Summer Camp Manifesto
Let’s talk about childhood education.
Think about the education kids receive from their childhood. Kids can’t be kids anymore. Strict, generalized curriculums mean they don’t have space to follow their passions or learn on their own.
School is no longer about learning. It feels like a chore . That’s because hour-long lectures may work on adults, but they don’t work for kids. Too many kids (and let’s face it — teachers and parents) obsess over grades instead of knowledge because that’s what the system incentivizes. Worse, teachers are stuck following curriculums that value competition over curiosity. Stuck in a system with little room for personal choice, kids forget the joy of learning .
Due to the Coronavirus epidemic, more than 1.5 billion children are out of school globally. Teachers are trying to recreate schools online, leading to frustrated kids and parents. Kids don’t want to sit still and be quiet at school, much less at home.
Homeschooling sounds fun, but you need to work. Your family depends on you to cook dinner, sweep the floors, do the laundry, clean the house, and pay the rent. So now, you’re stuck.
When your kids get bored, they bother you. Toys are missing, the iPad is broken, and the last cookie in the kitchen mysteriously disappeared. Help!
Your kids want attention. Can you blame them? They want to create, but they crave guidance. They want to talk, but they need somebody to listen. Most of all, they want to be with friends but can’t leave the house.
That’s where we come in. Write of Passage Summer Camp is designed to help kids explore their curiosity. It’s a place for kids to create their own projects, collaborate with others, and express their ideas. We want to help kids become prolific creators.
Summer Camp is nothing like a typical YouTube tutorial or online “class.” There are no grades. No homework. No yelling teachers. It’s a place for creation and collaboration. Talking, laughing, smiling, dreaming, thinking — Summer Camp is FUN.
It’s a fresh approach to education. Kids will be in charge of their own learning(radical, we know!). As teachers, we will operate with a light touch instead of a heavy hand. In school, kids start with the basics and expand toward curiosity. But in Summer Camp, we start with curiosity and expand toward the basics. After all, kids with a computer and an internet connection who love to create are unstoppable.
Summer Camp is a global experience. Kids from all over the world will work on self-directed projects together over video chat. By meeting kids from different cultures, they’ll pick up fresh ways of thinking.
That is precisely why Write of Passage is arguably the best summer camp program for kids. Because here, we’ll let kids play — productively.
We’re creating an environment of jokes and joy, laughs and learning. It’s just what the world needs right now: a fresh start and a new beginning.
— David Perell + Ana Lorena Fabrega