Oh wow I thought this was some old topic somebody had bumped. I had no idea I was missing out on some action! Why didn't somebody tell me?!
Anyway, I've never really considered camp names to be an issue, or at least this big of one. Of course, where I've worked we've never had them. Oh sure we've had walkie-talkie names for the administrators and Pirate names for pirate week (that was fun...I still call some of my camp friends by their pirate names). I never thought about not telling a child my real name though.
I dunno...I kinda feel that this whole issue is being blown out of proportion. I mean, a name is a name. Whether you go by Johnny, Beth, Stimpy, Batman, Pocohontas, Jo-jo the happy monkey, or any number of other names, it's what you are called. Different people know you by different names. It doesn't really matter what you're called, as long as people know who you are.
That said, I also feel like camp names or nick-names are designed to be fun, not take the place of your real name. If you want to go by something at camp, that's fine, but it needs to be in fun and not designed to hide who you really are. If somebody wants to know your real name then I think they should be entitled to that.
I do not like blanket camp policies or unwritten policies that all staff are to have a camp name and not tell the children their real name. To a degree, I do feel like that is dishonest. Fire whatever explanations and justifications you have, but I guess I feel like that the campers should have the opportunity to know who their counselors "really are."
