Rob,
I linked to Keewaydin because that is only one with which I have even second hand experiences. We have seen Keewaydin trips while we were out, and I have been impressed.
I would not care to trip that traditionally, but kids who “get it” come back year after year for longer, more adventurous trips. That says something. As does 95% of their staff coming from Keewaydin campers; it must be a good culture to keep coming back year after year.
The other experience is more peculiar; an oddly large number of the folks in the paddlesport industry seem to have come up through Keewaydin. I’m not saying such a nurtured predilection is a good thing, but those Weewaydin-wayed folks seem happy enough and lead interesting lives.
I myself went to Camp Nimrod. Militaristic Camp Nimrod; Reveille & Taps flag raising (and precise folding), calisthenics, shooting at the range. Kitchen Patrol (don’t ask). Segregated Camp Nimrod, the last Whites-Only boys camp north of the Carolinas (don’t ask).
I already knew how to shoot, and received my only distinction for that, but wasn’t much interested in the rest of that crap, so I spend a lot of time in demerits assigned to the bad-boy cabin. Why they would have put us all together remains a mystery to me.
I can still fold a flag with honors, and will fold one no other way.
My own sons went to a couple of outdoors camps, but they got much more out of family trips throughout the year; Easter break, Christmas break, summer break we could travel and see much of the east coast, or Northwoods, and even on a three day weekend we could squeeze in a more local trip.
Er, sometimes that Monday holiday was often augmented by taking an extra school day off, for a 4 day trip. That didn’t seem to hurt their formal education, and neither son ever objected to an extra day off.
Their public school administration did a time or two, and I had to explain it to them.
