Wilderness boot camps have been getting a lot of flak from the media. So many horror stories have cropped up ever since the early 1990s, when teens who were seemingly leading troubled lives were killed in boot camps that were supposedly meant to reform them. It’s not surprising, then, that many parents aren’t enthusiastic at the thought of sending their children to these programs.
But what are they, exactly?
We’ve all heard of boot camps. Tough physical training, rigid rules, and unyielding trainers. They are military-style schools where insolent rebel teenagers are sent to be “stripped off” and “broken down” only to be built back up again. Break off from schedule, even if just for a few minutes, and expect 100 push-ups before breakfast. Mention, even if fleetingly, that you want to go home and you’ll get to stay for another two weeks. These camps use negative discipline to reinforce just who exactly is boss. The goal is to shape up a good and obedient soldier who will go home to his parents a tamed and respectful child. All this in the middle of nowhere.
Now, don’t confuse wilderness boot camps with alternative wilderness therapy.
A lot of boot camp operators introduce themselves under the guise of alternative wilderness therapists, probably because of the unpleasant image media has assigned to them. Still, boot camps are not wilderness therapy. They lack any sort of therapeutic value, much like a painkiller lacks the ability to actually cure a headache. Sending your teen to boot camp will most likely cure the symptoms of being a troubled teen, but only for a while, and not deal with the real problem itself.
Are They Effective?
But what’s a desperate parent to do?
I would go for therapeutic wilderness camps that teach teens how to survive in the wilderness, develop new skills, and build confidence in themselves, without the distractions of cable TV, Wi-Fi, phone lines, the Xbox, and other gadgets that take a child’s time away from communing with the only two things that are real—himself and Mother Nature.
Unlike authoritarian and confrontational settings in boot camps, wilderness therapy doesn’t just wipe out the symptoms. It tackles the root of the problem—often self-esteem issues, difficulties with dealing with the family, or challenges with going through the identity crisis phase inherent with being a teenager. We’ve all been there and done that, but for some teens, it could be extra grueling.
When he finds himself with other teenagers in the midst of nature that is serenely beautiful but also terrifyingly powerful, he will realize the insignificance of everything else that preoccupied his thoughts back home. Yes, the partying, the getting high, the getting wasted all the time will be unimportant and even petty when he has been through trying to cook for himself and six other persons without an oven or even a matchstick, or putting up a shelter made from banana leaves so he can have a place to stay when it rains. With some time spent at a therapeutic wilderness camp, your teen will come back a better person.
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