Hi Mom And Dad

Here I am at Camp Grenada Camp is very entertaining and they say we’ll have some fun, after they give us our meds, and it stops raining…” That last line was altered, courtesy inspiration from an article that I am reading that ought to give parent’s pause. Before there were brat camps, there were summer camps. Boomers will remember summer camp songs, including the Allan Sherman hit quoted above. For many teens, summer camps were traumatic - separation anxiety is the label they give it today. Back then it was homesickness. ADHD was fidgeting. Respect was what you extended to elders, not demanded for yourself. And back then, you stood in a line for breakfast, not in a line for drugs. “A quick gulp of water, a greeting from the nurse, and the youngsters move on to the next table for orange juice, Special K and chocolate-chip pancakes. The dispensing of pills and pancakes is over in minutes.

Cont...

The medication lines like the one at Camp Echo were unheard of a generation ago but have become fixtures at residential camps across the country. Between one-quarter and one-half of the youngsters at any given summer camp take daily prescription medications, experts say.” “All my best friends take something,” said David Ehrenreich, 12.” (source) “All my best friends take something..” How in the world can you make an argument against teen drug substance abuse when future teens will have been “altering their moods” with medication since childhood, along with every other kid they know? Personally, I think I’d rather send my kids to brat camps where coping skills are taught, not dispensed with a pill. By Ann Walker