Learning Conservation through Work: Michigan as a Pioneer of the School Camping Movement, 1940-1955

Abstract

The Michigan Historical Review 45:1 (Spring 2019): 47-80©2019 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved Learning Conservation through Work: Michigan as a Pioneer of the School Camping Movement, 1940-1955 By Kristen Hengtgen “The single aim of [outdoor education] is—better living. America should keep her homes, her school houses, and the recreation halls, but enlarge them to include some of the outdoors. Some call it camping— some, outdoor education—some, recreation—and others, conservation—it is all these and more. It can well be the common mooring of our society.” Julian Smith, “On the Land” (1947)1 “There can be no doubt, and such are the views of the elementary writers upon the subject, that the Creator intended the earth should be reclaimed from a state of nature and cultivated.” Lewis Cass, North American Review (1830)2 It’s hard to miss Michigan on a map. Because of the state’s location and unique access to water, its mineral and agricultural wealth, and its location in the middle of coal, iron, and copper regions and the farming belt, Michigan’s natural gifts are a source of great beauty and pride. Yet today, less is known about the relationship between these natural gifts and Michigan’s public schools. School camps exploded in the 1940s and became popular across the nation, but their success, and their practice of taking students outdoors to learn from the land, can be traced to Michigan. State leadership saw school camps as a space to teach certain skills and dispositions: from health, to democracy, and, eventually, conservation, the dignity of work, and the “American” way of life. 1 Julian Smith, “On the Land: An Account of the First Year of the Camping and Outdoor Education Study of the Michigan Departments of Public Instruction and Conservation,” Michigan Conservation 16, no. 9 (October 1947): 12. 2 Lewis Cass, “Removal of the Indians,” North American Review, 30 January 1830, 77. 48 The Michigan Historical Review Camping as a form of leisure and recreation was already popular in Michigan for decades because of the state’s bountiful natural resources and large amount of public and private camps. Yet it was not until the 1930s that schools began to integrate camping into the school curriculum. By 1932, Tappan Junior High in Ann Arbor had acquired land in central Michigan for camping purposes, and several schools in Dearborn, Iron County, and Cadillac offered educational camping programming, often in the summer. In 1940, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) opened the first year-round public school camp in the nation at Clear Lake Camp in Battle Creek.3 The WKKF found in camping an ideal educative experience for specific reasons: it promoted strong character development, a healthy lifestyle, and democratic citizenship skills, each of which, the foundation asserted, would help strengthen local communities. Public school personnel in Michigan were invited to visit the camp and integrate methods back into their own schools, and the WKKF camp became a catalyst for many schools in the state interested in camping. As State Superintendent Lee Thurston noted, Michigan’s popularity with school camps was no accident, because “a state with a unique combination of great industries and potential natural outdoor resources cannot afford to overlook the erosion of its youth.”4 As with other backto -nature movements of the early twentieth century, educators involved in the camps emphasized that the rough and pioneer-like outdoor experience could potentially solve the imagined “youth problem” of the 1940s by creating better, more disciplined citizens. Camping was just one of many back-to-nature movements in that era. Many of Michigan’s school camps extended typical camp programming that scouting, the YMCA, and other private, public, and religious groups had practiced internationally for decades. 5 School camping also carried 3 The WKKF, a large philanthropic organization, has donated millions to educational endeavors in Michigan, as well as nationally and internationally since its establishment in Battle Creek in 1930. The scope of this project does not dive into the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and its great influence in the school camping movement in Michigan and nationwide, which deserves more study. See W. K. Kellogg Foundation...