Boot Camp – A Term With Many Meanings
Do you remember when the term boot camp meant a basic training camp used by the military to train new recruits? Simply put, the military would take civilians, house them, cloth them, feed them and train them to become soldiers. According to the Army, that would entail 9 weeks of training, while the Navy claims they can accomplish the same thing within 8 weeks. The Marine boot camp runs for 12 weeks as they have higher physical requirements. The term itself is derived from the type of footwear that is provided to camp trainees in the military. However, the term is no longer restricted to just military use.
Obviously, the most notorious type of program, other than the original military use of the term, is when it is used in a correctional capacity as it refers to adolescents. Normally, these types of camps are within the US Penal System and many parents send their errant teens to these programs. It uses techniques that apply to military recruits and they are also taught socially acceptable patterns of behavior. Most times the pattern follows closely to what a military training camp would entail, not at all similar to what a youth would consider a camping hiking adventure.
Many different organizations tend to figure out a way to include the term boot camp into their business and the popularity of this type of program seems to have a common thread: “hard work and don’t talk back.” Does that indicate that a little discipline is what many of us need? Take a program about Fat Camp in general, as it indicates that overweight people are not able to successfully lose weight on their own. Instead they employ rigorously filled timetables and strict routines that at one time were only used by the military. Does that indicate the need for more of these base camp training programs for those who, for whatever reason, are not able to help themselves?
Are there other types of these camps? Yes, they are everywhere you look. There are probably some that you have never heard of, or some you can’t even believe exist, but one thing you can be sure of is that they are most definitely not like summer camp. In the 1980′s, Georgia and Oklahoma were the first to open “camps” for prisoners, done mainly to reduce the population in largely overcrowded prisons, and as a preventive measure for those likely to commit crime again. There are also camps for things such as paper and essay writing, spiritual boot camps, baby boot camps and leadership boot camps.
As parents and guardians, you may wonder if sending your troubled teen to a boot camp will “fix” your child. Many experts have said that at best, this type of juvenile training camp will result in only temporary improvements and at worst; they may even harm children in the long run.
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