I think all too often that energy, drive and ambition are seen as being potentially violent, and all too often, with a lack of proper outlets can become violent. It need not be that way.
And for the record, though this kind of behavior manifest in boys more than girls on a statistical level, it does not mean that all boys have it, nor are all girls free from it. Many girls at roughly the same ages (early teen) have more energy, drive and ambition then normal outlets in today's society offer them far too much of the time.
I would often read to my students from things like woman's diaries of their frontier journey west and it was not uncommon for them to say something like "Our wagon train was headed by Mister Johnson and a young man of 13" or 14. Hell, 16 was too old for the Pony Express. And, as someone who has been a boy at that age, and raised kids though that age, the idea of taking a 14 year old boy and telling him 'Kid, walk to California from Kansas City and then walk back and get some of that energy out will you." And, it took just as much energy for the boys and girls in the wagon trains to walk out to Oregon behind them.
There are too many kids who have more energy then they can contain sitting listening to mandatory diversity education and DARE crap and I'm sure they are bored. It's just that too often there is far too little other activities to take up the slack, use up that energy, and both challenge and reward them.
I did a lot of stuff like skiing, mountain climbing, wilderness hiking and backpacking, extreme swimming, and mountain biking with my kids, but others can not, or will not take the time to do that, or lack the skills and finances to do that. Or don't even realize its there I guess. I did that stuff because it's what I did when I was growing up so I knew how to do it and teach it. I also was way into dirt bikes as a kid, that I skipped on my kids.
And not all kids are like that, nor are they all that way either, it comes in humans with a huge difference in ratios. I also, when I wasn't being real dumb on a mountain, or being very stupid out in the desert, or playing 'you bet your life' with the never Pacific Ocean, I loved to read, write, make models and put together Heathkit electronic stuff. My kids did the reading, some writing, but they were far more into making music - so its not all active, but it is a challenge in some way.
Team sports are supposed to be the be all and end all to this problem, but they only work in some cases. My younger one loved them, did sports as much as he could. My older one was like me, didn't like it, didn't do it - but he did get off on debate and went all the way to all state a number of times. Its important to recognize difference and let it flourish.
A lot of this depends on the parents. I'm sure that I drove my parents nuts, and most parents today would not let me do what a lot of us did then. We were 16, (very early 70s) and taking off for a week at a time to do a surfin safari, or go out to the desert, or go climb at Pinnacles National Monument and other places or go up to Tahoe to ski or backpack depending on the season. But I know a lot of parents of kids today, and even when I had my kids that were far more protective of them I guess. When my oldest one was 16 - we were in Iowa then - all his friends and him got this crazy idea to go up to the Boundary Waters canoe area and canoe to Canada (I didn't think they would make it that far, but heck, its good to have goals). Is it dangerous, oh yeah, its total wilderness and yes you can get good and lost, there are wild beasts with bad tempers, and the first provision of wilderness travel is always in effect which is "if you get hurt, even just a little bit, you could be very ->-bleeped-<-ed in a very big way." Out of the 15 that were going to go only 6 made the trip and that was all due to parents saying no.
They made it back fine, a little banged up, very waterlogged, and with a very real sense that they had done something cool, something hard, they made it through and all that, and its the kind of thing you always take with you. From that point on that trip was a reference point for all of them. I'm sitting here now thinking back to my HS trips and the stuff we did, and its a good feeling. And, once he had learned he could do that, he repeated some of our other past trips with his bud, going out to the Badlands and Black Hills, and Mount Rushmore, going down to Missouri and the Ozarks and doing Jack's Fork and the Current River wild rivers canoe deal.
But all these things are there, and they are more acceptable than being violent to others, or your self (I see more of that in here, then violence toward others) but it does take effort on people's part to make them happen.
It's OK to have energy, drive and ambition, matter of fact, its a lot better than not having them. You just have to learn how to use it for good and not bad, just like anything else.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/superior/bwcaw/http://www.nps.gov/ozar/
