Originally posted by Qui:
You've all been saying that we should worry about the few and far between campers that are traumatized by our use of camp names, but we should ignore the issue of the few and far between campers that give their counselors unwanted attention outside of camp.
Traumitized is really a word I don't think any of us has used. I doubt that camp names are going to cause any serious life-wrecking harm to campers. The argument simply is that they may bring up some subtle issues that staff and campers may simply not be aware of.
there's also another issue of protecting against the future. If a counselor comes to camp after her senior year in high school, is a phenominal counselor, but then fails out of college the next year, looses sight of her dreams and gets addicted to crack, would it be better for the campers she inspired to have all their dreams crushed when they learn that their counselor Jane Doe froze to death last night in front of the court house as a crack whore? or would it be better for them to have shining dreams of their role model counselor Foo-foo until reality and cynical old age tarnishes it?
On the flip side, what if that same counselor graduates with honors from college and goes on to become a famous philanthropist? Is it better for campers to see that good counselors become great people and have that excellent example to look up to, or would it be better for them to never know that their role model counselor made it in the "real" world? You just can't base arguments like this on what MIGHT happen in the future; nobody knows.
And TedRocks, if you pretend you are perfect to your campers, you are the one that needs to stick to keg parties and creative writing. Yes, I do let my campers know I am not perfect. I may not share the initimate details with them, but if you live with somebody for any period of time they'll figure out you are as human as anybody. Which is as it should be, no?
