| Checking out military schools for troubled teens is a | | | | or response to some other emotion, and can only be |
| challenging task, as if you needed more challenges. | | | | dealt with by first dealing with the primary emotion. |
| When your teenager's behavior has is causing such | | | | Most authorities believe that 50-65% of angry, defiant |
| problems that you're thinking about a military or other | | | | teenagers are dealing with ADD or ADHD. Or they |
| type of boarding school, you're in a bad place. Boarding | | | | may have a mood disorder such as depression or |
| schools are expensive, and they don't always work. | | | | anxiety. They may have a learning disability. They may |
| A military school may be the first thing that comes to | | | | be struggling with a school or peer situation that they |
| mind, but what you will find is that most military schools | | | | can't handle, and they don't know how to ask for help. |
| don't want rebellious, defiant kids that don't want to be | | | | If staff can figure out what's going on beneath the |
| there. The military boarding school is set up to | | | | surface, it can gradually help the child to understand |
| administer discipline and establish structure, but it's not | | | | and deal with those issues. It can help him to stop |
| set up to administer therapy. It's not going to address | | | | blaming others for everything and to come to |
| the needs of the adolescent with real behavioral and | | | | understand that he is responsible for his actions. |
| emotional problems. It may help straighten him out if | | | | A distinction needs to be made between the long-term |
| he's just a little belligerent, and needs some discipline, | | | | boarding school, and the short-term "Boot Camp" or |
| but if he doesn't want to be there, and he continues | | | | "Wilderness Camp". Many of these have sprung up |
| the negative and defiant behavior, he isn't likely to last | | | | recently, and many authorities question their |
| long in a traditional military school. | | | | effectiveness. These boot camps tend not to have |
| That doesn't mean that some sort of residential | | | | good long-term results. A focus on harsh discipline, |
| boarding school isn't the right answer. It very well may | | | | without dealing with the underlying issues, can bring |
| be, if you can find, and afford, one of the better | | | | about temporary compliance, which quickly reverses |
| "Residential Boarding Schools", or "Therapeutic | | | | once the teen is back home facing the same issues in |
| Boarding Schools, or "Emotional Growth Boarding | | | | the same environment he was before. In fact, some |
| Schools". Since these schools are set up to provide | | | | mental health professionals believe that the teen gets |
| individualized intervention and therapy, putting your child | | | | reinforcement for his attitudes and behaviors from his |
| there may be the best thing you ever do for him or | | | | peers in the camp, and that once back at home, he's |
| her. | | | | likely to behave worse, not better. |
| These schools, are usually staffed, or at least | | | | It's important to check out a potential boarding school. |
| overseen, by skilled mental health professionals. They | | | | Some are better than others, and you're likely to get |
| can deal with the angry, defiant teen in a more | | | | more or less what you pay for. The National |
| dispassionate way than the teen's parents, who get | | | | Association of Therapeutic Boarding Schools |
| caught up in the upset and drama, can. They're trained | | | | (Natsap.org) has much helpful information, including a list |
| to look beneath the surface of the anger and defiance | | | | of nearly 80 questions you may want to ask of a |
| and anti-social behavior and to determine the | | | | prospective school. |
| underlying causes. Almost always, anger is a reaction | | | | |