Why can't school be more like camp?

My son can drift away in school so far, DPS should hire the guys who hold down the Macy's Parade balloons to tether him. He is completely present on stage, however, so once again this summer I find myself wondering: Why can't school be more like camp?

Dog House Music rock and roll camp in Lafayette, Colo., to be specific. We were skeptical that this was a worthy way to spend a week (and $425) but he begged and we caved. He's having fun, but more than that, I'm witnessing an educational model that schools would do well to study. Despite the staff's laid-back attitude, they work with startling efficiency and a level of attention to the kids that I have never seen.

Monday morning, campers are divided into bands based on the instruments they can play (or want to try), level of experience, and gut instinct for who'll get along with whom. The beauty part: each band gets its own "producer" for the entire week. That's one staff member totally dedicated, full time, to each group of 3-5 campers.

During the week each band writes and rehearses several original songs -- only one cover is allowed -- and at the end of the week there's a concert at the Boulder Outlook Hotel. Check out these ripped-from-life lyrics by Noah, which he wrote for his band The Undicided (cq):

No computers or TV

Why is this being done to me

Can't sleep over at a friend's

When will all this torture end

These are the things that make me mad

The worst of the worst I've ever had

Make me so mad I might explode

Just leave me be in chill mode

The audience laughed with him -- a great moment for any performer.

On the way home Noah vocalized what I'd been thinking: that it was amazing to accomplish so much in a week, whereas after a typical week at school it's hard to say what you've got to show for it. The key clearly is the staffing. A ratio of one-to-four? It's almost like having your own Greek slave for a tutor. Later I did some arithmetic to see what would happen if a school were organized similarly.

Say there are 38 weeks of school and four kids per class, each paying $425 per week. That's $16,150 per student per year, or $64,600 in revenue for the class. Give the teacher $30,000 and benes and let's say there's $15,000 left over for administration. For economy of scale multiply the whole arrangement by, for the sake of argument, 50 classes. That means the school needs to scrape by on a not-at-all shabby $750,000 per year.

$16,150 is neither cheap nor expensive in private education. But remember, this scenario assumes one teacher for every four students. Can it be done?

I'm beginning to think so. Dog House Music is doing it.