5th Grade Camp

I was asked by my daughter's teacher to attend 5th Science Camp with my daughter and other kids from his school. So many stories, so little time to tell them. While I was nervous about going a writer friend of mine, Nancy, reminded me of the great opportunity to listen and study how children talk. During my three days with the eighty-five ten-year-olds, it wasn't so much what they said, but watching their behaviors and attitudes.

Fifth grade seems to be the grade when girls start separating into different clicks... popular girls; quiet girls; and girls that can flutter between the quiet girls and the popular girls. I'm not saying that the popular girls weren't nice, but they seemed to have a narcissistic attitude the other girls didn't seem to possess.

When I was a child, 5th & 6th grade, there was a girl named Cindy that everyone picked on. I remember being nice to her when no one else was around, but I don't remember ever sticking up for her when she was being picked on. Same situation arose in high school, but this time it was a boy named Craig. Thank goodness by my junior year I grew some cojones and stood up for him. I still remember his surprised look when I did so, because not even the teacher did anything to stop others from jeering him.

Now, some thirty-years later, it was easy to identify the outcast children. At my daughter's camp, there was a boy--a child that has been picked on since first grade--and girl which seemed to be left out of everything on purpose. Both children were socially awkward and emotional. It made me wonder what their home life was like. Does this play a part in relationships with other children at school?

In my group of fourteen, there seemed to be six of the children who would qualify as ADHD. Whether they were hyperactive or maybe, emotionally, they needed the extra attention, I cannot say; but it was hard not to fall in love with all of them. Soon, I'll try to jot down some of the adventures I had at camp.