Janine and our younger two daughters returned from a church girls' camp Saturday. The camp was almost a full week. They had a wonderful time and were very exhausted. This was our youngest daughter's first trip to camp, Janine's second trip and our middle daughter's fifth trip. The camp is run very well. First year girls are introduced into the culture of the camp in a variety of ways, such as singing before every meal while they wait for their turn in line. They also sing thank you to the cooks every morning at exactly 8:30 am. The camp includes overnight backpacking trips for the 3rd and 4th year girls. The third year girls go on an overnight hike and the 4th year girls go backpacking for 3 days and two nights.
Saturday evening Janine reported to me that she had been surprised by how many adults came up to her and said how wonderful one or both of our daughters were.
This reminded me of Susannah Sheffer's book A
Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls. The book raises an interesting point that many of the problems girls experience in our society may be due to public schools. The first part of the book reviews some of the problems typical teenage girls struggle within our society. But the results of a survey of 55 teenage homeschooled girls found these girls struggled with these issues to a much lesser degree and the longer they had been homeschooled the smaller the problem.
I think this is in part what happened last week. As our daughters are less exposed to the mean girls and the worry about social status, they feel more at ease with others.
I am so glad we homeschool.
2 comments:
What a great testimony to your girls. I had not heard of the book but agree it's most likely true. I always notice a difference between the homeschooled and public school adolescent girls. It's nice to know it's been documented!
~Lori
I do recommend the book. It is worth checking out from the library.
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