This fall I re-read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a book that is almost forty years old, but that in many ways still rings true. A lot of what Toffler talks about is the accelerated rate of change in our culture and its impact as a stressor on the human psyche. And of course, I thought about Kabeyun. If you read my appeal letter for the Annual Fund last fall you'll know that change has...

We've been attending a number of camp fairs again this winter and I've been struck once again by the breadth, though not the depth, of summer opportunities out there for our kids. There are sports camps, e-magination camps (whatever that is), computer camps, performing arts camps, day camps, overnight camps, sports camps, travel programs that take kids to Peru and Africa, teen...

I'm interested lately in voices and values - the way that organizations and institutions seem to have the power to control individual and family value sets simply by shouting out their own agendas... schools and colleges seem to be behaving more like a lobby group for more academic (read "seat") time for kids; school counselors tell them they must go to school all summer, must...

A parent asked me this the other day: "Do you subscribe to Bunk 1; can we see pictures of our son on the website during the summer?" I had no idea what Bunk 1 was. No, we don't subscribe to any service that makes it possible for parents to view their child in action at camp. We view ourselves as partners with parents as they turn their children over to our care, but we...

Here's what we see: packages of all sizes coming to camp every day with toys and games, novelty items and accessories, tee-shirts and comics. Most days there is a table full of packages in the office. Regardless of our request for families not to send food and candy, many still do, sometimes going to great lengths to hide and smuggle contraband - bags of candy taped inside tee-shirts,...

A prospective family writes: "So, yes, the kids get to choose from many activities at Kabeyun, but are they really challenged? Do you work with them to set goals and achieve them? One of the things we felt was lacking at his previous camp... Another thing I wonder about is do the kids and the counselors have some kind of camp honor code. Again, something that they can be proud of to...