For most children, the start of June signifies summer break, and for many, this means attending a summer camp while their parents are working. While summer camps and other structured activities hosted during the summer allow children to have fun and learn new skills in a supervised setting while their parents work, experts fear that summer camps are causing today’s youth to be less imaginative than those in the older generations.

In a recent discussion hosted by “The KVJ Show,” a morning radio show, the hosts Kevin, Virginia and Jason discussed the differences between summer vacation when they were children and summer vacation for their children today. The highlight of their discussion was the lack of creativity among today’s youth. When the talk show hosts were children, they were forced to go outside and play every day. They used their imagination to make up games and build their own playing structures with their friends. On rainy days, they were permitted to stay indoors, but it was expected that they would be creative and entertain themselves without the assistance of their parents.

The summer for today’s youth differs greatly from these talk show hosts. Most parents must work even when their children are on summer vacation, and they must enroll their children in summer camps to keep them entertained. While summer camps allow children to socialize with other children while their parents are working, the supervision and structured entertainment is only offered on weekdays. What happens when camp is not in session?

Unfortunately, many parents feel that it is unsafe for their children to be unsupervised while they are playing outside, and parents are too busy to supervise them while they are outdoors at home. Today’s youth are not running through the sprinklers or swimming on a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon. The development of new technology has led to a different form of unstructured entertainment for today’s youth. Instead of visiting a friend’s house or participating in any unsupervised outside play, parents are forcing their children to play with smart devices that allow them to be connected with their friends and entertained for hours in the safe confines of the home.

Summer camps are a great way for children to be entertained while their parents are at work. However, summer camps are not perfect. The days at summer camp are structured, and while that may seem like it is a good thing for busy working parents, the structure provided by summer camps is contributing to a decline in the creativity of today’s youth. This is due to the rigid time demands of the camp schedule. Summer camp staff do not want to hear that children are bored, so they will pack the day with entertaining activities. This becomes a problem when the children leave camp for the day or weekend. Since children are not given the opportunity to be spontaneous and play freely with their friends, they feel as though an adult must supervise them and plan their day instead of the children having some say in what they do with their friends.