Where It’s Cool To Be Smart Gifted Teens Rack Their Brains At Special Camp
When 10 p.m. “lights out” rolls around at Satori Camp, counselors can be heard pleading, “Hey, turn off your brains. It’s time to sleep.”
At that hour, the 105 gifted teenagers at the camp might be hanging out in dorm hallways discussing medical ethics or the history of the sword.
“You come here to restart your year. You remember how you can be,” said Hopi Schott, 18, a recent graduate of Kettle Falls (Wash.) High School back for her third Satori year.
“Satori” is Japanese for “enlightenment” - or “aha!” Campers keep coming back not only to become enlightened about cooking, chemistry and humor writing but also to recapture a feeling of acceptance.
The camp is open to junior high and high school students 12 to 18 years old. Cost is $385, including room and board on the Eastern Washington University campus.
Some describe being worn down during the school year by the stigma of being brainy.
“First-year syndrome,” said St. George’s School junior Charlotte Boutz, 16, “is generally living the whole year wishing school was like Satori - the acceptance and the fun and everybody working together.”
Eventually, campers learn to take the self-confidence they learn at Satori back with them to school.
“Here, they don’t have to worry about people picking on them for their differences,” said camp organizer Mike Cantlon, a Spokane School District 81 teacher. “There’s a feeling of family, a feeling they’re safe.”
It disturbs Cantlon that some gifted students feel stifled in regular middle schools and high schools.
Camp enrollment dropped by 30 percent this year, in part because of the loss of a scholarship program.
No money was available from the EWU Foundation, said Bernard Loposer, director of development. The foundation normally solicits scholarship donations.
The scholarship loss was one of many frustrations Cantlon had with EWU this year, he said. Most problems were caused because the university’s conference center was closed and turned the Satori Camp over to other departments.
Western Washington University is interested in the program, but Cantlon says he believes EWU wants Satori to stay and will work out the problems.
Satori isn’t a moneymaker. Some years, Cantlon makes $100 on the camp, sometimes $1,000. This year, he said, he expects to lose money, but he’s still enthusiastic about offering classes on orienteering, microbiology and hypnosis.
The 12-year-old camp dips into subjects public schools won’t touch, Cantlon said. Only the bravest of public school teachers would dabble in hypnosis, for example, or lead a discussion on abortion.
The students are bursting with enthusiasm. The teenagers in Sidney Kasuga’s medical ethics class, for example, are well-informed and eager to debate issues, he said.
“It all comes pouring out,” said Kasuga, an EWU science professor who has taught at the camp all 12 years.
“These kids have a remarkable sense of justice, and it doesn’t go along political lines. They know the difference between right and wrong, and the politics don’t matter.”
There’s fun, too. Evening activities include games such as Capture the Flag, skits, a medieval feast and a dance.
Mike Holland teaches history during the school year at Salk Middle School in Spokane. At Satori, he teaches television production and aeronautics.
“The main difference is here it’s OK to be different and an individual,” Holland said. “There isn’t as much peer pressure to conform. We tell the kids, ‘We want to hear who you really are.”’
, DataTimes