In a June 9 column, “Competition, cash: Not 2012 election, summer camp,” Washington Post writer Dana Milbank lamented that the old ways of summer camp have been replaced by the popularity of specialty camps. Milbank recalled “eating ice cream with wooden spoons, playing pickup basketball on cracked asphalt … and passing the test so I could swim in the deep end.”
From my perspective as the owner of a program with nine types of specialty camps, I suspect Milbank’s rose-colored memories don’t include much about kids who were always on the sideline of that basketball court — and couldn’t wait to go home.
Or kids who were picked last, not good at sports, and didn’t want to take their shirts off to get into the pool at all.
One mother wrote to me, “My son doesn’t shine on the sports field, but he was great at robotics. He felt really included and made friends. Thank you for running this camp.”
