High School Boot Camp

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Audience Member [u]High School Boot Camp[/u] is a documentary about a couple dozen Junior to High School aged kids in Florida who volunteer to participate in a "boot camp" disciplinary program. They are all "at risk" youth, who have had trouble with crime, disobedience, low grades in school, and so on, whose parents have run out of options and decide to send them through this military-like program. Ruled by brutal drill instructors, the kids must wake up at 4:30 in the morning, struggle through grueling physical challenges as well as academic intensity, while their parents are reeducated on how to raise their kids. Some kids graduate, some quit, but all claim to be changed by the experience. Or are they? To me, one of the wonders of the modern era is DVD bonus features. And in the features for [u]High School Boot Camp[/u], we learn that of the eight kids they follow up on, only two got anything out of the program. I'm not going to say that this affected my response to the film itself, as is, but it does give me something worth commenting on while talking about this. To me, bottom line, the only way intense discipline works is if it's accompanied by effective parenting. Paradoxically, however, effective parenting often prevents the need for intense discipline in the first place, so it's sort of a chicken-egg conundrum. Worse, every kid and every family is different. There are general skills you can teach anybody, but how to apply them and more importantly, how to adjust them for your specific kid is very difficult to negotiate. On top of all that, consider that our changing society is a factor in upbringing, if not the dominant factor, and you can pretty much surmise how difficult parenting really is. There is no easy answer, and to say that Boot Camps are the solution is short-sighted, IMO. Nonetheless, this movie and the program it documents were inspiring to me. What's compelling about this film is the degree to which the adults behind this program seem to care about the kids they're in charge of, and the successes that they do get. A lot of these kids express an amazing positive attitude toward the school and their achievements, and that gives you a glimmer of hope. At risk youth are reachable, it just takes dedicated people to reach out and touch them. More than that, however, they need that same kind of dedication on them constantly, and sadly, it seems that one summer at a boot camp does not a perfect kid make. Once you take away that discipline, and stop reinforcing it, it's very easy for a growing boy to revert to old bad habits. An adult can learn something and teach him / herself not to return to it (I've lost weight and quit journalizing in this way), but a kid really is at the mercy of his / her parents. Before you're 21, as far as I'm concerned, it really is all about how you're raised. And sadly, if you don't get that foundation right the first time, it's very rare / difficult to make adjustments later in life. I don't know what it's going to take to save our society, and while I appreciate those who try, I really think we all need to get involved that much more. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews

High School Boot Camp

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