Why Your Kid Needs a Screen-Free Summer at Teton Valley Ranch Camp
It sounds cliche to mention how much childhood has changed over the past twenty years, but recognizing this truth is essential to understanding why summer camp is more important than ever for children. Being a true Xenial myself, I grew up in a screen-free household and had many opportunities for free-play. The main difference between my parent’s childhood and my own, was there was a growing fear of “strangers” and that the world was a dangerous place. While I had free-play, my borders were a little tighter than my parents’ and grandparents’ before me. Summer camp for me became a place to experience beauty in nature, more autonomy than what I felt in my own home, and close friendships developed with other campers my age. With the emergence of the iPhone and iPads, and the tighter supervision that is “normal” for today’s society, our children have traded a play-based childhood for a screen-based childhood. Children spend much of their time in school and at home in front of screens, but at Teton Valley Ranch Camp, we provide an opportunity for campers to leave technology at home and fully immerse themselves in the beautiful outdoors with authentic friends by their sides.
Jonathan Hiadt, author of The Anxious Generation, was the keynote speaker at the CODA (Camp Owners and Directors Association) Conference Jim and I attended last February. He spoke to a room full of camp directors encouraging us to continue providing screen-free and play-based experiences for our campers. He reiterates this in his book, by encouraging parents to:
“Find a sleepaway camp with no devices and no safetyism… Many summer camps offer children and adolescents the chance to be out in nature and away from their devices and the internet for a month or two. Under those conditions, young people attend fully to each other, forming friendships and engaging in slightly risky and exciting outdoor activities that may bond them together tightly…. Try to find a camp that embraces the values of independence and responsibility. If possible, send your child there every summer…. Summer camp is a great opportunity for parents and children to get out of the habit of constant contact, and especially for parents, constant reassurance that your kids are okay.”
While I only met Johathan Haidt briefly at that conference, and I do not believe he has ever been to TVRC, I couldn’t help but feel he was speaking directly about our camp program. He also stated in his book that “children need face-to-face, synchronous, embodied, physical play.” Furthermore, he says that the healthiest play is outdoors and includes occasional physical risk-taking and thrilling adventures. Few other camp programs provide a month-long, screen-free, experience that provides bigger thrills in nature than Teton Valley Ranch Camp has since it was founded in 1939.
TVRC’s immersive camp experience contradicts the society of our campers’ normal lives. Walking into my daughters middle school when students are on their “break” and allowed to pull out their cell phones to check their messages and social media, there is an eerie quiet that overshadows a room full of pre-teens. In contrast, my youngest son has requested to wear noise canceling headphones when he eats in the Dining Hall at the Ranch because the bellowing sound of the camper’s voices “are too loud!” for his seven year old ears. For me, there is nothing better than hearing the vibrancy of campers’ conversations without the distraction of their pocket-sized, attention grabbing device.
We have moved away from a Play-Based Childhood to a Screen-Based childhood, and it has come with negative side effects. Children today are living in a world where they are not encouraged to participate in any risky behaviors, and at the same time, anxiety and depression are at an all time high. Teton Valley Ranch Camp allows freedom of choice in daily activities, where campers have the ability to choose what they will do that day without too much pressure from adults. They can choose to go to the barn, play sports, go fly fishing, leave the Ranch for a day hike, or head to lapidary. We also provide hours each day of unstructured time at camp which we believe encourage creativity, problem-solving, and joy, while also safely being supervised by our enthusiastic staff members. Without screens, and with more freedom and autonomy, our campers engage meaningfully in building friendships that will last a lifetime.
While they may not admit this to their parents, I have had many campers, especially our girl campers, share with me they love the break from screens and absence of social media pressures. One camper once told me, “It isn’t just that I am not on my phone, but that no one at camp is using phones or social media. I feel like the action is happening right in front of me and I am not having to constantly compete to get the attention of my friends and counselors. We are face to face and it allows for the opportunity for genuine self-expression.” Campers feel they are living through these moments “live” without the pressure of documenting and posting it later for others to see and rate their experiences.
To Parents: I acknowledge the difficulty of being out of touch with your kids for weeks while they are away at camp. Not only do campers lose access to social media, but they are not able to text, call or email their parents regularly. While this can be difficult for our campers the first few days of camp while they adjust to their new surroundings, we find it is harder for our parents. However, this is an extremely important part of campers growing in their autonomy, problem solving abilities, and resilience. This independence builds trust, maturity and a healthier parent-child dynamic. They need to know they can do hard things, but just as importantly, they need to know their parents believe they can do hard things without their constant presence. We know children thrive when they have a play-based childhood in the real world, alongside friends, and are provided the opportunities for growth through some controlled “risks” which we provide through our program.
During the pandemic, we saw an increase in anxiety among our campers. For us, 2021 was a difficult summer as many campers had been isolated from peers that entire year, relying only on social media and cell phones to connect with friends. At the end of that summer, I had a parent write to me, “I sent an isolated, anxious and depressed kid to camp in July. I was worried she would struggle at camp but as the summer wore on, we saw pictures of her smile that we hadn’t seen in a VERY long time. She looked self assured, confident, radiant. I picked up a taller, healthier kid yesterday. We are so grateful. While our camper was away, we missed her terribly. As she seems to have grown and improved her state of mind, I realize we have missed her for quite a while.” I have never forgotten that mother’s words, and can only strive for similar experiences for all campers coming through our program.
Several years ago, the TVRC Leadership Team and Board of Directors worked together to strategically plan for the future of our organization. During that practice, a question was raised, “What would put us out of business?” After I thought about this question for a while, I came to the conclusion that if TVRC ever fully embraced bringing technology into our program and allowed each camper and staff member to bring their cell phones, the magic and power of camp would be lost at that moment. This is how important being disconnected from screens and being reconnected to nature and play is to the camp experience. I cannot think of many other places outside of camps and the wilderness where a child today can remove themselves so completely from technology. Removing screens from campers will allow them to embrace the play-based and experience-based childhood they need to grow into more resilient adolescence. Sign your kids up for Teton Valley Ranch Camp today! They will thank you for it!
Parent Challenge: As adults, we suffer the same screen addiction as our kids. While your camper is at camp, they will be surrounded by peers and staff members, connecting with them on a daily basis, without the use of screens or technology. Imagine, spending an entire month where no one around you is staring at a screen, to return home and have your parents glued to their phones. There is a sudden shift back into the “modern day” that can leave campers feeling unable to connect with their family the same way they were able to connect with their camp community. I challenge you with this: while your camper is at camp, spend this month detoxing yourself from your phone and screens. If you find yourself scrolling aimlessly, put your phone down and do something intentional. If your camper can do it, so can you. This will open the door to more genuine connection when your camper comes home, and we can all do with a little less screen time.
