and three staff members made the trip. One of the campers, a young girl I will call Joan,
had cerebral palsy. She walked with difficulty and it was often hard for the other children
to understand her when she spoke. She was also one of the few European American chil-
dren in this group.
Before the hike, the group decided that Joan would walk in front and set the pace for
the others. It also discussed why she would not be able to carry a backpack. It was a diffi-
cult hike and at one point we walked most of the night in a downpour. At first there was
some grumbling that Joan was not carrying anything. But as we hiked on, complaints
about fairness turned into admiration for the doggedness and courage of this young
woman who led by example. By the end of the hike, the staff and campers were helping
each other as we sang, talked, and played. On this hike I learned what young people are ca-
pable of if they are respected, given a chance to work out their conflicts, and allowed to
show their best side.
Lesson 2. It is not what you say, but how students experience what they hear.Later that
summer, I learned a very painful lesson from the preteen boys groups. The youngsters
were all African American. We were preparing a dramatic presentation on slavery and I ex-
plained that some Southerners used the Bible to defend the enslavement of Black people.
They thought I believed these proslavery views and they were furious with me; it took
weeks to reestablish a relationship of trust. I learned that a teacher has to be concerned
with who students are and how they feel. As a teacher, it is not what you say, but how stu-
dents experience what they hear.
Lesson 3. When people work together they can achieve their goals.During the final
three weeks of 1973, I was working with the 10-year-old boys group and we were having a
very good time together. The summer was ending with a Medieval Guild Fair and my group
was making ceramic chess pieces and a wooden board and performing at the fair as tum-
blers. The only problem was that the boys wanted to go on an overnight hike and the pro-
gram director felt the schedule was too crowded to permit it.
At the last Friday evening staff meeting of the season, we heard shouting and the sound
of general mayhem coming from my cabin. The program director and I went up to investi-
gate, but as we approached the lights went out and everything quieted down. Neverthe-
less we rushed into the cabin, flicked on the light, and the program director, determined to
punish the malefactors, shouted: “This group is going on a night hike.” Simultaneously,
nine 10-year-old boys leaped out of bed fully dressed and ready to go.
Lesson 4. Building a relationship requires time, patience, and trust.During the summer
of 1974, my nine-year-old boys group was put in charge of repairing a roadside drainage
ditch. It was an important task: Unless the drains were repaired, the edges of the dirt road
washed away during rainstorms.
Some of the boys were not enthusiastic about the assignment. I spent 2 days trying to
get the campers interested in the job and one boy was particularly resistant. The group
could not persuade him to work and I could not make him. His holdout was beginning to
threaten the entire project so the group met and decided that only people who wanted to
learn how to repair the ditch were allowed to help. The only condition was that people
who decided not to work had to remain within sight of the group. At first, two other boys
joined him and they meandered a short way off into the woods. However, the second day
they decided to join the rest of the group.
The third day, the program director came by while eight of the nine-year-old boys were
working hard clearing the drains of leaves, roots, and rocks; mixing cement; and lining the
ditch with slate slabs. He asked if I knew that one of the boys was in the woods. When I said
that I did, he wanted to know why I had not gone after him. I explained that the boy did not106 CHAPTER 4