After reading the post on re-education camps, it reminded me of the horrible massacre in Norway at the Workers Youth League summer camp. While a terrible event, I couldn’t stop thinking how creepy the idea of a youth camp for political indoctrination was. Are these relegated to Europe or are there any here in the America?
There are plenty, though how many depends on how you define ‘political’.
Teen Age Republicans hosts summer camps. I don’t see a similar one for the Democrats, but that’s largely because google tends to turn up ‘democracy’ hits:
Obviously a politcal party camp is political. Then there are camps that claim to be historical, but… ‘Confederate Camps’:
There are camps for minorities too, and their existence often counts as political:
That was just with quick googling.
Thanks for the response. Not sure any of these are of the magnitude of Norway’s or others in Europe. Call me crazy but I kind of like the idea of my kids making their own decisions.
What about 20,000 American kids aligned to the American Legion?
I’m am curious why you’d think the Norwegian version would prevent your kids from thinking for themselves though.
Boys/Girls State is just a huge civic lesson. To my knowledge left or right indoctrination is not involved.
It’s hard to find anything about the youth camp that doesn’t involve the massacre. Reminds me of the Hitler Youth or the Komsomol.
Nothing I’ve read in the US media about the Oslo shooting suggested that the youth camp in Norway was for “political indoctrination” but that the kids who were there were politically active and there of their own free choice. Have you heard anything different?
Ok what’s your proof of that?
The camp in question is the annual summer camp of the youth organization of the Norwegian Labour Party. All Norwegian political parties (of which 9 are qurrently represented in the parliament) have their respective youth organizations, from left to right. Perhaps it is more common for Norwegian/European youth to be politically active? I don’t know. Either way I can’t see how you make that out to be a bad thing, and a symptom of kids not thinking for themselves. The kids are their by their own decision, and extremely rarely as a result of pressure or expectation from parents, friends or society. I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever known who’s been pressured by anyone to join a political youth organization (although I’m sure pressure does exist, to a very small degree compared to just hanging out with your democrat/republican family at the house all day). The youth parties have their own leaders, causes, and economy, independently of their associated political parties. Before every parliament election, high schools around the country will organize school debates where ALL parties are present, and later hold “mock” elections for the students. The purpose of this is to educate the students on what voting and democracy means, and have reflect on the decisions they will be making when voting in real life. The comparison to Hitlerjugend is ridiculous. From your second sentence in the OP, it almost seems like you think politically active youth was the creepy part about what happened that day.
The John Birch Society used to host summer camps. How voluntarily the kids attended is probably debatable.
It’s called Young Democrats of America (“Young Democrats”), for people under 36. The Republican party has two youth wings, Young Republicans for registered Republicans aged 18 to 40 and Teen Age Republicans for high school kids.
The United States doesn’t have any youth wings affiliated with the International Union of Socialist Youth (which Norway’s Workers Youth League is a part of). But Canada’s Young New Democrats, for example, is an IUSY organization.
~Max
Is the OP assuming these are the kind of summer camps that parents choose to send younger children to? AFAIK that’s a predominantly US phenomenon. The Norwegian example was for older teenagers and young adults, who were, as noted above, already active in the party’s youth organisation.
In the UK, the parties have had their troubles with the youth organizations tending towards their own (usually more radical) views than obediently being indoctrinated by the leadership (occasionally disbanding them). But there have also been other motivations: in the 50s the Young Conservatives were sometimes called “the biggest marriage bureau in the country”.
Thanks to all for their responses. I learned quite a bit on this. Seems like the USA is kind of alone when it comes to political youth summer camps.
Reading the history on Boys State/Girls State in Wikipedia, they were founded in opposition to political indoctrination camps for young people that existed in the 1930s. So Boys State/Girls State may be the best answer (along with, perhaps, Model UN?).
I’m sorry, I don’t understand. “they were founded in opposition to political indoctrination camps for young people that existed in the 1930s.” How is that political indoctrination? My mother, best friend, and others I’ve known have gone to Girls/Boys State and all say it isn’t any fun. A lot of work and sleep deprivation. Looks good when applying for college.
There are of course religious Youth camps, very common, Bible camp.
How much of that would be considered “political” is a matter of opinion.
Agreed
It seems about as much about political indoctrination as the Workers’ Youth League is in Norway.
Thanks. Got it.
If you mean that the USA is unusual in not having political youth summer camps, I’m not sure that’s been established in this thread. I am not aware of any political youth summer camps in Ireland, for example, and it seems they do exist in the USA (a previous poster stated that Teen Age Republicans hosts summer camps).
Ever seen the doco “Jesus Camp”? That one was.
I used to live in the same region as one of the kids, and I’m pretty sure they went to the same church as a man I worked with while I was there. I didn’t see the movie until a few years later. And IIRC there are some updates floating around online about the kids, and especially the camp director, and I’m pretty sure the kid(s) who attended that church were the same one(s) whose parents divorced shortly after filming - even before the movie was released - because their dad came out.