Troubled Teens Resources

Troubled teenagers typically spend an inordinate amount of time plugged into some kind of media. As many public school institutions have dropped gym programs, fewer and fewer teenagers get regular exercise or ever go outdoors except to get into cars and buses and go indoors somewhere else.

One parent was amazed to find children at his kid’s summer camp who had never, ever spent a night camping or in a wilderness situation. Teens at risk who have never had the chance to leave their inner city homes have never seen acres and acres of wide open spaces.

And of course, studies are now making the rounds pinpointing this cave-like behavior as the cause of a number of adolescent ills, from obesity, ADHD to teen age drug abuse.

“Society is sending an unintended message to children - nature is past, electronics are the future and the boogeyman lives in the woods,” Louv wrote in a 2005 article in The Oregonian. “The script is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities. This message is effectively banning much of the kind of play we enjoyed as children.”

Outdoor classrooms have proved to curb attention deficit disorder, and they also boost test scores, grade-point averages and problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, Louv writes.”

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America is rich with parks; city parks, state parks, wildlife preserves. If you have to rent a car for the week-end, make the effort to acquaint your teenagers with the great outdoors.