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The study of the beginning of camping practice in protestant youth movements highlights the mode of elaboration of a “theory of camping” that attaches educational values to a stay in the nature. The development of this practice corresponds to a new conception of adolescence that appears at the beginning of the century and questions traditional educational methods. More generally, this study shows how new educational methods, through a temporary softening of certain codes of civility and behaviour that control the young boy's social life, tend to act upon his deep nature and to reinforce his adhesion to moral, civil and religious norms.