Military Boot Camp

The structure of a Teen Book Camp is similar to a military unit where each person has a clear understanding of the leadership hierarchy and each person knows their rank and place within the unit.

For teens in Boot Camps, this provides clear lines of authority and no guesswork as to who is in charge. As we all know however, many families do not operate in this manner, instead, each individual has a special position within the family unit and has the opportunity to contribute to the family decisions, completely unlike a Teen Boot Camp environment.

Rank is an important component in both the Military Boot Camp and Boot Camps for Teens. Teens are taught to obey authority, and that is directly linked to the hierarchy of rank. A Teen Boot Camp structure focuses on obedience, especially obedience to rank. The Boot Camp forces the teen to obey those whose rank is greater than their own, and mandates that the teen relinquish control of their decisions to Boot Camp instructors.

The average troubled teen going into a Teen Boot Camp has a problem with authority to begin with. The Teen Boot Camp enforces unquestioned obedience to every order, without input or discussion. That is good for breaking down a teenÕs defiance to authority, but the Teen Boot Camp method does not replace that with a social structure that creates within the teen a desire to excel and be a productive member of the family. One of the purposes of an Academic program as opposed to a Boot Camp for Teens, is to provide a method to help the teen to discover their own potential and provide guidance for achieving their goals.

A troubled teen needing help from a structured military boot camp program needs more than being taught blind obedience at programs such as a Boot Camp for Teens. An Academic Therapeutic program model teaches the troubled teen a more well-rounded view of response to authority. When dealing with a troubled teen, it is essential to provide the teen the tools necessary to return to his home environment with the critical skills and abilities that are not taught at the average Teen Boot Camp. Although some homes may be strict and offer a structured environment, the majority of home environments today are not. With single parent families, 2 working parents, work pressures, afterschool programs and academic pressures, families often have little time to provide extra discipline and structure.

An Academic and Therapeutic focused program, as opposed to a Teen Boot Camp program, offers the troubled teen a method of responding to authority that exists in the everyday world as opposed to the methods instilled by the Teen Boot Camps, which are military by nature. A hierarchal approach to learning to deal with authority may be fine for the military, but most troubled teens need to be taught a more family and socially acceptable manner of respect for others and effective communication skills which are not found in a Teen Boot Camp. A teen can use the information obtained at an Academic Therapeutic program to implement successful positive changes in their life.