Publically Funded Summer Day Camps

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). Twentyfive percent of school dropouts have been suspended from school at least once or have been identified as "proble

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ty was adopted by many state and municipal agencies. The Second World War also acted as an impetus to day camping. As women went to work in defenserelated industries, day camping became a useful form of day care. Part of the reason that day camps remain useful is that once women entered the workplace they never really returned home. In spite of the contraction in the number of women in the work force during the 1950s, the direction of social change has been in the direction of assimilating women into the work force. Consequently, day camping has continued to represent an important form of day care. "Day care and day camping, once looked upon as totally separate services, have gradually been coming closer together as more and more day camps have been extending their services to meet the needs of working parents" (Mitchell, et al., 1982, p. 4). Following the War, in the face of the growth of the day camping phenomenon, the Chicago Section of the American Camping Association began the process of establishing standards for day camping. The process of growth and development led to the acceptance of day camp standards by the American Camping Association. From the time of the Second World War into the 1960s, the number

Category: Psychology - P