Boot Camps For Teens – Do Surprise And Awe Tactics Work?
Stanley is a youthful 14-year-old teenager with tears rolling down his cheeks. He has wanted to cry since the day he arrived, but his masculinity has stopped him. Also, he heard that there is a bet that he or a tall skinny boy named Jerimiah would be the first to cry. Standing in his worn-out green camouflage pants, he continued to let three days of frustrated emotion pour out of him as his stern instructor yelled obscenities. Tearing down a teen to rebuild it, these shock and awe tactics continue to tear teens down and, in many cases, stay there.
After the last salty tear hits the hot, steamy pavement, Stanley gathers what’s left of his dignity and runs the laps his drill sergeant has been yelling at him to run for the past 15 minutes. Although he can see the other teenagers standing in line to pay attention, without a smile on their stone faces, he knows that the moment the drill sergeant yells “cadets…fired!”, each and every one of them his companions will insult him mercilessly. At this point, he doesn’t care, he only wants one thing. To go home. He somehow knows that going home won’t be possible: his parents have given up on their drug dealing, truancy, fighting and stealing. Is he sorry? Is he waiting for the moment when he sees his mother’s brown eyes to give her a big hug of comfort? Not.
In fact, it has hardened his heart even more. Who is the best person to take her anger out on? The one person she blames more than anyone for his situation: his mother. As his expensive $150 Air Jordans struggle to stay within the track lines (Drill Sergent will make you run more laps if you touch the line), he thinks of all the ways he can make his mom pay. for sending him to boot camp. . He now he will never go to school. He will never wash another dish. He will sell not just marijuana, he will sell crack. As his mother sits 110 miles away thinking her son will “learn her lesson,” Stanley painstakingly plans every “revenge” he can think of.
Lying on his neatly made bunk, every muscle in his body throbbing from the 500 push-ups he did because his drill sergeant found Doritos in his trunk again. The plot. He thinks. he weighs. Is part of this situation his fault? He maybe he should take on more responsibilities at home, or maybe he should attend school more. Remember the essay he wrote when he was 12 years old. It was titled “I want to be president.” He maybe he has been very disturbing with his mother; he knows that she works hard for her sake. She has provided everything she owns. As he looks at the Air Jordans neatly placed on the floor right next to him, he begins to think about the valentine he made for his mother in third grade. She was so proud to get it. Her face turned red as joy spilled out of her pores. But reality hits him like a ton of bricks when Drill Sergeant walks into the booth in that same horsey voice, yelling the same three words he’s been yelling since day 1: “Lights out ladies.” He hates being called lady.
She closes her eyes as tightly as she can to try to hold back another tear. It is 10 feet from the next bunk. Surely the other teens will start over if they hear a groan from Stanley. A tear falls onto his white pillowcase, but he doesn’t make a sound. He once again looks for someone to blame for this situation. He refocuses his negative energy on the one person who loves him more than anyone else in the world: his mother.
When she picks him up three weeks later, she notices that he has bruises around his eye. This was a fight that started in an attempt to restore some of her street credibility. She also realizes that he has lost the 25 pounds that she had hoped he would lose over the last three years. He looks good. But what is this? She notices a look she’s all too familiar with. It’s in her eyes, but this time it’s even more amplified. It’s exactly the look she hoped she wouldn’t see. Hell, she even paid $3000 for her not to see the look. It’s a look of… revenge!