by Bill McMahon, Co-Director
After twenty plus years of running a residential summer camp you learn a thing or two about boys. Here are some of the golden rules my wife and I have learned about how they learn and grow, all of which informs how we run Camp Moosilauke.
1) Peer culture drives everything. Judith Rich Harris makes it very clear in her book The Nurture Assumption that the most powerful non-nature factor influencing how kids learn and grow is peer culture. Peer culture does not push, it pulls, and its pull is magnetic. Even though peer culture trumps the influence of adults, adults who work with kids can make a difference. One key way is to influence the norms of a peer culture. And of course a key role of parents, especially those with teenagers, is to help place their kids in positive and healthy peer cultures, via where they live, the schools they choose, the activities and organizations they affiliate with—and the camps they select.
