Military School And Authority

Finally, an even handed treatment of the recent concerns raised about boot camps for teens. Military teen boot camps serve a very vital, if unpleasant need. Often, it is the final effort of desperate parents to keep their troubled teenagers from falling over the brink. “Boot camps probably aren’t going away any time soon. Too much demand exists… Bernhard Bueb, the former headmaster of Germany’s elite Schloss Salem boarding school, says, “Children and young people have the right to be disciplined.” True, and parents have the right - and the duty - to discipline their young. Boot camps are hardly the ideal expression of this authority. Rather, they represent the radical end of the family discipline road, a parent’s last gasp chance at redeeming a child whose behavior is leading him or her toward prison or worse. Bueb… thinks the reason is a systemic failure caused by the removal of discipline from the lives of most children.” Truer words were never spoken.

Contd..

In the sixties educators threw the baby out with the bath water. By removing what was perceived to be an authoritarian demeanor to education, they opened the door to a type of liberalism that abandoned structure, form and discipline for a methodology that was “laissez faire,” don’t interfere, discuss everything with the kids… “anti-authoritarian” education….” It is time to move back to some common sense. “You should have the courage to demand discipline of children. You should stand up for your authority, with love, but you should also be more strict…. teachers and young people and children agree with me…Very strict education helps people to become democratically-minded. Absolute freedom is not the way. Self-discipline is not learned by too much freedom, too early.” (unknown source) By Ann Walker