to those satellites floating in outer space in order to download the latest songs, it's just not right.

Even if the technology is now available that allows campers to open their iPads and watch each pitch of the baseball game in real time while chatting with Dad, they should still have to do what I did -- Listen to the late Ernie Harwell calling the game over the transistor radio that was buried under my pillow while I wrote my "old man" a letter the old fashioned way... with a pen and paper.

Because, well, that's Summer Camp!

8 comments:

Mark Blitz said...

I'm sure there was a time when it was thought to be inappropriate that we brought walkmen to camp. 20 years from now we will asking if other technologies are appropriate for camp such as pet robots and hologram communication devices, while ipads and iphones will be commonplace.

penelope said...

too Young

However, don’t you think that children are starting way too young in owning their first phone? Recent study shows that the average age of children receiving a cell phone from their parents is 5 years old.

Actually, the right age to give these handsets to children is a debatable issue. Some parents will say that 5 is too young, and children should get their first phone only at age 11 or 12. While for others, the moment that children start to go to school or have friends, they should be tracked properly.

Stephen Sussman said...

I think ya gotta leave the electronics at home. Part of the camping experience is being in nature, spending time with those you're with and getting away from one's everyday existence to experience something else.

Rabbi Jason Miller said...

I think you're right on Mark. There's always going to be a period of "getting used to" new technology. There are always going to be people who feel that new technology is either intrusive or unnecessary. Think of all the people who held out on getting a cellphone because they didn't want to be that connected.

There will be a time when all campers are allowed to bring their cellphone to camp, its use will just have to be reserved for certain times.

There are already some summer camps that are employing such guidelines. It doesn't seem fitting for camp, but I'm sure the first electrical outlets that were installed in camp cabins were met with dissent.

Rabbi Jason Miller said...

From Rachel Kapen's op-ed in the Oakland Press:

GUEST OPINION: Camp helps teach a history lesson
Published: Sunday, July 25, 2010

By Rachel Kapen

My eldest granddaughter, Kayla Sara, is 13 years old and in May we celebrated her bat mitzvah, which is a Jewish girl’s coming of age religiously.

She attended Camp Tamarack in Ortonville this summer as she did in previous years. However, she surprised us when she declared that this summer she chose to be in the Pioneer program, which entails much harder outdoor activities, such as swimming and horse-riding. Most of all, it means going without the basics of the home conveniences that we take for granted, such as electricity.

In her first letter to me her savta (Hebrew for grandma) and saba (Hebrew for grandfather), she mentioned the fact of no electricity saying it really doesn’t bother her. She also told us there is a limited number of showers and a limited time for warm ones and that so far she has had a warm shower, which also didn’t bother her. This is coming from a girl who is used to all the conveniences of a West Bloomfield home and who just recently became an enthusiastic user of Facebook.

I used this camp experience to teach her of my own history, such as telling her that her saba raba (great-grandfather) in pre-State Eretz Israel — Land of Israel, used to use wood to enable us to have hot water for a shower and he did it once a week, on Friday afternoon. And speaking of electricity, I reminded her that I didn’t see a television set until I came to America in the early 1960s and that to keep warm in the winter we used a kerosene lamp.

Her great-grandparents were real pioneers who came to their ancestral land, the Land of Israel to rebuild it. Yet, being in the Pioneer program, Kayla is a modern-day pioneer of sorts who duplicates their experiences.

However, this Pioneer experience of our granddaughter is more than having a different camp experience. It teaches her what it means to live without all the conveniences they, and we all, take for granted.

What a great opportunity it is for the summer camp when there is no school and homework to teach our children first-hand that there is life beyond instant-texting, Facebook and the like.

Rachel Kapen of West Bloomfield Township was born and raised in Israel. She has taught Hebrew in Israel and the United States and has written for New York’s Lamishpaha Hebrew Monthly.

Rabbi Jason Miller said...

From Rachel Kapen's op-ed in the Oakland Press:

GUEST OPINION: Camp helps teach a history lesson
Published: Sunday, July 25, 2010

By Rachel Kapen

My eldest granddaughter, Kayla Sara, is 13 years old and in May we celebrated her bat mitzvah, which is a Jewish girl’s coming of age religiously.

She attended Camp Tamarack in Ortonville this summer as she did in previous years. However, she surprised us when she declared that this summer she chose to be in the Pioneer program, which entails much harder outdoor activities, such as swimming and horse-riding. Most of all, it means going without the basics of the home conveniences that we take for granted, such as electricity.

In her first letter to me her savta (Hebrew for grandma) and saba (Hebrew for grandfather), she mentioned the fact of no electricity saying it really doesn’t bother her. She also told us there is a limited number of showers and a limited time for warm ones and that so far she has had a warm shower, which also didn’t bother her. This is coming from a girl who is used to all the conveniences of a West Bloomfield home and who just recently became an enthusiastic user of Facebook.

I used this camp experience to teach her of my own history, such as telling her that her saba raba (great-grandfather) in pre-State Eretz Israel — Land of Israel, used to use wood to enable us to have hot water for a shower and he did it once a week, on Friday afternoon. And speaking of electricity, I reminded her that I didn’t see a television set until I came to America in the early 1960s and that to keep warm in the winter we used a kerosene lamp.

Her great-grandparents were real pioneers who came to their ancestral land, the Land of Israel to rebuild it. Yet, being in the Pioneer program, Kayla is a modern-day pioneer of sorts who duplicates their experiences.

However, this Pioneer experience of our granddaughter is more than having a different camp experience. It teaches her what it means to live without all the conveniences they, and we all, take for granted.

What a great opportunity it is for the summer camp when there is no school and homework to teach our children first-hand that there is life beyond instant-texting, Facebook and the like.

Rachel Kapen of West Bloomfield Township was born and raised in Israel. She has taught Hebrew in Israel and the United States and has written for New York’s Lamishpaha Hebrew Monthly.

Rabbi Jason Miller said...

Rachel Kapen's op-ed in the Oakland Press (GUEST OPINION: Camp helps teach a history lesson)

Ruby - Missouri Summer Camp said...

Personally, I think they should be unplugged. I never allow my kid to be online all the time. There are family activities that we do so they are encouraged to unplug. It always work.