Why Are Struggling Parents Such An Easy Mark?

[Helena Handbasket]

On 2005-10-04 18:59:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Don't you notice this poster posts nothing specific about day-to-day life. They are very vague and post no information which actually suggests they were there. This forum attracts a few program trolls who pose as ex-students who are thankful for being sent to private kiddy prison.



If you believe in your program so much, why not post your name?



We can all make up stories, especially ones as vague as yours are, troll.  :wave: "

Ahem... I notice you're brown baggin' it too, guy. Pick a name, any name.

[Anonymous]

I have no interest in revealing my name on this forum.
No, we couldn't leave campus alone.  There was no place to go grab a hamburger anyway.  These schools aren't exactly in urban locales.  We could write letters to our parents and then to approved friends once we reached a certain level, which I never reached before I left.  We could read whatever we wanted and there was a pretty good library.  We went to school during the weekdays and then had group sessions after school.  We played soccer,lacrosse and basketball on campus- no interscholastic sports.  We had a weight room but there was limited access.  A lot of kids had musical instruments.  Our art room was excellent.  In the evening we did homework, had meetings with other students or staff or did writing assignments.  We had calls home weekly or every other week.  We did our own laundry and our shirts and dry cleaning were sent out.  We had a series of workshops and had lower school, middle school and upper school.  Each level had more privileges.
Enough?

[Anonymous]

On 2005-10-04 19:39:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I have no interest in revealing my name on this forum.

No, we couldn't leave campus alone.  There was no place to go grab a hamburger anyway.  These schools aren't exactly in urban locales.  We could write letters to our parents and then to approved friends once we reached a certain level, which I never reached before I left.  We could read whatever we wanted and there was a pretty good library.  We went to school during the weekdays and then had group sessions after school.  We played soccer,lacrosse and basketball on campus- no interscholastic sports.  We had a weight room but there was limited access.  A lot of kids had musical instruments.  Our art room was excellent.  In the evening we did homework, had meetings with other students or staff or did writing assignments.  We had calls home weekly or every other week.  We did our own laundry and our shirts and dry cleaning were sent out.  We had a series of workshops and had lower school, middle school and upper school.  Each level had more privileges.

Enough?"

Sure thing, Ottawa!  :rofl:  :rofl:

[TheWho]

On 2005-10-04 16:21:00, Antigen wrote:

"I think you guys should check out the tables tags. They're real easy. Using angle braces instead of square brackets, do this:



[table bgcolor="000000" text="999999" border="20"]



Your asounding wisdom

There is so much in the bible against which every insinct of my being rebels, so much so that I regret the necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end. I do not think that the knowledge I have gained of its history and sources compensates me for the unpleasant details it has forced upon my attention.
--Helen Keller, American lecturer

"

Antigen- I am the one who screwed up the board with changing the
.  I was trying to reduce the amount of space do to the growing qoute, with my response.  I dont understand the advice you just gave me.  Use to write VBA and support MS Access systems (Must be getting old, havent written in a couple of years).  Maybe better if I not try to edit the messages.

[Helena Handbasket]

On 2005-10-04 19:39:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I have no interest in revealing my name on this forum.

Me either... do you actually believe my last name is "Handbasket"? :silly: Get a grip...relax.

No, we couldn't leave campus alone.  There was no place to go grab a hamburger anyway.  These schools aren't exactly in urban locales.

Why can't you leave campus alone?  You say "These schools"... are there more than one?  Why are they isolated?

We could write letters to our parents and then to approved friends once we reached a certain level, which I never reached before I left.

Levels?  You have to reach a level to even write to your family?

We could read whatever we wanted and there was a pretty good library.  We went to school during the weekdays and then had group sessions after school.

Like group homework, or group therapy?

 We played soccer,lacrosse and basketball
on campus- no interscholastic sports.  We had a weight room but there was limited access.  A lot of kids had musical instruments.  Our art room was excellent.  In the evening we did homework, had meetings with other students or staff or did writing assignments.  

I didn't know they had lacrosse this side of the Mason-Dixon line...cool.  What kind of meetings?

We had calls home weekly or every other week.

Regardless of what "level" you were on?  Were the phone calls monitored?

We did our own laundry and our shirts and dry cleaning were sent out.

You wore dry-clean-only shirts?  :grin:

We had a series of workshops and had lower school, middle school and upper school.  Each level had more privileges.

Enough?"

Well, no.. that's curious - because from what I've read, Carlbrook only accepts ages 15-17, so I don't get this "lower/middle/upper" school thing.  

I've also read that "The school provides a tiered, 15-month interdisciplinary program..."  Which is a year and three months.  So, if a student is admitted as a 15 year old sophomore - do they get to graduate from Carlbrook, or do they return to their regularly scheduled lives?

[Anonymous]

Lower school was when you first came in.  You had to then be promoted to middle school after you completed a couple of workshops. Not many people actually made it to upper school.

We wore shirts that got laundered and pressed at the laundry.

The meetings with other kids were called appointments and you could schedule the appointments and talk about issues with the other kids.  

The calls to the parents were not monitored and they began immediately.

Emotional growth schools, including Carlbrook, are in remote locations.  This is to discourage running away and limit access to drugs and alcohol. At least, this is my take on it.

I didn't finish the program, by the way, and there was a lot I hated about the place.  So-I am not exactly a brain-washed program kid.  Actually, there was not the kind of spirit-breaking stuff going on at Carlbrook that you seem to think happens.  There is some component of manipulation in the emotional growth groups, but most of the kids really wanted to talk about the problems that got them to Carlbrook.  There was some really serious shit going on in their lives.  

My main gripe is that many of these kids screw up shortly after getting out of the place.  That is something that needs correcting.  They graduate full of good intentions, and somehow they don't cope that well in the real world.  I would say about 20% of the graduates do well in terms of staying clean, staying in school and not winding up with an unplanned pregnancy.

[Helena Handbasket]

On 2005-10-04 20:21:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Lower school was when you first came in.  You had to then be promoted to middle school after you completed a couple of workshops. Not many people actually made it to upper school.

What exactly are these mysterious "workshops"?  And why is the "Upper school" so unobtainable?

We wore shirts that got laundered and pressed at the laundry.

Lucky you... now if I could find a job with those laundry rules, I'd be all set :grin:

The meetings with other kids were called appointments and you could schedule the appointments and talk about issues with the other kids.  

WHAT ISSUES?  Christ - are we talking about running a magazine rack here???

The calls to the parents were not monitored and they began immediately.

So if you could talk over the phone with your parents, unmonitored, then why did you have to earn a privelege for written communication?

Emotional growth schools, including Carlbrook, are in remote locations.  This is to discourage running away and limit access to drugs and alcohol. At least, this is my take on it.

Yeah, and you're not alone - that's many others' take on it too.  Now ya gotta wonder - why did the powers that be anticipate anyone "running away" from such a great school? Did it happen to be built out in the middle of nowhere by coincidence?

I didn't finish the program, by the way, and there was a lot I hated about the place.  So-I am not exactly a brain-washed program kid.

Why didn't you finish?  What did you hate?  

Actually, there was not the kind of spirit-breaking stuff going on at Carlbrook that you seem to think happens.  There is some component of manipulation in the emotional growth groups, but most of the kids really wanted to talk about the problems that got them to Carlbrook.  There was some really serious shit going on in their lives.

 

Ok... I'm really trying to understand this... (maybe my head won't explode???)there's a "component of manipulation", but it's OKAY because some kids "really wanted to talk about what got them to Carlbrook"  Says who?  You know, some of us made up some serious shit going on in our lives when we thought it would get us out faster, too.

My main gripe is that many of these kids screw up shortly after getting out of the place.  That is something that needs correcting.  They graduate full of good intentions, and somehow they don't cope that well in the real world.  I would say about 20% of the graduates do well in terms of staying clean, staying in school and not winding up with an unplanned pregnancy.

Really. How do you know this?

Also, If you look further back in the the thread, we're led to believe that Carlbrook is one of the leading purveyors of young souls to Ivy League Universities.  

BTW, what is the average graduating class size of Carlbrook?

[Nihilanthic]

On 2005-10-04 18:51:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Why does anyone need to provide proof to you whether Carlbrook or any other school is a great place? You keep slamming all the schools as a whole, and when someone points out that you are wrong, you demand proof.  The issue isn't whether Carlbrook is a great place. Many posters on this forum have pointed out that many of the Carlbrook grads go on to good colleges and that the academics at Carlbrook are strong.  You have seen the list of colleges and a faculty member has confirmed the academic success of the grads.  I'm sure Carlbrook isn't Exeter, but it obviously does not fit into your basket of abusive, deceptive teen jails.  

A poster on another thread who was the parent of a Carlbrook kid had some issues with the school.  It isn't a perfect place.  It does seem to work for some kids.  "

Because in a free society with a free market, criticism is abundant and businesses, products, and people need to prove themselves. Emotional Growth is very anti criticsm (and anti critical THOUGHT) but the real world isnt'.

I'll put it this way. Would you buy a car, or a computer, if it sucked? Do people called CRITICS not have jobs to review them and point out all the bad in them? And isnt it the job of the manufacturer to demonstrate its a good product? Well, hey, same for service!

Carlbrook has yet to prove itself as anything but just another emotional growth program. Wow, there is 'academics'! Makes sense when thats what its accredited for when its really an emotional growth program, not a traditional academy.

But hey, when Carlbrookies are coming out saying they had to pass workshops to go up levels, after we say "hey its just antoher LGA based program" you know what that does? It proves us RIGHT.

So yeah, its perfectly okay for us to say EVERY program sucks, and that EVERY program has to prove itself good. The only reason parents get sucked into this bullshit is because all the information is controlled, intercommunication is shunned and up until now the only way to find out any objective information was word of mouth.

Lon Woodbury's website has yet to issue a critical review of anything, and no program will speak bad about themselves, and there are no critics out there except us. So, if you don't like it, there are two things you can do:

1. Tell people not to come here and just use the people who are referred as business.
2. Prove us wrong.

Real hard to guess what Carlbrook is reliant on.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us, and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.
--Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist

[Anonymous]

On 2005-10-04 20:21:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Lower school was when you first came in.  You had to then be promoted to middle school after you completed a couple of workshops. Not many people actually made it to upper school.



We wore shirts that got laundered and pressed at the laundry.



The meetings with other kids were called appointments and you could schedule the appointments and talk about issues with the other kids.  



The calls to the parents were not monitored and they began immediately.



Emotional growth schools, including Carlbrook, are in remote locations.  This is to discourage running away and limit access to drugs and alcohol. At least, this is my take on it.



I didn't finish the program, by the way, and there was a lot I hated about the place.  So-I am not exactly a brain-washed program kid.  Actually, there was not the kind of spirit-breaking stuff going on at Carlbrook that you seem to think happens.  There is some component of manipulation in the emotional growth groups, but most of the kids really wanted to talk about the problems that got them to Carlbrook.  There was some really serious shit going on in their lives.  



My main gripe is that many of these kids screw up shortly after getting out of the place.  That is something that needs correcting.  They graduate full of good intentions, and somehow they don't cope that well in the real world.  I would say about 20% of the graduates do well in terms of staying clean, staying in school and not winding up with an unplanned pregnancy.



"

I call bullshit. This sounds like an EMPLOYEE of carlbrook, not a ex-student.

Decide for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Before you feed a troll, realize it's probably Ottawa or bitch assistant Ottawa.

Post URL: http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... m=11#59078

[Helena Handbasket]

On 2005-10-05 08:24:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Before you feed a troll, realize it's probably Ottawa or bitch assistant Ottawa.



Post URL: http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... m=11#59078"

Thought Ottowa was a CEDU staffer/parent/troll?

[Anonymous]

got the troll part right...  :lol:

[Troll Control]

On 2005-10-05 08:32:00, Helena Handbasket wrote:

"

On 2005-10-05 08:24:00, Anonymous wrote:


"Before you feed a troll, realize it's probably Ottawa or bitch assistant Ottawa.





Post URL: http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... m=11#59078"

Thought Ottowa was a CEDU staffer/parent/troll?
"

She is, but she also blindly supports any program.

The Carlbrook trolls are KarenInDallas and Ben's Dad.

[Anonymous]

"The Carlbrook trolls are KarenInDallas and Ben's Dad."

Neither of their kids finished the program.  I don't think either would blindly support the school.  My kid was in the same group.  Karen's son got kicked out and is doing better than anyone else. He is either at or heading for an Ivy League school as an athlete. Ben's son walked out when he turned 18.
I think it is really a kid posting- if not, maybe the parent of a current student there.

[Anonymous]

On 2005-10-05 08:49:00, Anonymous wrote:

""The Carlbrook trolls are KarenInDallas and Ben's Dad."



Neither of their kids finished the program.  I don't think either would blindly support the school.  My kid was in the same group.  Karen's son got kicked out and is doing better than anyone else. He is either at or heading for an Ivy League school as an athlete. Ben's son walked out when he turned 18.

I think it is really a kid posting- if not, maybe the parent of a current student there."

Ahahahahahahahahahahaha