Teaching

The Newman's house was pretty much off limits to campers and it wasn't until I was an adult, returning camp staff, that I got to see much of the inner world. I was thinking of Irv the other day, sitting in his chair, smoking a pipe and cracking nuts in an old screw-driven nutcracker. A bowl of nuts was always on the coffee table, and the nutcracker had a large threaded shaft that protruded into a bowl just large enough to hold a walnut--very effective and made a satisfying crack.
He would sit and puff on this pipe and talk. He talked about a lot of things, about camp, his upbringing, his hopes and vision for creating an environment for youth that did something different, not really clearly described in the positive as much as in terms of what it would not be--academic, awards, a sense that he had too many camp experiences with other settings and circumstances driven by values to which he did not adhere.
I remember a fairly animated conversation about an activity called, Nature hikes. Someone proposed to make them more instructive--they were often lead by staff with little or no science background and the point was made that they were opportunities to teach some science. Irv's response was pretty pointed and the gist was no teaching, campers see this enough in other settings. I've tried this on myself a number of times as I've thought about the explanation for this response. In part because we obviously taught some things, swimming, riding, and yet in this case he was adamant. I can see that putting on your creekwalk shoes and heading down to the Navarro was intrinsically fun, engaging and definitely not sciency. Even staff with fairly strong science backgrounds left this be. I can honestly say that in the camper life I experienced a lot but learned very little memorized content.
So what was the genesis of this? I have some inkling that the experiential learning philosophy was in part the foundation--I did become a scientist/teacher. The focus was on doing, on being, on activities, on responsibility, not on adults teaching in a direct sense an academic content. Know that I have the background and interest to ask why, I can no longer ask.
I also had a similar discussion with him about why he had me teaching arts and crafts as well.