Season 1 Episode 7a

Ahh, summer camp, the time-honored tradition of parents dumping their kids somewhere each day (or in this case for an entire week) and the kids often being less than happy about it. While I did plenty of basketball camps when I was in my pre-teens/early teens, I never did those sleepaway camps with all the stuff in nature. But I do know that there are lots of those camps up in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, so it would make sense that maybe this was inspired by something Marc Brown was a part of when he was a young kid.

The names “Camp Meadowcroak” and “Camp Horsewater” are very clever and a good play on words with something (When I wrote this, “Meadowcreek” was suggested for me by the computer). Although none of the Horsewater kids are named, a few of the Tough Customers are at that camp, including Molly and that brown dog who is unnamed. But the Meadowcroak kids at first are occupied with the boys vs. girls rivalry, which Binky prepared for despite his first prank attempt failing miserably on the bus and the girls getting win after win at the camp. As we see, however, it is the Horsewater Tough Customers who are antagonizing their younger counterparts.

It is weird though how Meadowcroak and Horsewater compete against each other in the scavenger hunt despite the obvious age difference. Not the fairest competition there by any stretch. But while Horsewater had the physical might, Arthur and the Meadowcroak kids had the mental edge with their plan. You would have to be REALLY gullible to believe that Brain dressed in a fur coat (where one can still see his legs and he’s still standing upright) is an actual bear, and Horsewater fell for it big time. It also was good writing that the postcard, which Arthur wasn’t too thrilled about bringing to camp and writing to his parents all the time, was the item that won the scavenger hunt for him and the rest of the Meadowcroak kids. As Ashley Tisdale sings in the first High School Musical, they arrived because they stuck together.

By Guthrie Edson

Buster Makes the Grade

Season 1 Episode 7b

The open to this is clever, with Arthur speaking in literal terms to describe Buster’s habits. For him, staying on top of his work means sleeping on a pile of books, and bouncing ideas off friends involves…doing just that. That’s not a recipe for success in Mr. Ratburn’s class, as Buster will soon find out, as could anyone from watching the show. With that being said though, it seems crazy to me that Mr. Ratburn didn’t offer Buster any help and just threatened to hold him back (and called both his mom and grandmother in, to boot). Threatening to hold kids back without actually trying to help them succeed is just wrong, and it shouldn’t be on a third grader to figure that out on their own. Buster clearly had issues focusing on the work, something not even tying him to a tree can fix.

With all that being said, Arthur’s friends could’ve just left Buster on his own to fend for himself, but they did what friends should do–help him out. It is kind of ironic that while Binky is talking about the benefits of a tutor, he’s doing so while at the arcade, and when it’s his turn to help Buster study, he does probably the least effective thing of anyone–tying him to a tree and reading to him. Even methods that seemed like they would work, like using candies to teach division and getting outside to study, didn’t work, but that’s not the fault of Buster’s friends–they are not professional tutors, which is what he needed. While Buster does eventually pull it together and cram the night before, that may be sending the wrong message about cramming (I never pulled an all-nighter in college and I’m very proud of that).

And also, it should never have come to where he needed a certain grade on the year-end test to make it to fourth grade, because Mr. Ratburn and other people at the school should’ve been there for him when he started struggling, not when he was in danger of being held back.

By Guthrie Edson

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