The introduction of publically funded summer day camps on a massive scale can help address social problems that afflict many disadvantaged young people. Our society has been far from successful in permitting young people to receive a useful formal education and avoid the pitfalls of juvenile delinquency. More than one young person in ten between the ages of 14 and 21 is a high school dropout (Howell and Frese, 1982). The rate is dramatically higher for the poor and members of minority groups. The use of drugs and participation in crime are both on the increase among disadvantaged young people. By the time young persons are of high school age, it may be difficult to address the results of poverty in determining their attitudes and actions. Because the problems of adolescence may be difficult to address directly, summer youth camps may have their greatest positive effect on somewhat younger children, those attending elementary schools. Consequently, it may be useful to examine the capacity of summer day camps to change the behavior of children in the elementary school years.
Background of the Problem
Early difficulties predict later more serious problems. Students who fail in the eighth and ninth grades are more likely than others to drop out of high school (Schreiber, 1964; Kaplan and Luck, 1977; Howell and Frese, 1982). Twenty five percent of school dropouts have been suspended from school at least once or have been identified as "problem students" (Kaplan and Luck, 1977). Dropouts are almost always alienated, feeling rootless and hopeless. Presumably, the problems of "problem students" have their genesis in events that occurred long before they reached high school.
Some of the problems that have been with young people who get in trouble during adolescence arise because of pervasive problems in society as a whole. Young persons who drop out of school and get in trouble with the la...