thecole

[thecole]

This article from the American Camp Association really annoyed me and I think ultimately the ACA and Redwood Insurance make summer camps less safe with it. So I wrote about it on my blog where I write longer things: https://coleperry.wordpress.com/2024/04/07/the-aca-and-quack-remedies-for-abuse/

[thecole]

I miss you so much Cole, just wanted to let you know that I ended up joining the NSFA after all these years of you telling me to. You may not remember me and I'm not sure if you'll ever see this, but you have had such a positive impact on my life. Thank you so much. -Jax Ludmann

Hey Jax!!!

Of course I remember you! It’s been too long and I miss you too :) Perhaps string tricks have given you something to do during quarantine, haha.

This is good motivation for me to get another string trick vid up on my youtube channel. I lost access to that channel for several years (!!), but want to post string videos again.

I really appreciate the kind words and hope you’re as well as you can be in these wild times!

[thecole]

Some nice reflections on antiracism and parenting.

I do wish they’d spoken a little to the structural changes needed for community/society to improve.

And It did read pretty White -- like, we don’t just need to social distance for our communities... We need mutual aid; we need to meet people’s needs, especially those that are not met by the state or in the case of targeting, oppression, marginalization from the state.

[thecole]

Ah. Some camps create really important spaces. I am mourning these spaces. I also want to work toward filling gaps.

[thecole]

Wow! How many useless tech info links did students get when their schools started to meet digitally? The shift to a world with severely-reduced contact has been rough and inequitable; we’ll need more than Zoom instructions to emerge on the other side of the pandemic.

Klee, from Camp Stomping Ground, is out here giving kids something they actually need: the skills & practice to manage conflict online. I believe we need a broad cultural shift toward embracing priniciples of transformative justice. Restorative practices will be key tools in the long process of undermining the violence of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the totalitarianism of global capitalism.

But transforming the relationships we are in is a great start. We have to build the communities we want, the institutions we need as we go. So, again, I love how Stomping Ground is working with kids, sharing their staff journeys, and publicizing their commitment to restorative practices.

[thecole]

What a cool camp.

[thecole]

More activist organizations need to be doing this: getting people affected by oppression, amplifying their voices, and helping accomplish their goals. Especially with youth, especially especially with young people of color.

Here we hear what KY students have to say about state legislators trying to force cops with guns back in schools after the local district got them out.

I guess the KY GOP is for not-so-small-government or local control when it comes to a disproportionately Black school district tries to make their own decisions...

[thecole]

Bettina Love, author of a book about abolitionist teaching, brings us some thoughts on what teachers need. I like the idea of antiracist therapy. I think it would hard to have a therapist who was not invested in antiracism & pro-queerness. I’d be shocked if there were more therapists getting trained in this than, say, “multiculturalism” or tolerance or diversity.

[thecole]

Some summer camp folks had a conversation recently talking about playing “diverse” musical artists at camp. This article does a great job of portraying the author’s personal experiences and how those connect to systemic racism.

Playing predominantly White musicians can (tends to) contribute to an oppressively White space. Playing a lot of Black musicians can also exacerbate the racism of a White space..

From the article (a great read)

Embracing Black music is not the same as embracing Black people

This one should hit home for camp people:

How many times, while our music plays, have one of us been dismissed, followed, or harassed in these spaces?

95% of resident camp directors are White

Increasingly we’re in the background as our music is pushed to the fore.      

[thecole]

A little late, but Happy National Black Lives Matter in Schools week.

[thecole]

A nice piece for White teachers & educators.

[thecole]

I like that this article talks about dealing with abuse from the past in camps’ histories. I love that they’re giving advice on how to deal with abuse from the past.

This is great:

Reach out to all camp families and stakeholders. Inform them of your positions and policies and ask them to hold you accountable

“Ask them to hold you accountable”! That’s great. The likelier response to abuse allegations is legal defensiveness, blame deflection, or, especially for those from the past, those were different directors, a different organization, etc.

[thecole]

Thankfully, I think it is relatively rare in the camp world that people call on police to solve problems. But it’s always worth revisiting how to resolve public conflicts without relying on the violence of the State.

[thecole]

Companion piece to the one earlier today about teens’ online nonconsensual sexual experiences.

[thecole]

Brief and to the point.

[thecole]

My camp just hired its first two full-time people of color, both cis men. One is the Equity Director and one works in the kitchen as the Food Services Director.

Two White women are the directors who make the vast majority of camp decisions.

[thecole]

I love Jessica Ringrose & QuERI’s research. Great work with youth about gender & sexuality in schools. I do find myself wishing I came away with more things to do with young people at camp.

I do think camps’ phobia of all things technology tells kids that camp people will be totally unhelpful with anything related to the digital world. The classic camp advice of “turn off your phones and get outside” does nothing to help kids navigate social media, much less digital sexual harassment and abuse. In fact, I suspect it’s more likely to encourage unhealthy avoidance and not help kids exist in the networked society we live in.

Snippet:

we need to pay attention to the vast range of unsolicited, non-consensual sexual content there is and equip young people to address it