Building good character in today's youth is an adult issue because children learn values from adults. Adults must demonstrate the core values: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Camps have developed expertise in character development and can provide leadership in the community in character education.…

A New York camp's character education program is described. Implementing the program involves choosing which values to teach, making staff and campers aware of the program's importance, deciding where to teach the values, choosing and coaching the attributes that reflect each value, debriefing after activities, and keeping campers and staff…

The 1960s saw concerns about availability of land for camps and the beginnings of change in populations served and related programming. An illustrative article from 1965, "What Should Camps Stress in Our Affluent Society?" (Theodore Cavins), discusses the negative effects of growing affluence and leisure time and the need for camps to…

Technology and the media have replaced community, and no longer reinforce the information, values, and skills that parents want to teach their children. Interview explains how camps build community to foster a sense of shared purpose, values, and skills; model positive behaviors and relationships; and develop children's responsibility,…