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by Nancy Ferguson, M.Div., M.A., Ed.S.
Every spring the challenge of planning staff training confronts camp
leaders. The usual questions arise regarding how to prepare inexperienced
staff and volunteers to work successfully with diverse groups of campers.
The list of what we want to teach them seems to get longer and longer
each year. In the last few years increasing attention has been paid to
the ways that camps develop children in emotional, social, and cognitive
ways. Many camps are now exploring the role that camp plays in enhancing
campers' spiritual development. Alas, something else to add to
the staff training list!
The struggle to use staff training time wisely requires us to prioritize
the competencies we want staff to possess by the completion of training.
But what are the most important — or core — competencies?
Understanding the necessary competencies for serving in our camp roles
is an important first step toward maximizing staff training. In the spring
of 2007, religiously-affiliated (RA) and secular camps from across the
country identified by the American Camp Association (ACA) participated
in a study entitled "Is There Common Ground?" conducted by
ACA, the Search Institute, and the National Collaboration for Youth.
The sample included a diverse set of camps, representing resident camps
(64 percent); day camps (16 percent); and both resident and day camps
(19 percent).
The ACA focus was to explore the core competencies of staff
working in religiously-affiliated and secular camps and their interests
in working together. The study identified competencies that camp directors
felt they already possessed for training staff and areas in which camp
directors desired more training. When asked to rank dimensions of child
development on a 5-point scale where 5 was highest, camp directors overall
placed the greatest emphasis on social development (4.31) and emotional
development (3.90). Cognitive development (3.07) and spiritual development
(3.14) were the lowest priorities for the overall sample. While respondents
from secular camps selected social development (64 percent) and emotional
development (35 percent) as their top priorities, respondents from RA
camps selected spiritual development (78 percent) and social development
(37 percent) as their top priorities.
Respondents were asked to identify the essential competencies for staff.
The top three were:
- Developing positive relationships and communicating
with youth (86 percent)
- Demonstrating the attributes and qualities
of a positive role model (85 percent)
- Identifying potential
risk factors in the program environment and taking measures to reduce
those risks (70 percent).
The greatest differences between secular camps and
RA camps in the essential competencies were in:
- Helping youth
to develop spiritually (85 percent for RA; 23 percent for secular)
- Respecting and honoring cultural and human diversity (49 percent
for RA; 64 percent for secular)
- Interacting with and relating to youth
in ways that support asset building (41 percent for RA; 57 percent
for secular).
Key
findings from this survey suggest there are opportunities to increase
learning and collaboration across secular and religiouslyaffiliated camps.
Two opportunities seem particularly important:
- Camps need to create
a shared framework for moral and spiritual development and to train
staff to be better prepared to facilitate this type of growth in youth.
- Camps need practical tools to support training across RA and secular
camps.
This article explores what a shared framework could look like and suggests
ways in which such a framework could be helpful in supporting staff training
in both secular and religiously affiliated camps. It will also propose
some activities for staff training in both kinds of camps based on this
common framework.
Spirituality
One of the problems with trying to teach
camp staff how to nurture the spiritual development of campers is the
diverse understanding of the meaning of spirituality. When asked for
a definition of spirituality, even faith-based camp leaders often fail
to reach an agreement. Many feel that the camp experience is an important
environment for spiritual growth because of the nature-based context
of many camps; others believe camp provides the opportunity for reflection
and personal growth.
It is difficult to know how we can train staff members
when there is no clear understanding of what spiritual development means
even within the community of faith-based camps. The editors of Nurturing
Child and Adolescent Spirituality suggested a working definition of spirituality
to guide the work of the volume's writers (Johnson, Sasso, Roehlkepartain,
Yust 2006). This collection of essays on different aspects of spirituality
from a variety of perspectives was produced by Search Institute's
Center for the Spiritual Development of Children and Youth. The characteristics
of spirituality they identified may provide a bridge between a faith-based
and secular understanding of spirituality and supply the common framework
we seek.
Characteristics of Spirituality
- Spirituality is part
of the human creature.
- Spirituality is firmly planted in relationships
and within community experiences.
- Spirituality is expressed in
ethical behavior.
- Spirituality leads to growth and change.
- Spirituality
needs to be nurtured in an intentional manner.
Humans are by nature spiritual
beings. The Old Testament writers recognized this when they used the
same Hebrew word for spirit and breath. Everyone who breathes has a capacity
for spirituality. Such an understanding enables camp leaders to recognize
the value of each human life and to acknowledge the commonality between
all human creatures.
Spirituality differs from religion. Religions interpret
the story of the Divine in a unique way and endorse particular practices
to enrich the relationship with God (or a divine being). All humans are
spiritual, although not all humans claim an allegiance to a particular
religious tradition.
This also means that spirituality is not only expressed
through the practice of religion. In our attempt to find a common framework,
this point seems especially significant. It opens the door to consider
ways in which spirituality can be enhanced that are beyond the regular
measurements of Bible study and worship. The understanding of spirituality
can then extend to an awareness of all those things that are bigger than
any one single person, such as community, nature, and mystery. In doing
this, camps can view a wide variety of common competencies as spiritual
ones.
By understanding spirituality as an aspect of human life, it is
possible to consider spiritual development in humans along with other
recognized developments —social, physical, emotional, and moral.
The definition provided by Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality
can then become the common ground for secular and faithbased camps.
Using
the Framework for Staff Training
Now that a common framework for understanding
spirituality in both secular and faith-based camps is available, it is
possible to explore the ways in which such a framework can contribute
to staff training. The first step in using a common framework is to recognize
that spirituality must be intentionally developed. Spiritual development
must be understood and nurtured purposefully.
Slow Down
We live at a
fast pace. There is simply too much to do. Our lives of rushing schedules,
ringing cell phones, and competing technological gadgets make life just
plain chaotic. Even at camp our lives are ruled by lists and by the demands
of multi-tasking.
Our fast-paced lives, as well as many other aspects
of modern culture, have impacted our sense of the spiritual. While it
does not mean that we are not religious or don't believe in God,
it does mean that in our hurry we leave little time for wonder, awe,
or mystery. There is little room in our lives to sit speechless before
the wonders of the heavens. To grow spiritually, we must slow down and
stand still in the presence of mystery. We must teach campers and staff
to do the same.
Tell Stories
Elie Wiesel, the noted Holocaust survivor,
once said that God made us humans because God loved stories. From the
beginning of humanity, people sat around campfires and told stories.
They told stories about the day's hunt or about the adventures
of their ancestors. They told the old stories so that their children
could hear them. They told stories to celebrate who they were.
Unlike our ancestors who sat around the campfire and told stories, our
modern lives give us very little time for storytelling. It is the time
and place for stories that make camps so essential to the healthy development
of staff and campers.
We tell stories about who we are. Stories enable
us to make sense out of our lives. Our human search for meaning helps
us to make sense out of what happens and gives us a sense of purpose. "Who
am I? How do I fit in? What is ultimate importance?"
Stories form
our connections to other people. That is the reason we begin each week
of camp with name games, mixers, and community-building activities. True
connection is born out of a willingness to "open up" and
to tell each other who we are. The differences that separate us from
one another often come falling down through storytelling because such
stories often expose shared experiences and understanding.
We tell stories
about our shared experiences. It is around our common story that community
is formed. Shared stories are the cement that holds a group of people
together. Their identity is shaped by this common experience and by the
stories they tell about that experience. The stories never belong to
just one person. They belong to the whole community and give identity
to the whole community.
Encourage Wonder and Creativity
Bob Ditter is
a licensed social worker specializing in child, family, and adolescents,
who writes and presents workshops for ACA and other camp groups. Speaking
to a faithbased audience of camp leaders about camps and spirituality
at a 2007 ACA lunch, Ditter identified four concepts that contribute
to the development of spirituality. These four are:
- Wonder – The
ability to be amazed and awed by God's creation.
- Creativity – The
ability to put objects and ideas together in a new way.
- Gratitude – The
ability to recognize gifts and to give thanks.
- Connection – The
ability to relate to campers and to build community.
Ditter reminded his listeners that wonder, creativity, gratitude, and
connection aren't things that we teach. Rather they are responses
we humans make at a gut level. However, feeling is not enough. Ditter
said that we must give a name to the experience and call them spiritual-experiences. "As
human beings, the only way that we hold onto our experience and make
sense out of it is by giving it a name, by calling it something..." [Religiously
Affiliated Camps (RAC) lunch, February 13, 2007, ACA National Conference,
Austin, TX].
Beyond religious tradition lie the rich possibilities of
spirituality. We sometimes overlook the human capacity to relate to the
divine beyond the practices of our religious tradition. There is a varied
palette of spirituality available to us through the natural world. We
sometimes ignore the vastness of the human capacity for spirituality.
In this way we also ignore the possibilities for spiritual development
that reach into every other camp activity. We fail to see the spiritual
elements of the whole camp experience. We lose sight of the ways in which
we – camp leaders, staff, and campers – can find the divine
in the midst of everything we do.
Our task as camp leaders is to invite
staff and campers to recognize spiritual experiences. Using three of
Ditter's elements of wonder, creativity, and gratitude we can equip
staff to open a space for the sacred within a variety of camp activities.
Open-ended questions can invite campers to wonder. They can be used to
encourage campers to discuss and reflect on any experience. Creative
activities invite campers into a mode of looking at things in a new way
and allow them to put together the familiar in a brand-new manner. And
gratitude recognizes everything as a gift and can lead to awe and appreciation.
As you prepare for staff training this year, consider the ways in which
you, your staff, and your campers are spiritual creatures. Reflect on
specific ways you can include the common understanding of spirituality
developed here for your staff. Provide an opportunity for staff to discuss
the nature of spirituality and your understanding of it within your camp
program. Offer staff and campers the opportunity to slow down, and recognize
the needs for contemplation and reflection. Take staff for a walk in
the woods or fields of your camp. Invite them to enjoy the beauty and
mystery around them. Encourage them to simply wonder and be glad.
Author's
Note:
Many thanks to Barry Garst, ACA's Director of Research Application,
for his interpretation of the Common Ground study results and his contributions
to this article.
References
National Collaboration for Youth and Search
Institute. (2007). Is There Common Ground? An Exploratory Study of the
Interests and Needs. www.acacamps.org/ research/common_ground_study.php.
Ditter, Bob, "Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Children and
Youth at Camp," speech at RAC lunch at ACA National Conference,
Austin, TX, on February 14, 2007.
Johnson, A. N.; Sasso, S. E.; Roehlkepartain,
E. C.; and Yust, K. M. (2006). Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality:
Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield.
Originally published in the 2008 May/June
issue of Camping Magazine. |
