Resources for Parents
Content TK
PRIVATE BOARDING SCHOOLS
Residential schools and programs for teens struggling with behavior and academics work to achieve two goals: improve problem behavior and improve grades.
BOOT CAMPS
Recently the National Institutes of Health hosted a conference in Maryland about juvenile violence and the best ways to treat it. Experts agreed that state and private boot camps with military-style discipline do not work and can even make problems worse.
HELPING YOUR TEEN
Mention being the parent of a young adolescent and other adults may roll their eyes and express their sympathy. They see images of bedrooms in which lost homework assignments share floor space with potato chip wrappers and grubby sweatpants.
EDUCATIONAL ISSUES
It's important to find the boarding school that best suits the needs of your child. Some programs specialize in ADHD, some in substance abuse issues, some have reputations for turning failing students into top SAT scorers.
HARASSMENT
Professors David and Myra Sadker spent over a decade observing classrooms, before they published their book, Failing at Fairness. When the Sadkers showed video footage of their observations to teachers, the teachers were shocked by what they saw.
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION
Each public school child who receives special education and related services must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Each IEP must be designed for one student and must be a truly individualized document.
THE IEP PROCESS
"Child Find." The state must identify, locate, and evaluate all children with disabilities in the state who need special education and related services. To do so, states conduct "Child Find" activities. A child may be identified by "Child Find," and parents may be asked if the "Child Find" system can evaluate their child.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Your young teen needs you in her life more than she may admit (to you or to herself)- although she may want you present under different terms and conditions than she did previously. Some parents misread the signals that their children send and back off too soon.
MILITARY SCHOOLS
Somewhere between traditional boarding schools and therapeutic boarding schools lie military boarding schools. These schools have been around for generations, and one might even look at them as some of the first programs design to intervene when teens were out of control, failing school, or disrupting family life.
MOTIVATING YOUR CHILD
Psychologist Carol Dweck defines motivation as "the love of learning, the love of challenge." And, according to her, motivation is often more important than initial ability in determining our success.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Children who enter school with language skills and pre-reading skills (e.g., understanding that print reads from left to right and top to bottom) are more likely to learn to read well in the early grades and succeed in later years.
READING PROBLEMS
Most youngsters from 10 through 14 are not as troubled as their stereotype suggests. They manage the bumps of adolescence successfully. According to one study, 28 percent of America's eighth-graders have experimented with drugs, although a much smaller percentage go on to develop serious drug problems.
EDUCATING TROUBLED TEENS
Modern society makes it difficult for young people to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Rites of passage that once helped teens understand the growing responsibilities that come with age no longer play a major part in our fast-paced, chaotic society.
WILDERNESS PROGRAMS
Wilderness programs are intense, short-term, therapeutic experiences for struggling teens.
