Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools
Warning about Hyde School from an educational consultant
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2005-10-22 20:48:00, Lars wrote:
"I graduated from Hyde in 1990 and I still carry an intense anger at my parents for making spend three of the most miserable years of my life there. I'm a successful attorney and it's no thanks to that cult. Emotionally humiliating, intellectually stifling...I refuse to have anything to do with the place and I routinely tear up any fund raising mailers.
Going to college was like being let out of prison. I never enjoyed school until I left that hell hole. The comments on this board regarding the school's treatment of mental health problems as character issues bring back a lot of rancid memories (I suffered from severe depression and they told me I was lazy, the ignorant bastards).
I'm busy getting ready for a major trial, but I'll return to this board later and share some more details. The advice to prospective parents urging caution is well taken. "
--- End quote ---
I am very sorry to hear about your very unfortunate experience with Hyde. Your experience parallels my own. Now that I have some distance from the school, I am astonished that Hyde hasn't been exposed for its remarkably shortsighted, destructive practices, particularly with students who have serious mental health issues. It's just so sad that Hyde has drawn so many desperate parents into their grip. While some students manage to leave Hyde without serious scars (and some may even benefit), there are scores of students and parents who now talk retrospectively about how Hyde felt like a cult (Gauld influenced) and brainwashed both parents and students into thinking that everything can be interpreted as a character issue. People who buy into Hyde talk like they're reading from a script.
Anonymous:
When you say that "some even benefit from Hyde" I think this needs to be clarified.
Hyde did not come up with some extraordinary method to "turn kids around." There are many kids who go to Hyde who are out of control and have no discipline in their lives. Hyde has boundaries and consequences to poor behavior. This is something the parent obviously has a problem doing.
You could put this child in ANY program or even juvenile hall for that matter where there are consequences and boundaries and this child will have "some benefit." The parents of these kids who have turned their lives around might praise Hyde, but truly Hyde is more harmful than good!
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2005-10-23 16:39:00, Anonymous wrote:
"When you say that "some even benefit from Hyde" I think this needs to be clarified.
Hyde did not come up with some extraordinary method to "turn kids around." There are many kids who go to Hyde who are out of control and have no discipline in their lives. Hyde has boundaries and consequences to poor behavior. This is something the parent obviously has a problem doing.
You could put this child in ANY program or even juvenile hall for that matter where there are consequences and boundaries and this child will have "some benefit." The parents of these kids who have turned their lives around might praise Hyde, but truly Hyde is more harmful than good!"
--- End quote ---
I think you're right about what I said concerning some kids benefit from Hyde. Yes, some kids at Hyde need consequences and structure. I think you're right that lots of programs can provide that. One doesn't need Hyde for that. And I fully agree that Hyde's very destructive characteristics outweigh any good that might come from Hyde's terrible environment. Thanks for clarifying this point. As you say, parents simply SHOULD NOT send their kids to Hyde School. Keep looking for one of the many good alternatives.
Lars:
Proper therapy and medication, not their "seminars," turned my life around. And I came out of my shell in college, where I realized how crappy Hyde's academics were. Hyde actually ruined my chances to get into some colleges because of their grading system. You would get two grades, achievement and effort, and the two were averaged together. I'd get high achievement grades, but low effort grades because they said I wasn't a "leader" in class. I think they set the system up this way to help some kids who didn't have the intellect, but it really hurt a student like me who didn't fit their mold. Fortunately, I obtained a very high score on the SAT (and the dumb schmucks on the Hyde faculty couldn't figure out how). Even so, my high test score combined with my mediocre grades convinced some colleges that I was an underachiever.
In college, I could learn my own way, just sitting back, enjoying the lectures & getting A after A. Ironically, after a few years I began to participate quite a bit in classroom discussions.
In the real world, colleges, grad schools & employers don't give a f&^% about your effort unless it leads to high achievement. I wasn't suprised to see that many of my classmates who played the academic game well at Hyde struggled in college and the alumni class notes section of the Hyde newsletter was filled with entries describing how so and so was trying to find him or herself (and glossing over the fact that they had dropped out of college).
I noticed too, that they tried to steer kids to small liberal arts colleges in the northeast. Screw that, I went west to a big school (Arizona State) and gave them the proverbial middle finger by partying my ass off AND doing well enough to get into law school.
I like this site. It's cathartic to be able to get some of this of my chest.
[ This Message was edited by: Lars on 2005-10-25 08:22 ]
tommyfromhyde1:
If you had any brains you were attacked for it.
Redemption: Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sins through the murder of their deity against whom they sinned.
--Ambrose Bierce
--- End quote ---
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