School camping began in the United States in the 1940's and underwent expansion on a grand scale during the 1950's; in 1967, it reached more than one-half million students in over 1000 school districts. The philosophy of early school camps was almost totally activity-centered, with little emphasis on formal curricular subject matter, such as science and math, except where needed to solve problems at hand; however, modern philosophy of school camps emphasizes those activities not normally undertaken in the classroom as well as school subject organization wherein different subject matter areas are dealt with specifically. Since many school districts do not own their own camp sites, a potential method of acquisition of facilities is rental from some other organization or governmental agency. The major justification schools have for offering school camp programs is that these programs offer the potential for experiences unavailable in the classroom. (DA)