Simonton Says

It's 2004: Do you know where your children are?

“American children need to be caned more,” an African man recently told my husband.

Wade and I were amused. Would we cane our children? No. But then, we’re 21st century American parents.

I’ve thought about the caning opinion, however, – especially when I read the AJC article Do you know where your kids are? -- because it pounds home the vast differences in childrearing among cultures.

Visiting Celo, fleeing the bureaucracy

I catch glimpses of Camp Celo through the children. They describe it to me.

There’s the South Toe River, sloshing over rocks, coming through the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge. That’s where they swim.

There’s Anna, 15, in her barn boots feeding the chickens. Or working in the garden, which supplies much of the camp food and which is planted in fanciful curving rows.