Discussing What Is Important With Teens
July 30, 2017
This week will be the last one of the summer for our Senior Camper (high school leadership) program.
While younger campers have the option to come to camp either 2 or 3 weeks, the Senior Campers attend for 3 weeks at a time for 3 years after their 9th, 10th and 11th grade years.
Susie Ma’am and I spend extra time with these campers, especially through our “Baskin Talks”, twice weekly sessions we conduct in our living room. In these sessions, we talk about ideas that we believe can deeply impact their lives. For example, we discuss ways to own their technology rather than the other way around. We discuss sleep – few teens get enough, but they do not want to hear about it from their parents. We like to give them the data that shows how sleep-deprivation reduces memory, dulls intelligence, leads to weight gain and irritability. We also share advice on leadership that they can then practice with the younger campers.
We truly love this program.
One of the big events for the 2 year Senior Campers (those finishing 10th grade) is a sweat lodge experience. In this experience (which is designed to be completely safe with all-day hydration and water bottles in the lodge as well), they get a chance to talk about ideas that are important to them. For example, every camper names his or her parents and thanks them for important character gifts. They discuss the legacy that they would like to leave. We honor those who are no longer with us in body, but remain with us in our hearts.
We had the sweat lodge last night. These three nights (one for each 3-week session) are among my favorite at camp. I find it deeply inspirational to hear 16 year-olds talk about things that truly matter and about the type of adults they want to be.
In short, it was an uplifting evening.
Steve Sir
PS After I finished the blog, I got an email from a camper that was with us for 12 summers before graduating this summer from the Senior Camper program. When he graduated 2 weeks ago from the program, he told us how important it had been to him. I guess so. He had a chance to leave his mark at his home school and chose to do it as follows:
