Summer Camp Blog

Giving Kids Time to Know Themselves

Bank Street Summer Camp’s Approach to Day Camp

Kids are busier than they ever have been. Overstimulated and overloaded, many families struggle to find time to balance their children’s lives with recreational play and focused exploration. As a progressive school, Bank Street is focused on the development of children, with regard to academics, as well as social and emotional growth. The Bank Street Summer Camp provides time and structure for campers to develop as learners through love of play, creativity and collaboration, all outside of an academic environment.

Traditionally, summer camps consist of cabins, rope courses and, arts and crafts, but what is camp really? What does camp provide kids with that school and other educational programs do not? For decades camp has been a place where kids can experiment, explore new interests, and learn how to maneuver through an ever-changing social atmosphere.

The American Camp Association conducted national research with over 5,000 families between 2001 and 2004, each from 80 accredited camps, specifically about immeasurable skills that campers receive and practice during the summer camp experience. Parents, campers and camp staff reported significant growth in the following non-academic concentrations; environmental awareness, decision making, adventure and exploration, independence, self-esteem, interpersonal skills, peer relationships and leadership. No differences were found in a particular type of camp, be it day camp, sleep away camp or travel camp.

Bank Street Summer Camp has gone beyond the role of the traditional summer camp and focused on these themes, by supporting campers and families with educational professionals as counselors and training young camp staff to become educators. The Bank Street Summer Camp’s mission, as well as the mission for their KiDS College vacation programs, states:

“The mission of the Bank Street Summer Camp is to foster emotional, physical and ethical growth within campers and kids, by using educational professionals to help them develop their own personalities and individual voices through love of play, creativity and collaboration. Through experiential education, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, and the larger society, in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in Camp, and our vacation programs, an opportunity to educate and build a better society.”

Part of campers getting to know themselves is offering accessible programs that attract families of all backgrounds, including ethnicity, family structure, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and learning styles. This environment recognizes and celebrates the differences between campers, staff and families, while teaching children to respect one another’s people cultures, life choices and way of life.

Learning how to swim helps campers challenge themselves and feel a measure of success, while learning a life skill. Unfortunately, most schools do not teach swimming but, fortunately, most camps do. At Bank Street Summer Camp, campers are assessed and put in a swim group that fits their comfort level and skill level. Counselors assist and help supervise with aquatic staff in the water to help facilitate maximum success and safety.

Summer time offers an opportunity for parents to add balance to children’s lives and the time is right for schools and camps to teach the whole child, beyond academia and scholastics. Children need time, practice and a safe environment to connect with themselves and each other. Bank Street College has spent almost one hundred years making these goals a reality and the Bank Street Summer Camp has continued this tradition in a recreational summer setting.