<p>Wow! Lancaster is known for being more lax than the other CTY sites, which many older CTYers appreciate. A constant complaint among older CTYers is that CTY discipline is too strict. But it looks like, in this instance, things went awry. It’s important to bring it up to the administration so that a better balance can be achieved.</p>
<p>regular mom, that’s really terrible. I hope that the JHU administration will take this very seriously.</p>
<p>My D spent four blissful summers at CTY, one in Baltimore, one in Lancaster, and two at Carlisle. She loved Carlisle the best, and marite is right that Lancaster seems to give the kids more freedom than the other sites (Baltimore was <em>very</em> strict). It was a life-changing experience for her, not academically (although she enjoyed that part), but socially. She’s now a college sophomore, and is still very close to her CTY friends.</p>
<p>I didn’t have the impression that Lancaster was more or less lax than the other sites, but it did seem to have more traditions, such as wearing bathrobes on Thursdays, than the other two my son attended (St. Mary’s Maryland and Siena.)</p>
<p>I’m dismayed to hear of a strange man in a CTY Lancaster girls’ dorm. There is a campus security force, but perhaps they are most used to checking for parking violations. In my son’s experience of four summer programs (CTY Lancaster and three non-CTY programs), CTY Lancaster was by far the most regimented and controlled. He dealt with it, but now he likes much better programs with more free time and less minute-by-minute supervision.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see this old thread revived - I started it last year. I was enjoying reading about my son’s experience last year. I’d forgotten the details. Then I saw the new post and was shocked! I’m about to leave tomorrow to drop my son off at Lancaster for his 2nd year.</p>
<p>RegularMom, please do follow up on that incident. I teach in distance ed now but did two summers at the Baltimore site and I know the administration would go–and likely already is going–crazy doing all they can do to make sure whatever happened there will never happen again. The kids who go to CTY summer already complain like crazy privately about all the rules because the staff knows how important safety is. I am right now at a different summer program that is far more relaxed and at which some of the staff refer to CTY as “nazi camp” because of the rigid rules for the sake of safety at CTY. </p>
<p>I guess my point is that nothing is perfect and nothing will make everyone perfectly happy (here I refer to the students who chafe at the rules, not implying that you should be even close to happy with the story you tell), but I trusted my own son to CTY for three summers–two at St. Mary’s and one at Lancaster, and if he weren’t so involved in other things, he’d certainly be an RA there now. Please don’t worry. I know it’s hard not to, but mine just got back from Guadalajara giddy with happiness and safe. CTY is far, far safer and, honest to God, I have heard kids say that it’s the first place some of them have ever felt truly at home among their peers. It saved my son from academic mediocrity and, perhaps, failure.</p>
<p>I’m happy to answer questions privately, if you like.</p>
<p>J</p>
<p>My son started at CTY Lancaster on Sunday and he is miserably homesick, begging to come home, stomachaches, the whole works. I feel so upset and disappointed that he is so unhappy! Does anyone know how many children leave camp because of homesickness? How many miserable kids cheer up later on? I SO wanted my child to have the kind of wonderful experience that so many other parents rave about!</p>
<p>Not every middle schooler is quite ready to go away. My younger son hated his first year at camp (not CTY) and if we’d gotten word from him sooner we might have taken in home. I’m glad we didn’t, because after he got back it was clear that if he’d only been in the same bunk with his best friend he would have loved it. It did get better though he never loved it that first year. He went back three more years until he aged out. My older son never had an issue at all, and he is in many ways my less adaptable kid. However he is a kid who never really had a friend with the same intellectual interests at home. You just never know.</p>
<p>GRose, have you spoken to your son’s RA? Sometimes they can do a lot to help a child adjust. I also suspect that by the end of the week he may feel differently. Keep us posted…</p>
<p>GRose, how old is your son? Is this his first time away? My daughter did two sessions of CTY last year, the last one at LAN. To be honest, I think she was ready to come home the first week and she is older (had finished 9th grade). We were really surprised as she is a very experienced CTYer and had really been looking forward to LAN. Part of the problem was that she was in a single room as part of a “suite” - there were only two other girls in the suite and they were much younger and shared a room. She felt very isolated. By the end of the first week, however, she’d really gotten more involved in activities and socializing and wouldn’t have left for the world. Give it a little bit of time - maybe not talk to your son on the phone for a bit? Maybe hearing your voice is hard for him.</p>
<p>Grose, I dropped my son off at LAN on Sunday, too. This is his second year there. He had a wonderful time last year, but I think he was anxious at the beginning. I suggest that you call the counsellors there. They will be able to talk to the RA and the teachers. Please let us know whether things improve for him.</p>
<p>ctymomteacher, CTY has been a lifesaver for my son, too.</p>
<p>One thing that kids new to CTY might have trouble with is how other kids seem to know each other already. My younger daughter told me how thankful she was that her roommate was a first timer too because there were definite cliques of repeaters who picked right up where they left off and she felt awkward with that. My older daughter has an easier time of just jumping in socially, for quieter kids it can be overwhelming. Once they make a connection with someone it gets easier, but the first few days can be daunting.</p>
<p>I think CTY depends very much on the age of the kid. I love love love love LOVED it when I was a rising freshman. It was pretty good as a rising sophomore too, but as a rising junior I found it a little restrictive.</p>
<p>A lot of it had to do with changes in administration, but I do distinctly recall being yelled at in front of an entire cafeteria of people (not all CTY, mind you, but 5 or 6 other camps as well), essentially called a slut and told I was giving it up to ALL of the NHL’s top prospects, ages 15-24 - another camp there at the same time as us. Even if it were true (obviously not) it wasn’t the best way to handle the situation.</p>
<p>A lot of the time the RAs see the kids as “young” and “socially awkward” and I think they found us very hard to understand - most of us were 15 or 16, we had boyfriends, we were willing to call them out on their bull*****.</p>
<p>However, I’ve never met a boy with the same type of problems, so maybe mine was an isolated incident. Hopefully your S will have an amazing summer =)</p>
<p>Wow, luckycharmed, I can honestly say that I don’t know anyone who works for CTY who wouldn’t immediately see that someone who did what you describe got fired, but I suppose in an organization that serves as many people as CTY does, some few ridiculous things will happen. I’m sorry one of them happened to you.</p>
<p>To another different point, my own son felt very restricted his second year at St. Mary’s, too. Lancaster was better, but they’re naturally going to “feel” the rules more as they age.The rules are written to keep the youngest safe. But you can get a bit of a feel for how “tight” the sites are, relatively, by looking at what’s offered where. At least that’s what my son said. I don’t know whether it’s still true, but when he went to St. Mary’s, there were a disproportionate number of lower level courses offered there. That might help you choose for the future (though I hope you’ll have the idea confirmed by someone whose child attended more recently–mine is twenty now).</p>
<p>I thought the CTY kids were kept completely separate from other camps. For example, I am pretty sure that at LAN only CTY kids are using the cafeteria that my son uses.</p>
<p>I don’t think CTY uses St. Mary’s anymore. My daughter went there her first year. She had a nice experience there but had much more fun at Carlisle.</p>
<p>My son just finished seventh grade and just turned 13. The RAs were supposed to speak to him yesterday but didn’t get around to it. I told them not to let him fob them off with excuses, as he surely will–he’s a very private, introverted child. I hope CTY isn’t filled with extrovert types! You’d think it would be the one place an introverted, brainy child could find peers. Of course, my son also is 6’2" with a mohawk and punk clothes, which puts people off…sigh. He’s a character, my kid.</p>
<p>Some of you posting in this thread may have received private messages from CTY staff relating known details about the incident that prompted bumping up this old thread. On my part, I would send any of my oldest son’s younger siblings (two boys, one girl) to CTY at Lancaster or at another CTY site if they found that interesting and applied to go. (None of those siblings have reached the minimum age yet.) Or I would send them to Brand X summer programs, if Brand X offered something they were more interested in than CTY. My oldest son was very safe the summer he spent at CTY Lancaster.</p>
<p>Both my kids each went enthusiastically to the JHU site for a couple of years. Only complaint was it accentuated how darn bored they were in regular school.<br>
Does anyone have know how the China site is? I wonder if they sing American Pie in Mandarin.</p>