Parents, who realize that they may not be competent to handle their troubled teens by themselves, often seek professional help. Some children have learning disabilities, undeveloped social skills, or personality disorders that when left undiagnosed or untreated can lead to behavioral problems later in life.

Parenting teens is difficult enough as it is, but if the teen is struggling with emotional or psychological problems, then both the parents and children suffer more. A teenager’s problems reflect in their academic performance and overall behavior in school. Failing grades and isolation from peers are common signs of a troubled teenager. Parents can help reform their troubled teen by sending them to a military boarding school, a type of therapeutic boarding school.

Therapeutic boarding schools or emotional growth boarding schools help students deal with behavioral and emotional problems before they get worse. These students may also be suffering from substance abuse, alcohol abuse, or may be plagued with significant learning differences.

Unlike in a traditional school setting, therapeutic military boarding schools aim to provide a warm, safe atmosphere to help troubled teens get back on the right track. They have a compassionate educational community that helps develop personal growth and healthy self-expression to inspire academic excellence and teaching and encouraging individual responsibility.

However, this begs the question of how young a child could be for parents to send to a boarding school. It actually depends on the family, the child, and the particular boarding school concerned. A child will need to adjust to the new environment, and his ability to adjust will depend largely on his maturity, personality, and flexibility.

Parents should carefully consider any decision to send their child to a military boarding school or any other type of facility where they will live away from home and family. They should make a thorough assessment of the child’s strengths and weaknesses. They should also look into the factors that contribute to their problem teens’ behavior. The younger their teens are, the more important this process of assessment will be.

PASADENA – Throughout their 13-year friendship, Steven Longfellow and Dennis Lowe have attended the same elementary school and risen through the ranks of the Boy Scouts together.

With the end of their high school days approaching, the two teens – who live down the street from each other – now will attend West Point Military Academy together this fall.

Longfellow, 18, will graduate from Polytechnic School and Lowe, 19, from Flintridge Prep. They met at Chandler School in kindergarten and have been friends ever since.

“It’s going to be great for moral support,” Lowe said of them attending West Point together. “Just to have someone you’ve known for a long time there … it’s kind of difficult to relate to if you have not been through it.”

Both say they want to serve their country.

“There is something I need to give back,” Longfellow said.

In preparation for basic training camp, which begins at the end of June, the teens are following a strict workout regimen – running and doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Several times a week, they train with a former Marine in La Crescenta, who tries to instill discipline and give an early introduction to what military life will be like.

Read the full story here.

What is defensive driving?
It is a training, a practice, and most of all, a mindset for motor vehicle drivers. The bottom line is that it seeks to guarantee at all possible costs safety in traveling.

Defensive driving may be achieved through proper adherence to a variety of general rules of the road as well as practicing driving techniques. Most states in America actually require drivers, particularly those who have committed offenses, to take defensive driving courses.

A driver who understands defensive driving is one who possesses the knowledge, skills and the right attitude while driving. He knows the traffic rules, is highly skilled when it comes to driving but not lax or overconfident, and has a right attitude towards driving and others on the road.

A regular day in a military school starts with a wake up call at exactly 6:00 A.M. The cadets will then have a series of physical fitness activities. The breakfast or the “first mess” is often delicious and nutritious. Morning classes, usually around six periods, follow that is 45 minutes each. But before that, they are called for the morning military formation, inspection colors ceremony and announcements. Lunch is the second mess around noontime. Two classes in the afternoon are more of tutorials. These classes are mandatory especially for those cadets whose been falling back, or those who got below 70% in any subject. Every cadet is expected to participate in sports and other activities until dinner is served around 6:00 P.M. They then study from 7:00 P.M. until approximately or exactly 9:30 P.M. By 10:00 P.M., all lights are out.

Like any other emotions, anger is normal and even healthy. Everybody is angry once in awhile. Yet, when it comes to be too frequent and out of control, anger becomes destructive. Most of the time, anger is mistaken as a behavior. It is because of the resulting unpredictable and inappropriate actions that the kids show. Anger and behavior is related, but anger could never be a behavior or the other way around. However, anger can ruin a teenager’s life. It will destroy relationships, create school problem and personal struggle.

To some extent, angry teenagers could be admitted to military schools, but not all of them could qualify. Why? Because there are kids whose anger is already out of control. The environment of military schools could do such teenagers harm by aggravating their conditions.

Whenever your teenagers approach you and tell you that they are being bullied,maybe you ought to listen to them. Maybe it is not the first time that they are being bullied. Maybe they are finally telling you because they could not deal with the situation anymore.

Remember that most teen kids never talk to their parents about these kinds of issues. They often prefer to settle it on their own. Most of the time, they just let everything be because they are afraid. Yet, even if parents will deal with the situation, when school starts the bullying starts again too.

Teen kids, who are being bullied, could be partly right. However, parents should also confront the matter and then do something about it as soon as possible. One example is transferring the kids to another school, if not, sending them to a more safe and self- encouraging school like a military school.

A military school can provide a strong foundation to develop teen personality. See, the stronger the personality of the kids is, the lesser the possibility that they would be bullied.

There are several reasons why kids learn to bully other kids. For adults, it may just seem like a child’s play but bullying has been an alarming act. Yet, why do these teenagers become bullies:

* They often see others do it. Worse yet, they learn the behavior from adults. For instance, domestic violence could be a source of bullying.
* Bullies do what they do because they usually think that their actions are acceptable, because everybody else is doing it. Like, everyone in the “popular” circle are expected to treat everybody else like trash.
* Bullying itself creates a certain strength and power over other kids.
* Sometimes, bullying becomes a defense mechanism so that other bullies would keep away from them.

Not all teenagers who enroll in a military school have behavioral issues. There are some kids who go to such a school because they want a career in the military. Take note that studying in a military academy is never a prerequisite in joining the Army. However, it is an advantage.

Most military schools usually provide their students with information that could help them in their future military careers. Even if the job is not military in nature, military school graduates already have an advantage, because they are known to have undergone stringent education and training. Their acquired values, like respect and responsibility, will even take them further to success.

When is the exact time for intervention? How would parents know if their teenager is out of control?

There are two main things that you should notice – emotional changes and behavioral changes. If you observe something different in your teenager far from ordinary, you should seek professional help immediately. A therapist or a counselor can help you process the changes in your kid. Here are some of the signs:

Emotional changes:

* always sad
* easily and often cries
* trauma and phobia
* unusual behavior like being paranoid, obnoxious and always irritable
* persistent anger outburst

Behavioral changes:

* poor academic performance
* suicidal tendencies
* frequent isolation
* avoids friends

However, the military school do not accept teenagers who have serious behavioral or emotional issues.

Education is very important. Yet, modern teenagers have forgotten the real value of it. Education has been overshadowed by fashion, friends and lifestyle. Parents are somehow partly responsible of their kids’ action. Some of them tolerate what their teenagers are into. This should not be the case. Parents have to take their kids to an environment that let them focus on learning. Also, they have to help their teenagers go through the process of puberty, while supporting them in school. For instance, make sure that kids have already done their homework before they could be on the phone.

However, for those teenagers who start to become impossible for their parents. A military school can be an option for their education. They will be in an environment that require them to focus academically. You will no longer become worried about possible bad influences that may distract your kids from their studies.