Ethan Schwartz Blog - What is Camp Ramah?: Part 2

Liberated by newness and focused by seclusion, campers feel at ease in Ramah's most concrete means of exploring the self: its assortment of activities. Creative expression finds its outlet in the visual arts, woodworking, drama workshops, music and dance groups, and the camp radio station. Competition and energy bring campers to the sports fields-where they can play basketball, softball, tennis, volleyball, or soccer-and the waterfront-where beautiful Lake Buckatabon invites both swimming and sailing. And perhaps the most youthful needs of all-those to scream and shout and feel at one with a group of friends-are satisfied in the aidah (age division) musical, which, when performed, will be their defining, unifying moment.

Yet scattering these various opportunities across its grounds would not be enough. Ramah helps campers take advantage of them by structuring itself around a daily schedule that weaves campers through the options that are available to them. Each day allots time for creative activities, sports, waterfront activities, and rehearsal for the aidah musical. Such structure actually serves to dispel the structure to which children are subjected by their perception of their own limitation; when campers are required to participate in a variety activities, youthful self-consciousness and fear are pushed aside, and they inevitably discover new sources of fun. Ramah's structured schedule both facilitates and teaches exploration, as campers come to appreciate the value of stretching their comfort zones and trying new things. It makes for a true learning experience rather than simply a means of keeping kids occupied in the void of summer.

This structure grows and develops as do the campers. The youngest campers follow a group rotation system that gives them a fun taste of all that Ramah has to offer; they spend a few days in each sport and activity, each session of which is specifically tailored to serve as an informative introduction. Those returning for their third summer are elated to learn that, for the first time, they have the opportunity to select their activities according to their ever-developing interests-and without regard to previous experience. With sustained, regular time spent in those areas that excite them, campers are able to apply the experimental, open-minded attitude of their first summers' programs to the new opportunity for substantial production and skill development.

Finally, the older campers experience a still further depth to their daily activities. Campers take on very active roles in Ramah's celebrated Tikvah program-the division for special needs campers-stretching their own boundaries and helping Tikvah campers fully embrace camp as a home. Meanwhile, activity "internships" represent the peak of camper investment in sports and the arts, as campers are given the opportunity to work side-by-side with staff members in a department for which they have developed an exceptional interest. On the waterfront, lifeguard training is offered as an alternative to normal swimming lessons; each summer, Ramah is proud to certify an impressive number of lifeguards. And in one of the summer's most anticipated highlights, a small group of the oldest campers writes and performs a piece of interpretative theatre centering around an issue that they feel merits exploration and discourse. Starting with a blank page and ending with a thoughtful, gripping, and often riotously humorous production, campers who take the stage in this yearly performance powerfully display the active role that, through the experimentation and exploration they learned in the earliest summers, they have come to take in their camp experience.

People have always held specialty camps in contrast to Ramah. Indeed, athletic camps laugh at its sporting events, fine arts camps roll their eyes at the work of its campers, and drama camps scoff at its theatre program. Yet to fault Ramah's activity offerings for being lay is to completely miss their purpose. If a camper discovers a lifelong passion or tremendous gift while taking batting practice or auditioning for a part, that's fantastic-but it's not the point. Talent development, which is simply an inoffensive way of describing the reduction of a child to a single skill, is entirely contrary to Ramah's goal of self development.

It's about experience. It's about the chance to do something, even if it shows no signs of one day being Major League or Broadway quality. A camper who got cut from her school's softball team can feel the thrill of winning a playoff game when she scores the winning run in one of the much-hyped inter-aidah games. In the same week, she can perform a solo number in her aidah play after not even knowing that she could carry a tune. The casualness of Ramah's activities removes the exclusivity that results from departmentalization and specialization. It allows campers to reap the rewards of activities to which they would not otherwise have access; it lets them develop their sense of self with no qualification other than being a kid. At Ramah, the game-winning run isn't about the stat sheet, and the solos aren't about perfect key. Every accomplishment is measured only by the sense of achievement that it fosters in the camper who made it. After camp, that camper may never again play softball or sing, and those activities would have done nothing towards the development of her abilities. But the feelings of winning that game and performing that song remain-even if not as consciously as memories-occupying some unquantifiable place where they once built and shaped her sense of self.

In Ramah's amateurism is precisely its strength-the proof that it seeks to develop the whole self and sees activities as just one way to do so.