Nerd Hot American Summer

Slate has compiled a fantastic selection of articles about summer camp. They range from a review of the best camp movies to a first-hand account of a summer spent at nerd camp.

Guess which I clicked on first...

I've written before about my summers at nerd camp. Each spring I would receive piles of brochures from various nerd camps organizations that I had written to for information earlier in the year--places like CTY (which the Slate writer attended) and the Summer Institute for the Gifted (which I did). I found most of them in the back section of The New Yorker or advertised in my Cricket magazine. Others would be sent to me automatically for scoring in the top 5 percont of whatever standardized test we had been required to take that year. Occasionally, a teacher would recommend me for a particular camp or course. As a weird, dorky girl with a strange love of mail, nerd camp brochure season was a delight. I'd spend hours poring over the brochures, reading course descriptions, creating possible schedules, and writing application essays.

Unlike other kids, my summer camp fantasies were of air conditioned college classrooms, the hum of a slide projector, and best of all--the company of kids who like me, preferred learning over playing tag. The Slate writer expresses this sentiment perfectly: "But what I remember is less the hum of the quadratic equation in the air—though there was plenty of that—than the sense of relief at finally being in a place where people felt, in some sense, normal. It was a place where kids could be cool without having to downplay their interests." She remembers nights spent discussing nuclear proliferation that reminded me of the whispered midnight conversations I had with my SIG floormates.

Even more accurate is her recollection of "mandatory fun time," during which we nerdy campers were required to participate in two torturous hours of "fun" recreational activities. I'm assuming that this was based on some kind of government regulation requiring at least a minimum 5-to-1 flourescent lighting to sun ratio. I can imagine the horrific task it is to organize social activities for the socially awkward. For the kids who are dying to spend the summer taking robotics courses or learning latin, there is nothing worse than being forced to spend time engaged in less intellectual, more physical pursuits. At SIG, our schedule went like this: Breakfast, Class 1, Class 2, lunch, 2 hours of "fun time," Class 3, Class 4, dinner, evening activity. The SIG program that I attended was held on the Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie, NY-- a gorgeous, sprawling campus of rolling hills, grassy noles, and hundreds of trees that we were specifically warned "not to climb" (as if we actually would want to). We could choose from organized activities like hiking and volleyball, or "free activities," like swimming or tennis. I quickly learned that if you chose "free activities," nobody would check up on what you did, so I was able to sneak back into my climate-controlled dorm room to spend two happy hours reading Jane Austen novels. On Saturdays we went on field trips to nearby museums, amusement parks, or fairs. We generally had a selection to choose from and I happily chose the NY Renaissance Fair, year after year. (I still have a box full of paper "medallions" somewhere at home.)

So yes, while I'm the first to admit that I may have missed out on some of the healthy, more outdoorsy benefits of a normal camp experience, I still wouldn't trade my dorky summers for the world...

Enjoy the articles.