Whetstone Boys Ranch (Missouri)
Whetstone Boys Ranch is a working cattle ranch and therapeutic Christian school that serves struggling boys ages 12-16 and their families. Here boys live, learn, work and grow as they experience essential individual, group and family therapy, excellent academics, exciting outdoor adventures, and useful hands-on tasks. We believe in sharpening young men to become true servant-leaders in their families and communities
Since 2011, Whetstone’s purpose centers on the reconciliation of boys (ages 12-16) and their families. Boys live in dorm-style in the boarding school with a 3:1 boy to staff ratio. We treat struggles such as anger, depression, low self-esteem and trauma with a loving, systems-based approach. And this comprehensive method of treatment and restoration sets us apart.
We work with boys with Reactive Attachment Disorder, ADHD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, internet addictions, and rebellious boys. Here the boys live, learn, work and grow as they experience essential individual, group and family therapy, excellent academics, exciting outdoor adventures, and useful hands-on tasks.
• Boys who suffer from not being able to form healthy emotional relationships with adoptive parents, including RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder),
• Boys who are unable to remain focused, ADHD, (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
• Boys who display signs of early rebellion, refuses to obey, shows argumentative behavior,ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder),
• Boys who simply need a change of environment, separated from the negative impact of internet addictions, and harmful relationships.
Whetstone Boys Ranch Helps Troubled Boys
We focus on issues adolescent boys struggle with, including introductory misbehavior (vaping, negative video game-technology/pornography), anger, depression, low self-esteem, trauma related issues, attachment and adoption disorders. Whetstone is an opportunity to intervene now, before these issues grow deeper. Boys receive therapy based on their needs, after going through a screening process.
Therapy and counseling includes individual 1 hour sessions, once a week, led by a LPC therapist. Individual treatment includes EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) –originally designed to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories. It is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences…and helps activate their natural healing processes. (EMDR.com)
Group counseling occurs 2 times a week.
Family therapy includes an intensive 2-3 day session during a boy’s stay at Whetstone with our licensed therapist.
Activities
The 285 acre ranch in the Ozarks, offers an Adventure Week each year, as well as hands-on classes on topics like Winter Survival, Summer Survival, Fishing, Orienteering, Campfire Cooking, Shelter-Building, Knot-tying, and Disaster Readiness, and more. Strength training program with running, team and individual sports such as basketball, football, whiffle ball, golf, ultimate frisbee, can-jam, swimming, and disc-golf, and more.
During a yearlong stay, the boys are offered other adventures like fishing, swimming, hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, rappelling, bowling, model building, carpentry, woodworking, guitar, field trips to concerts, sporting events and museums, creative writing, movie-going and much more.
Education
Whetstone Boys Ranch provides boys with a liberal arts-based education in a uniquely integrated setting. The Whetstone curriculum diagnoses gaps in student learning before moving to material that the student may not be ready to tackle. These gaps in learning are often the cause of student failure and eventual misbehavior in the classroom and at home.
Whetstone’s low boy-to-staff ratio gives us a huge advantage over most educational settings. One teacher for every three boys, provides multiple opportunities for assisting them as needed. Whetstone students return to public schools, private schools, home schools, and are those headed to college shortly after graduation. Whetstone helps transition the boy back home with providing transcripts to high schools, helping him to enlist in the military, preparing for the ACT, and more.
Therapy
We do therapy without “doing therapy.” In a small group setting, guided by qualified teachers and counselors, we talk about movies, music, novels and poems. We talk about Truth and Beauty – examine a “Grecian Urn” or two. Some say that all art is therapy. If this is even close to the truth, our boys get a ton of it while sharing their thoughts in writing and during lively group discussions, developing critical thinking skills in the process. In addition, all boys participate in at least one week-long adventure therapy session, during which they hike, camp, fish, rock-climb, rappel, cook over a campfire, and other activities.
One key component of our therapeutic model is mentoring – the modeling of positive behaviors within a loving and supportive environment. Our low ratio allows each staff member, from counselor to cook, to spend quality time with each boy in the schoolroom, in the outdoors, and around the family hearth. In doing so, we are naturally drawn to storytelling. We all have a story. Happy, Sad, Tragic, Triumphant. It longs to be shared because we long to be understood.
From a therapeutic perspective, what we see as our role in this story has a dramatic impact on how we view ourselves in relationship. Our beliefs make us able to overcome the problems we face in life, because they make us willing to receive help from those we love. Throughout our program, boys are encouraged to share and understand their story, as well as the stories of those around them. When people do this in community, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness become not only possible, but probable.
Get help today by calling Whetstone at 417-934-1112, or email us at admissions@whetstoneboysranch.com.
Contact Information
-
Whetstone Boys Ranch
6850 CR 2660 Mountain View, MO 65548
https://whetstoneboysranch.com/
(417)934-1112
Associations & Organizations
Photo Source: School Website and/or Social Media Data Source: NCES: 00939414


Other Boarding Schools in Missouri
Ozark Trails Academy
Willow Springs, MO
Ozark Trails Academy is a place of hope, healing and purpose for troubled teens.Ozark Trails Academy’s residential treatment program provides outstanding clinical therapy, incredible academic learning, and amazing outdoor responsibility and adventure for teen girls and boys, ages 12-17, who are looking for help and need to discover real change.Outstanding Clinical TherapyOzark Trails Academy accepts students year-round and is licensed to provide all levels of therapeutic care for troubled teen boys and girls, ages 12-17 with mild to moderate emotional and behavioral problems, and those who are experiencing future-impacting relational or emotional difficulties brought on by trauma. Limiting our care to 24 teens allows our 6 licensed therapists and experience trained staffers to give more attention to each struggling child. An individualized clinical therapy plan and focused care helps our students move to a better place mentally and emotionally in a much shorter period of time. Our residential treatment center also helps…
7 - 12Coed35 StudentsTeachersMaster’s Ranch Christian Academy
Couch, MO
The Master’s Ranch and Christian Academy is a residential boarding school designed just for at-risk and struggling boys between the ages of 12 and 17.Boys at MRCA and their families find new help, healing, and reconciliation when they had almost lost hope. Our boarding school offers a small family environment in an agricultural setting with a balance of discipline and training in an unmistakable atmosphere of mentoring, love and acceptance. Through education, hard work, vocational training, working with animals, recreation, family interaction, and counseling, each boy is given the tools needed to regain the confidence, self-respect and spiritual footing necessary to embrace his family and his future.The dedicated staff of Master’s Ranch is committed to helping you fight for your child’s future and to help him rebuild the smoldering bridges of relationships with family, society at large and ultimately with God. This critical time will also allow you to re-focus on your…
6 - 12All-boyStudentsTeachersChaminade College Prep School
Saint Louis, MO
Chaminade College Prep School is a private all-boy school in Saint Louis, Missouri. If you don't count Chaminade College Prep School, there are 159 private schools in St. Louis County. Their campus is set in a large suburb, which is just one important piece of information to consider when looking at boarding schools. In terms of religious orientation, the Chaminade College Prep School is a Roman Catholic school. The academic school years lasts 170 calendar days and each day students spend 7 hours in class. In 2011, 96% of the graduating senior class went on to 4-year colleges. 87.0 full-time equivalent teachers are on staff to educate the student body of 789 students in grades 6-12. That's a student-teacher ratio of 9.07. We look more closely at students and teachers in several charts below.
6 - 12All-boy789 Students87 TeachersSt. Paul Lutheran High
Concordia, MO
St Paul Lutheran High is a private coed school in Concordia, a rural area in Missouri. 5 other private schools are located in Lafayette County too, but very few - if any - are boarding schools like St Paul Lutheran High is. In terms of religious orientation, St Paul Lutheran High is a Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod school.The academic school years lasts 176 calendar days and each day students spend 8 hours in class. In 2011, 94% of the graduating senior class went on to 4-year colleges.16.8 full-time equivalent teachers are on staff to educate the student body of 209 students in grades 9-12. That's a student-teacher ratio of 12.44. We look more closely at students and teachers in several charts below.
9 - 12Coed209 Students21 Teachers