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If it's one of these programmes or US prison, with all that implies for the child's immediate future, never mind the long-term, it's not hard to see why some of the parents involved might be prepared to take whatever measures were necessary, be it a loan, a sacrifice of the college fund, sale of a few choice shares or whatever, to avoid a jail term for the kid. Especially if work, and the relationship, weren't going too well for Mom or Dad; it must seem easier, and actually better, to pay for at least one of the problems to go away, for his or her own good.
There's been a lot in this thread about the criminilisation of adolescence, all of it right, I think. But another way of looking at this might be that responsible parenting is also being undermined, as an idea. If Junior is caught smoking, and drinking, and taking hard drugs like cannabis, there seems to be an implication that the parents involved have basically failed, and aren't up to the job. And so need to hand things over to the professionals, who really understand about what it takes to raise a child. The hard choices, etc.
What I find very difficult to understand is how the baby boomer types, presumably, who are sending their kids to these terrible places square it with their own experiences of adolescence? Fair enough 'don't get caught', but even if you are, you shouldn't be sent to a prison camp, surely? And especially not one that costs seventy grand a year. |
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