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What's your take on culture camps for children of different ethnicities?

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Originally Posted By Beth Hall

  I wonder if you are asking if culture camps which mix different ethnicity children into the same program are useful or if you simply want information about culture camps in general. I will try to address both questions.

  Culture camps can be wonderful opportunities for children and families to have enjoyable experiences that emphasize the value and positive characteristics of the child’s culture(s) of birth. Sometimes adoptive families look to culture camps to be the only or main source of cultural connection for their child. This is dangerous. Children are very concrete and benefit from ongoing and continuous opportunities to connect to adults and children of the same race or ethnicity as themselves. Particularly for children of color (Asian, Latino, African American, Native American or multiracial) who are adopted by white parents, they need strong and positive role models of the same race as themselves in their lives to counterbalance the negative and racist stereotypes they cannot help but confront in the media and world every day. Don't imagine culture camp is necessarily better than vacations to places where there are opportunities to be around people who share your child's race or ethnicity or ongoing family or child opportunities to interact with members of their group. Once a year is not enough.

  If you are looking at culture camps, I would urge you to ask a lot of questions about the staff. Culture camps run by white adoptive parents who are teaching "culture" can only do so from a second hand experience. This is problematic because it may be inaccurate and can imply to children that members of their own culture or group do not value them enough to be present. Culture is lived not book-learned. It is varied not uniform. The best culture camps offer opportunities for children to interact with adults and other children who share their racial experience and cultural heritage. If there are also adult adopted people of the same or other races on staff, this is an enormous plus as well.

  Culture camps which have children from many different cultures and/or races present can be wonderful and provide a different and also valuable opportunity for children. All adopted children, and especially transracially or transculturally adopted children, benefit for any and all opportunities where "difference" is validated as a positive. Opportunities for children to interact with other children and adults who understand their experience of "difference" from their parents and "difference" from their non-adopted same race peers can be really supportive and helpful. If the camp then has programs which value many cultures, great.

  In the end, the most important thing is to look to your child and his or her needs on an individual basis. I would be very cautious about forcing a child who is not interested and especially one who has tried once and does not like it to go to culture camp. Find other ways for them to "connect." If your child has a lot of separation anxiety, overnight camp of any kind may not be useful at certain stages. The point is, culture camp can be wonderful but it isn't the "answer" to cultural connection nor is it a formula that works for every child.