As I have said before: So many opinions … so little information. The opening poster has not revealed to us any of the following:
1. What her kid did wrong, and what efforts before the “confiscation” of shoes the camp took to bring the child into compliance with the rules. And whether the kid was punished on prior occasions for bad behavior.
2. How disruptive her child was to the other children in the camp.
3. Whether her child required medical attention following his perambulating on gravel.
4. Whether the camp still has the kid’s shoes or returned them.
The “confiscation” of shoes reminded me (and at least one other poster) of the Nazi confiscation of children’s shoes, as displayed so poignantly at the Yad Vashem museum. There is, however, a difference between confiscation by Nazis – who killed the children who owned the shoes because they were Jewish – and the confiscation by the camp counsellor, who was merely trying to make a child behave. Confiscation is a harsh world, and I question the opening poster’s judgment in using such a harsh word.
The opening poster’s complaint strikes me as part of a larger problem, i.e., parents who pay tuition – to camp, to school or to college – and think that their child does not have some obligations to abide by the rules of the institution, and are shocked when the institution disciplines their child, or gives him an unsatisfactory grade just because the kid failed to learn the subject matter. But, as I said, the opeing poster did not give us enough information to support my impression.