In the picture above, two Kahdalea campers are being drilled in a tandem canoe. Their goal? Master their turning strokes in both sides and both positions, bow and stern. In actuality, this will take days of hard work. After they achieve paddling staff approval on the Kahdalea lake, they will then depart on a 3 day working lake trip to solidify these flat water drills. If they succeed in passing the many skills hurtles on the lake trip, only then will they finally graduate to the opportunity to paddle on moving water.
Why the high bar? Why the demand of excellence in their craft? Can’t campers just enjoy a flatwater paddle these days? Well, of course they can! We also offer wonderful exploratory paddling trips just for fun and exposure to open water. However, if a camper wants to be in one of our river bound paddling groups for our progressive whitewater training programs, they must work to master certain skills in multiple river craft. This is a safety issue, first of all. We must have confidence our campers can safely and competently control their canoes and kayaks on moving water – this takes quite a bit of practice! To be in one of our leading adventure groups in any of our adventure activities takes a lot of sweat and effort, but the pay off is huge. Our campers understand that if they can persevere through some tough working days, they will enjoy the fruits of their labors in the wide-eyed freedom of the rocks, rivers, and hills.
The ancient Greek philosophers asserted that self-control, also referred to as the virtue of temperance, is a cornerstone of human happiness. Temperance is the capacity to moderate our natural passions and pleasures, subjecting them to noble goals and higher goods in the hierarchy of all things. More than 2000 years later, the Stanford Marshmellow Experiment confirms this understanding. The experiment, conducted in the early 1960’s, presented children with the a marshmellow and a promise: if the child could abstain from eating the marshmellow for a brief period of time, then another marshmellow would be presented as a prize. However, if the child could not temper their desire for the marshmellow and ate it immediately, then no additional marshmellow would be given. Some of the children did abstain and win the prize. The children who participated in this experiment were then accompanied for the next few decades. The findings were clear – the children who exhibited self-control during the experiment enjoyed better outcomes throughout the rest of their youth and young adulthood, while those who gave into their passions had more significant struggles.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would likely agree with the famous experiment’s findings. They would certainly reinforce the need for virtue based education in the rearing of the young. The Greeks, in their own time, celebrated the joy that comes from cultivating the choices to delay satisfaction in our souls!
How do you raise children with a heart for virtue in a world that praises comfort as the highest good?
This is a massive question, but the data is clear: children who learn to press through discomfort at a young age have the tools required to delay gratification in the service of higher, better goals later in life. This is precisely where the wilderness, community, and religion come in.
WILDERNESS
There are realities we can not change. In our post-Christian society it is becoming more normal to hear claims that nature has been mastered and that man has conquered the barriers of the natural world. However, despite the many wonderful things mankind is achieving through the scientific method, we are now and always will be subject to the natural laws of the universe and the Natural Law, God’s law stamped upon our hearts. The wilderness is a wonderful reminder to check your pride and learn to cooperate, to flow with nature rather than dominate it.
COMMUNITY
To echo Aristotle again, man is a political animal. Aristotle meant that man is made for the polis, the city, town, or village where he is vibrantly engaged in a communion of persons: a community with shared goals. This is a powerful claim echoed by God’s word – we, the human family, man and woman, were made for one another. It is precisely in the context of community, and essentially the family, that love can be revealed most obviously and readily. It is in the context of community we learn to tell the truth, to delay gratification, the sacredness of family, the beauty of good work, and the essential nature of human dignity as we observe life and death at work.
RELIGION
While explaining to a group of visiting foreign headmasters who ventured to Italy to witness his schools in action, St. Don Bosco, the innovative 19th century piedmontese educator and cleric, shared his three fold secret to his outrageously successful schools: “Reason, religion, and kindness”, said Bosco. The honest and clear use of reason when engaging with students, the insistence on kindness and presence in all of his calssrooms and playgrounds, and, finally, drawing attention to the sacrificial love of Christ as the center and goal of all religious teaching and learning. It is no surprise that the founding fathers of our country also emphasized the need to cling to our religious faith in order to preserve the gift of a functioning democracy. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he mentions religion 4 times as a necessary part of the thriving growth of the American experiment. In the Northwest Ordinance, the Founders write, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” In his First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln said, “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.” In short, religious piety helps form young consciences towards the Good, and a community of well formed hearts can lead to a thriving learning environment as well as thriving societies.
At Kahdalea and Chosatonga, we hope to provide some key exposure to the benefits and long-term fruits that result from accepting worthy challenges. After all, it’s fun to grow in hard skills so one can feel free in the woods! Just as a linguist enjoys the freedom that comes from mastering a foreign tongue, or a pianist enjoys the ecstasy of feeling the pieces of Back and Mozart beneath his hands, so also our skills training programs can reveal an essential lesson for healthy and happy development: there is no growth without challenge.
Thank you for entrusting your children to us! It is our prayer that CKC can be a positive element in the broader education of our campers through wilderness, community, and religious and spiritual growth.