Finding Military Schools for Girls

By Amanda Shaw (New York, NY)

More and more parents of out-of-control teenage girls are seeking military schools to help turn around their troubled girls.  They are searching for military schools for girls to provide their girls with the discipline and structure missing at many public schools today.  But unfortunately, such military schools for girls are closing at an alarming rate.

Parents have enrolled their male children in military schools for over two centuries.  Nowadays, girls are accepted in many of these schools.  Military schools offer the structure, and authority teenagers need to control their rebellious and destructive behaviors.  They teach leadership and responsibility.  Behaviorally troubled teenagers benefit from the firm but constructive boundaries concerning rewards and consequences that military schools provide.  At their core, military schools are institutions built upon leadership, structure, and discipline.  They are institutions that strive to mold young people into lifelong upstanding citizens.  Numerous Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, senators, and CEOs are products of military schools and many actors, artists, authors, and athletes.

However, the mission of most military schools has changed in recent years, leading to the industry’s decline as a whole.  Most military schools have transformed into a typical boarding school format, eliminating the elements that once helped change troubled teens.  Instead, they have opted to become “college prep” institutions.  The remaining highly structured military schools are few and far between.  While traditional “military schools” that once exclusively enrolled boys now enroll girls, most no longer accept teenagers with low grades or troubling behavior.  Dozens of military schools have gone under because the old military format is what most parents are still looking for, not a college-prep school.

Military Schools Fill the Void for Troubled Girls

Often, troubled girls feel a sense of loss and lack of purpose today, so they indulge in harmful behaviors to fill the void.  Military schools are about instilling purpose in cadets, making them a perfect fit for troubled girls.  The spectrum of troubling behavior among teens is broad, ranging from difficulties completing schoolwork and succeeding in a typical high school setting to engaging in impulsive and dangerous behaviors involving drugs, alcohol, violence, etc.  So, while it is never recommended to send a child with psychological disorders or an addiction to a military school, “entitled” kids and those who have bought into the harmful lifestyle of their peers can benefit from time at a military school.

Military schools for girls emphasize leadership.  To become an effective leader, one must first learn to follow.  In a discipline-focused military school for girls, your daughter will be able to build self-esteem and present herself to her peers with pride.  All students are encouraged to aspire to leadership positions within their ranks.  Earning such a leadership position and authority can rekindle her sense of purpose and significantly boost her self-esteem.   The student body is organized into a formal military structure with a chain of command.  This instills a respect for authority that many other educational settings sorely lack.

The Structure and Discipline are What Troubled Girls Need

The structure of daily life at military schools for girls also plays an integral role in rehabilitating and strengthening students.  The schedule includes specific allotments for all activities throughout the day, including established wake-up and lights-out times.  This aims to develop time management skills indispensable in higher education and the workforce.  Academic commitment is required, coursework is completed and turned in on deadline, and rigid study times are enforced.  High expectations are placed on students to prepare them for the best future.

According to a survey by Art & Science Group, LLC (www.artsci.com), boarding school students spend roughly 17 hours on homework compared with only 8 hours a week among public school students.  Also, 78% of boarding school students are prepared for college compared with 23% of public school students.  Thus, at an all-girls boarding school where all frivolous distractions have been removed, out-of-control teenage girls are given the tools to rearrange their priorities and reach their untapped academic potential.

All aspects of life at military schools for girls are imbued with a degree of discipline, not as a punishment but as a tool for cultivating personal strength and restraint.  Especially in the Internet age, when every teenager has a smartphone at all times, instant gratification abounds more than ever before, and discipline continues to fall further to the wayside.  Military schools for troubled youth aim to correct this trend by holding students accountable for behavior, hygiene, organization, academics, etc.  In addition to high academic expectations, military schools for girls require participation in athletics, enforcing physical discipline and mental.

Girls are also expected to maintain tidy living quarters and adhere to a strict dress code, ensuring their uniforms are always clean.  This teaches personal responsibility and eliminates distractions.  At an all-girls boarding school, free from the constraints of vanity and the male gaze, both of which are often so pervasive in public schools, young women are empowered to make remarkable strides in the mind and soul.  Because military schools for girls are single-gender settings, the social pressures that many young women feel to behave in a sure way to impress their peers in co-ed public schools are removed, allowing for freedom of expression, which is instrumental during such formative developmental years.

Preparation for Real Life

Overall, military schools for girls also prepare girls for life after high school and beyond by emphasizing academic excellence and building a solid work ethic.  Regardless of specific behavioral problems, most troubled teens struggle with low esteem; by addressing esteem issues, their general well-being is typically improved as a byproduct.  So, at an all-girls boarding school, girls are taught to remain staunch in their values and given opportunities to develop the strength and the courage to do so, arguably the most potent tool at anyone’s disposal.

Entering military school as a struggling and likely begrudging, out-of-control teenager, She eventually becomes a self-sufficient and self-assured young adult.  By the testament of many parents who were once in that same position of heartache and worried that you’ve come to know all too well, enrollment their girl in a military school for girls was the best gift they could give to their troubled daughter.

About the Author:  Amanda F. Shaw is a graduate with Honors from New York University, majoring in Journalism and English and a minor in Political Science.  She was the Managing Editor of English and Drama Review at NYU and the Copyeditor of Washington Square News.