On 2006-02-13 16:47:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Niles- learn to read. My kid was at Carlbrook for 9 months- he has been OUT almost 2 years (May).
No one is at Carlbrook for 2 years. It is a 14-15 month program.
I agree that many kids would mature on their own and see the light. I do not attribute most of his growth to Carlbrook. I DO credit his peers and his assessment of how they had fucked up their own lives with nudging him towards a different path. My son was at a much higher academic and athletic level than most of his peers- even though Carlbrook is one of the more academic emotional growth schools. However, my son no longer could live in our home or in our community and had no appropriate school to attend. This was the result of HIS choices- not ours. He had exhausted all his options. Wilderness was the right thing for him- he admits that and even chose to return to wilderness during his Carlbrook stint.
We've had this debate before. You can continue to ignore the reports from kids like Rico Moreno, whose letter was posted here. You have no experience with Carlbrook as a parent or a student. I doubt that you know anyone who has attended the school or worked there. The basis for your loathing is that you don't like the seminars.
Maybe Carlbrook has changed up the seminar content from what you seem to think it is, but NO grad has ever complained about them or found them harmful or painful. "
Ok, I mistook what you had to say. 9 months, ending 2 years ago. I retract that.
I do however think its funny that you admit that he might have just grown up on his own, but somehow credit the program with that in a mysterious, undefined unproveable/unDISproveable way. It doesnt cut the mustard, doesnt prove the program works, at all. It does mean you really wish the program did actually do something afterall, however.
Oh, and other "messed up kids" (aka peers) are not therapists. You dont get therapy from hanging out with messed up people... if you did, fornits would be therapeutic!
Also, just because nobody complained about LGAT seminars doesnt mean they actually work or help or arent a detrement. Doing "nothing" is not doing "good".
And, all of this still tip-toes around the fact that only a total IDIOT going through the industry would believe that he or she could say they didnt feel they needed "wilderness" or a "program" and not have some sort of punishment or judgement as "not working the program" and have to start over. Its hardly a secret that you cant say anything bad about the program and have to at least outwardly act like its helping you and you need it.
Unless, of course, youre 'different' and so is Carlbrook and whatever company made him stomp around some stupid desert for a few months to make him "grow" and "behave" and not be "troubled" anymore. :roll:
The entire "model" of "wildernes" bunk is nonsensical, and so are programs. You havent addressed that the NIMH after reviewing these programs has not seen proof they work. Youve still not addressed how much it matches up with the BITE model of a cult, youve still not addressed the fact that he COULDNT say he didnt need it/want it/helped him without punishment or staying longer, and you havent addressed the fact that by nature LGAT seminars are nothing more than nonsense and a big emotional rollercoaster, nothing more.
Saying hes doing fine NOW afterwards does in no way prove the program is responsible for a damn thing. Saying that he repeats the mantra that he needed it and all these vague mysterious changes happened through vague mysterious methods that you cant explain shows the program "works" in that it makes people obey, but not that it offers actual therapy or help in any way.
I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.
--Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist
