|
by Bob Ditter
One
of the tasks of caring for campers is learning to balance fun with safety.
This balancing act is a central, though often subtle, part of a counselor's
job, and it can be a formidable task. There are many times when a staff
person must make a judgment that will affect campers' well-being. This
decision can be the difference between someone getting hurt and everyone
having a great time and staying healthy. Having good judgment is the
key to maintaining the safety of your group, both physically and emotionally.
Acquiring a good sense of judgment takes time and experience. It is
not something you can learn from a book or a lecture. In addition, some
of the situations you face take place during off-camp trips or happen
out of the range of your supervisors. That is why it is important to
have some guidelines to help you make sound judgment calls on your own.
Counselor Judgment Checklist
The following checklist is designed to help counselors cultivate sound,
consistent judgment:
- What are the physical risks involved in this activity/this decision?
- Are there any risks (emotional or physical) I might not be able to
see?
- If something were to go wrong and someone got hurt (physically/emotionally),
how would I feel?
- Who is this activity/decision really for - me or the campers?
- How much am I getting caught up in this - how activated are my emotions
- and how might that be clouding my judgment?
- What would I do if the campers' parents were watching?
- What would I decide if the camp director were watching?
- How will I think about or look back on this decision tomorrow?
If you pause before making a decision that affects your campers and
think through the checklist, it can help you make a call that is healthiest
for you and your group.
Truths about Campers
In addition to the checklist, counselors should know certain "truths" about
working with campers. These concepts can affect the safety of your campers.
The three concepts are as follows:
- the tendency for campers (and sometimes, counselors!) to become overstimulated.
- the effect campers can have on adults, known as regressive pull.
- the situation some people call player-umpire.
Let's take a look at each of these concepts and see how they might affect
your judgment.
Overstimulation affects judgment
Overstimulation occurs when children become so caught up in the excitement
of the moment that they are swept away by their feelings and lose their sense
of judgment. While activities that are highly stimulating, such as mud sliding,
having water fights, splashing in the pool, wrestling, and going on an organized "raid," are
fun, they can cause children to lose perspective or self-control.
When children become overstimulated, it is very difficult to calm them
down. First, they aren't always sure whether to take your appeals to
quiet down seriously (children may think your requests are just another
part of the game). Second, they can't always see what harm might come
as a consequence of their behavior. Because highly stimulating activities
are also attractive to counselors and because children often beg counselors
to let them engage in these activities, counselors can end up making
a judgment call based on what is popular instead of what is necessarily
safe.
This does not mean that camp should be devoid of things like snowball
fights in July or mud sliding on rainy days. It does mean, however, that
decisions to engage in such activities must be made carefully, followed
by especially watchful supervision. As a counselor overseeing an activity
that is particularly stimulating, you must take special care to look
for signs that show campers are becoming so agitated or excited that
they are beginning to lose their sense of judgment and fair play. If
you see indications that things are escalating or that the risk-taking
is becoming dangerous, the sooner you intercede to cool things off, the
easier it will be to keep things within safe bounds. Indeed, knowing
when to intercede is itself a judgment call. Often many counselors make
the mistake of waiting too long to slow the pace of a game or activity
only to have someone get injured.
Adults can become overstimulated, too
The second concept, regressive pull, is when adults, after spending a lot of
time with children begin to look and act just like the kids. That is, they
become more impulsive, more easily excited, more sarcastic in their verbal
interactions, or more easily ruled by their feelings. In other words, adults
can become overstimulated, too! Once a counselor has regressed, there is
a loss of perspective and sense of consequences that may result in unsound
judgment calls.
Regressive pull is a natural phenomenon, though there are several things
that you can do to minimize its effects. Being well-rested, getting away
from campers from time to time, maintaining outlets for personal emotional
and psychological needs, and developing working partnerships with fellow
staff members are examples of the kinds of things you can do maintain
your equilibrium. Likewise, referring to the counselor judgment checklist
may save you from making a decision that leads to trouble.
Participate in games with reserve
Player-umpire refers to the conflict inherent in both playing and supervising
a game. When you participate in the game, you may observe the group less
critically, you may miss important safety considerations, or you may forget
to take steps to avoid accidents or mishaps that you normally would take
if you were on the sidelines supervising. Obviously, campers love when counselors
play games with them; but as officials at the Department of Public Health
in both New York and California have pointed out, most camp accidents happen
when counselors get so involved in a game that they drop their duties as
good supervisors of children.
Playing a game can never be at the expense of good supervision, keen
observation, and sound judgment. When lifeguards are in the water splashing
and swimming, they do not have the vantage point or perspective they
would have from a lifeguard chair or float or pool deck. If you become
so involved in a game that you let go of your responsibility to monitor
the group and maintain emotional and physical safety, you are risking
your own safety and that of your campers.
This does not mean that counselors cannot have fun and join in with
campers. However, when you play with campers, you must remember that
you are not playing at the same level you would be with peers. You must
learn to participate with a reserve or restraint that allows you to keep
an eye on how campers are doing and not so much on how the game is going.
You may also want to establish a kind of "tag team" with other staff
members where you each take a turn playing while the others supervise.
As staff, you want to have the most fun and trouble-free summer possible.
There is no fun in the guilt or anxiety you will ultimately experience
if you make a judgment call that results in a camper getting hurt. Using
the counselor judgment checklist and following the advice about balancing
your work will help you have a healthy, happy summer and will provide
your campers with the envelope of safety they need to thrive.
Originally published in the 2001 July/August
issue of Camping Magazine.
| 
