In this cyber age of the Remote – where multi-tasking, declining attention spans and thrill-a-minute, instant self-gratification aspirations rule – families increasingly search for the instant-ready answer to their children’s summer recreation dreams. Make it the experience of her young life but do it quick – becomes the operating dictum.

Fragmentation and busyness define the Age of the Remote. Multiple jobs, multiple sets of parents, multiple specialists in education and health, multiple offerings of extracurricular activities, multiple TV offerings on multiple screens, fast food, MTV and video games – all of these fragment our lives and put pressure on us to do it quick.

In order to survive in this brave, new world, old school (traditional) camps dedicated toward instilling core values in their charges in the course of proven, step-by-step, integrative multiple week programs, give way to fragmented one and two week quickie visits; or else they fade away into real estate developments and get replaced by a myriad of quickie specialty (fragmented) offerings in everything.

These new offerings are often fantastic and choices are practically unlimited. A twelve year old with a call on three thousand of his parents’ dollars can write his own instant gratification ticket for an eighteen-day sail in the Fiji Islands or a ten-day build-your-own-robot camp. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. Children benefit from lots of different experiences. Almost everything counts -- so long as we understand the trade-offs.

Many parents today, however, appear unaware of these trade-offs when they insist on fragmenting the camping experience for their children into one and two week stays or into quickie specialty stints. Overnight camping is not for every child; and the younger the child, the more one wants to give her an initial taste rather than full immersion. And fragmented lives at home can force fragmented decisions for the summer. Besides, if a child really likes baseball or sailing, what’s wrong with sending him to a baseball or sailing camp?

The short answer is nothing and everything. Fragmentation breeds both exciting opportunities and un-integrated children. And here is where traditional camping comes in. It is all about integration – developing and bringing out the whole person in a child, concerning itself with the entire, rounded individual. In this age of fragmentation the good traditional camping experience would be more aptly named holistic camping.

There is a relatively simple, operating rule that parents need to be aware of when it comes to holistic camping. The more time invested in a child’s stay in a good traditional camping program, the better the results will be – exponentially. And speaking of the results – fair enough, skills will be learned and lifetime friendships will be formed; but what counts even more at those traditional camps that continue to invest sufficient time in their young charges are the core values of respect – respect for oneself, for one’s community of fellow citizens and respect for the great outdoors and all things living.