As a parent, you believe that it’s time to send your child to boarding school. However, you are concerned about his reaction and the possible negative effect it might have on him. Any subtle hints that you have made that even suggest the possibility of boarding school have been met with an adverse reaction. Your teen could resent several aspects of his experience if you send him to an Arizona ranch for troubled teens.

Considering Your Teen’s Perspective

1. A teen might view being sent away as rejection. In our culture, we are raised to believe that families are responsible for taking care of children until they are ready to go to college or even later.

2. Someone else is raising the teen. From the teen’s point of view, someone else will be primarily overseeing his growth during those formative months in high school.

3. Living on a ranch might seem “uncool” to your teen. He might think that time at boarding school is one of the worst things that he could imagine. Just the idea might be enough to make your son cringe.

4. He will resent leaving his familiar surroundings and being sent to an unknown environment with complete strangers. A boys’ ranch in Arizona is probably a long distance from family, so he could easily become homesick. However, this might be good for many teens and help teach them independence and responsibility. He will likely face this type of environment in college and attending a boy’s ranch in high school could help him prepare.

5. The strict rules will anger him. Teens generally dislike rules that they think “cramps their style” or that keep them from engaging in activities that they think they would enjoy. However, many of these activities, such as smoking, drinking, using drugs and engaging in other reckless behaviors, are admittedly risky.

6. He could possibly be exposed to poor influences. At some schools, your teen might develop friendships with others who are not the best influence. He might adapt their bad behaviors, such as smoking, petty theft, dishonesty, gambling or similar behaviors. If these behaviors are not quickly caught and eliminated, they could affect his chances to attend college and even negatively impact him for the rest of his life.

Advantages to Boarding School

1. Education combined with extracurricular activities. Since students live at the school, the facilities should include a library, state-of-the-art laboratories, dormitories and a gymnasium needed to maximize your son’s educational experience. Some schools might even have top-notch theatres and dining facilities. Your child would not likely find that environment replicated in a public school at home. In addition, the smaller classroom size and individual attention help students succeed academically.

2. Diverse extracurricular activities. Your child will be exposed to a variety of activities, including music, drama, the arts, club activities and educational trips.

3. More time to focus on classwork and activities. The students live at the ranch, so everything school-related becomes nearly his entire focus.

4. Interaction with others. A boys’ ranch in Arizona for troubled teens could be just the thing he needs to develop new friendships, some for a lifetime. These relationships can foster teamwork and personal growth.

5. Teaching solid values. The discipline of ranch life and hard work promotes solid character development.

6. Engaging with the horses helps teach boys to connect and bond with animals. They might have struggled connecting with others in the past. Once they learn to relate to the animals, they can then transfer those skills to relating to people.