PP25: Summer Camp

Summer Camp is about as American as you can get, but I am not suggesting we adopt the notion wholesale from our cousins. Instead what I propose is something rather different. This would be a one off event run by high schools. High schools should be provided additional funding to run a weeklong outdoor expedition trip for one of its year groups, totally free of charge (else it will just be middle class kids that go). The teachers themselves wouldn’t have to go and staff at the camp would run things.

To save money the program could be targeted only at inner-city schools and I think running it during the summer months will prevent it from interfering with their studies with the added bonus of (potentially) lowering crime rates because it gets kids off the streets.

The camp would be out in the British countryside somewhere, out with nature, in and amongst the trees and clean air. The camp wouldn’t be directly educational; it would focus on activities and social events. It could throw in some team building exercises for good measure but the primary purpose of the scheme would simply be to get city kids out into the country. Environmental awareness, I believe, is almost certainly stunted by growing up in an urban environment. Contained within our concrete housing estates kids grow up consuming and consuming, whilst never once seeing the wider world that is suffering because of their actions. Inner city poverty may also make it nearly impossible for a child to ever afford to leave their immediate environment for any real length of time. The objective would be to get the kids to appreciate just how precious the global eco-system is. Why would a child want to protect something it doesn’t even know exists? We need to at least try to build a connection between children and the natural world; otherwise they will never understand their true place within it.

I am reminded of a story one city dwelling friend of mine told me about a field trip he once went on during his first year of high school. It was to a farm somewhere outside London. This was the first time he had ever worn Wellington boots. It was the first time he had ever smelt the delightful farm smells of manure and fertiliser. It was also the first time he had ever seen farm animals, and he fondly recalls how a friend of his very bravely approached a sheep, only to go ‘Mooo’ in its ear.

This is hilarious and terrifying in equal measure. How can a generation so divorced from nature ever realise just how dependent they are on its continued well-being?

They can’t. And this policy is aimed at addressing that problem. Ideally kids need to respect and love nature, but I would settle for them simply acknowledging its existence.