Categories Good SOIL Jim Vitale October 28, 2024

Why Overnight Camp | Pt. 4: Camp cultivates slow time, Sabbath, and learning to unplug

By Jim Vitale

This article is part of our “Why you should send your child to overnight camp” series. The series introduction explored the current research on outcomes for overnight campers and offered a list of the most important outcomes. Here, we go more in depth with one of those outcomes.

It’s common knowledge now that mental illness is increasing among our children and youth. And while there are a host of reasons why this may be the case, two contributing factors appear to be overscheduling and technology. A week or two of overnight camp each summer, while not cure-all for these issues, could go a long way in combating them.

 

Overscheduling

Overscheduling can cause anxiety and depression in youth. These findings come from research conducted by three economists and published in the February 2024 issue of the Economics of Education Review. Children whose days were filled with homework, sports, and other extracurriculars reported a higher rate of anxiety, depression, and burnout than children who had more unstructured free time.

As I mentioned in Part 2 of this series, parents and caregivers have encouraged their children to participate in more and more extracurricular activities in the hopes that this will secure a brighter future for their children. The activities will also (hopefully) secure a scholarship which could be the defining factor in the ability to attend college. Prestigious colleges and universities want to see applicants with excellent grades, excellent standardized test scores, plenty of extracurricular activities, and “pointiness” (something that makes them stand out from all the other applicants). In order to achieve such high standards, youth are encouraged to participate in every after- (and before-) school program they can.

Anna Nordberg, in an article for Slate, reminds us that 80-90% of these kids aren’t going to be accepted into these prestigious colleges anyway. So is the extra effort worth it? It’s hard to say. We all want our children to succeed and thrive, but it seems like the path to success might also take them further away from thriving (see the many stories of youth who make it into highly prestigious universities only to drop out because of burnout).

 

Technology

We all agree that technology is posing problems for childhood development. But there is great debate as to what exactly it is about technology that is ruining children’s mental health. The surgeon general recently called for legislation mandating social media platforms put a label on their apps warning of their intentionally addictive nature. In his book, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt points the blame, not just a social media (he has plenty of criticism for that), but specifically at smartphones. In her article for Slate, Rebecca Onion boils his argument down to this: “We’ve overprotected kids IRL and underprotected them online.”

Whether you believe social media or technology in all its forms is to blame, the reality is that youth would benefit from a better relationship with technology and, probably, some meaningful time away from it.

 

Enter overnight camp

A week or two of overnight camp each summer will not solve all the world’s problems, but it could be an important step toward better mental health for our children and youth. In her Washington Post article, Laura Clydesdale says that one reason she loves sending her kids to sleepaway camp is that it slows them down. They get out of the jam-packed routine of sports, school, and other extracurriculars and instead they are able to take their time focusing on one thing: camp.

“Summers provide a much-needed opportunity for my children to unplug, achieve focus and develop those creative thought processes and connections,” she says.

It may seem, at first glance, like a week or two at camp is “yet another thing” for your child to do. “If you want my child to have fewer programs, then why are you trying to convince me to send them to another program?” you might ask. It’s a fair question.

I believe that camp, specifically summer camps like Camp Mount Luther (as opposed to math or music camp) are a sort of anti-program. The other extracurricular activities we send our kids to have the end goal of an excellent university and a good scholarship. They are programs for the sake of “achievement.” There is, however, no achievement status associated with camp. You don’t get an award for coming to camp. You can’t get a good scholarship for going to camp. You can’t go to a better camp because you attended this camp. The point of camp is simply camp.

And since our cell phone policy requires that campers turn over their phones, there isn’t even the social achievement of posting a selfie so that other people can see what a great summer you’re having. At camp, you’re totally unplugged.

While the other programs out there are designed to help your child be successful in a certain systems (namely college), camp is interested in helping children be children. We seek to cultivate all the virtues we’re exploring in this series not because we are trying to help your child “get ahead,” but because we want to help your child be happy and whole.

 

The importance of Sabbath

When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, God had a devil of a time trying to convince the Israelites that they were no longer slaves. Forced to work day and night without rest, the Israelites became convinced that their identity was bound up in what they could produce. They believed they were only as good as what they could make. So God instituted a Sabbath, a day of rest each week, to teach the Israelites their identity is not in what they do but in who they are. Or, better yet, their identity is not in what they do, but in what God has done for them.

We are raising generations of youth who find their value in what they produce (good graces, new records, full-tuition scholarships, enrollment in prestigious schools) rather than in what their God has done for them and who they are in Jesus. These kids need Sabbath to remind them who they are.

The camp experience, while full of activity, is a Sabbath experience. It provides a break from the daily labors and routines of life. It places children in a setting where there is nothing to achieve, nothing to produce, and no one to impress. It is one of the few spaces out there where children and youth are invited to be exactly who they are, authentic and unfiltered. It is these sorts of spaces, and not the high-achievement spaces of the classroom and sports field, that will turn the tide of the current youth mental health crisis.

It won’t look good on the resume or the application, but a week at camp might just be what your child needs. Give it a try, and see for yourself!

 

Read more entries in this series