Today we were graced by the presence of two RYLA students
Today we were graced by the presence of two RYLA students, Emily and Rachel. Having recently attended the event, Emily’s first comment was that she expected something like a 4-day holiday, but the exposure to all of the activities and people involved felt more like a joyous month. The process, it would seem, was intense, based as it was on getting to know others, their varied interests, and on the side to learn some life skills (such as the inculcation of positivity, not necessarily an easy task). There were approximately 80 attendees, and, given their ages (grades 12, 13 and 14, as she put it), divided equally between the sexes.
There were a number of workshops to attend, including ethics, public speaking and more complex immersions such as ‘volunteering workshops designed to assist others in locating counsellors to help those with mental issues’, all of which sounded enlivening, if not downright provocative (one wonders how ethics are easily discussed or even defined in today’s abrasive and discursive social environments). Rachel added to the discussion a paean of praise about the emphasis on making friends, a good subject considering the current fractionalizing of society. (A symptom of this syndrome, I suggest, is the appointment, this last January, of a Minister of Loneliness by the British Government, a step not to this point apparently emulated by any other nation.) As neither of our guests had known any of the other attendees before the experience, their enthusiastic endorsement of the process was frankly a pleasure to behold.
Rachel also made much of the growth in her self-confidence (though your learned writer feels that her ebullient nature was transparent to her audience: she could doubtless by herself lead a group in such personal improvement). In particular she found useful the Variety Show, in which she witnessed martial arts displays and the enthusiasm with which obviously shy people got to the stage and performed such as they would never before have predicted; even Emily, in admitting that she was a shy person, declared that she actually enjoyed performing before others. Both alluded more than once to the growth in self-confidence that each experienced.
For those in the audience for whom this event sounds like a panacea for their own social problems (one can think of a few!) both announced that for the student component of the camp, enrolment was over-subscribed and was likely to remain so in the immediate future. As for the voluntary counsellors, they were also too numerous to accommodate us: pity, your correspondent thought that it looked like a good learning opportunity for himself!
, Emily and Rachel. Having recently attended the event, Emily’s first comment was that she expected something like a 4-day holiday, but the exposure to all of the activities and people involved felt more like a joyous month. The process, it would seem, was intense, based as it was on getting to know others, their varied interests, and on the side to learn some life skills (such as the inculcation of positivity, not necessarily an easy task). There were approximately 80 attendees, and, given their ages (grades 12, 13 and 14, as she put it), divided equally between the sexes. There were a number of workshops to attend, including ethics, public speaking and more complex immersions such as ‘volunteering workshops designed to assist others in locating counsellors to help those with mental issues’, all of which sounded enlivening, if not downright provocative (one wonders how ethics are easily discussed or even defined in today’s abrasive and discursive social environments). Rachel added to the discussion a paean of praise about the emphasis on making friends, a good subject considering the current fractionalizing of society. (A symptom of this syndrome, I suggest, is the appointment, this last January, of a Minister of Loneliness by the British Government, a step not to this point apparently emulated by any other nation.) As neither of our guests had known any of the other attendees before the experience, their enthusiastic endorsement of the process was frankly a pleasure to behold.
Rachel also made much of the growth in her self-confidence (though your learned writer feels that her ebullient nature was transparent to her audience: she could doubtless by herself lead a group in such personal improvement). In particular she found useful the Variety Show, in which she witnessed martial arts displays and the enthusiasm with which obviously shy people got to the stage and performed such as they would never before have predicted; even Emily, in admitting that she was a shy person, declared that she actually enjoyed performing before others. Both alluded more than once to the growth in self-confidence that each experienced.
For those in the audience for whom this event sounds like a panacea for their own social problems (one can think of a few!) both announced that for the student component of the camp, enrolment was over-subscribed and was likely to remain so in the immediate future. As for the voluntary counsellors, they were also too numerous to accommodate us: pity, your correspondent thought that it looked like a good learning opportunity for himself!