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Fond Memories of Nerd Camp

Slate's "Summer Camp" issue has revived a piece from a few years back recounting author Meghan O'Rourke's experience as a student at "nerd camp." O'Rourke was a student at Johns Hopkin's CTY program (bias alert: so was I, and remain a fan), but I suspect there's a lot in common with the various Governor's Schools and programs like Duke's TIP. What's been your experience with such programs? Are you going to one now? Are your kids?

2 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Camp Atari by TheSync · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I went to Camp Atari. I didn't learn anything, but the Warez were awesome! Getting disks was much better than downloading things at 300bps...

    I also did Camp Watonka in the Poconos, where I got early exposure to amateur radio, model rockets, rifles, and extra-circular Dungeons & Dragons!

  2. Re:nerd camp != intelligence camp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    AKA "I'm redefining intelligence to something that paints me in the most favorable light"

    It's okay. We all do it. But you should at least admit it instead of making silly claims like "for the usual mark of a genius is the ability to quickly analyse and adapt, and nerds' abilities are usually too narrow to manage that." Yeah, that's *one* definition, but it's not the *only* definition.