Dore Frances / reviewing

[BuzzKill]

Dore Frances didn't like Maia's book. She gave it a poor review. Suppose it could have anything to do with the fact she sells programs?  Could be. . .

Seems to me any true professional, would be extremely glad that such a book had been written, as it explains all the greatest dangers the ed cons insist they can help a family avoid. "Help at Any Cost" also explains some of the unethical practices taking place among the Ed cons. So, wouldn't any honest, ethical ed con be glad this book was written? Seems so to me.

In my opinion, this review of Dore's is nothing more than a money grab. What she's really saying: Parents, don't educate yourselves - call me!

I'd say so in an Amazon review of my own, but they only allow one review per person.
Someone might want to take a moment and provide a review explaining the motivation behind some of the negative reviews - that being money. And b/c of some programs practices of paying individuals for referrals - even the program parents are so motivated; And brain-washed besides.

 

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

 From a Mother of a child who was in a program & an Ed Consultant, April 10, 2006
Reviewer: Dore Frances "defrances" (Bend, Oregon) - See all my reviews
     
This book was a long read for me personally. It was brutal.

In my opinion, unless you are the parent of a teen who needs intervention and yuo have tried all local resources with no results, unless you have had to sit down with yourself and make that gut-wrenching decision that leaves you feeling like the bottom of the world has just dropped away, unless you have personally visited programs and schools and cried each visit because you see someone there just like your child, unless you spoke to the staff and students, and spent time doing complete background research yourself, unless you have placed your child in the hands of others and had to trust that you were leaving your child in the very best place for them at that time, unless you went through the process with your child as an involved parent and looked at your own faults, unless you celebrated with your child all their accomplishments and heard them say "Thank you for saving my life", even 5 years after they graduated, unless you spend time in this industry in one way or another, unless the very best for the child is always your first concern and priority, you really cannot, in my opinion, make an honest opinion or evaluation about this book.

In my ten years of experience as an educational consultant and child right's advocate, and twenty years as a mother, most programs and schools, adolescent escort services, therapists, and educational consultants are ethical and treat children with dignity. As in any business, and as it is in life, people are human, and will make choices and mistakes that are not always in the best interest of those they serve. That is sad, unfortunate and a fact of human behavior and life.

In the news we only hear about the boot camps that are committing horrendous mistreatment of adolescents and teens. We very rarely hear about the success stories. Any person or program that attempts to steal a soul and harm a child needs to be out of business today.

No matter how "bad" a child may behave or what choices they make to get themselves into trouble, it is never necessary to subject them to brutality of any kind or steal their worth as a human being. This book seems to bring up some very old information and not enough new information.

Again, unless you step into the shoes yourself, anyone can write anything at anytime and make it appear the way in which they feel will "sell" more books to already fragile family's in need of help.

I did not see any "realistic" alternatives to helping these families with their children. Is that the next book?

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Wonder what she means by realistic alternatives??
Suppose she is PO'd Maia helps explain how to gage weather any intervention at all is needed? And then explains how to get help without resorting to the likes of Dore?


[ This Message was edited by: BuzzKill on 2006-04-30 16:22 ]

[BuzzKill]

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Credibility and bias, March 20, 2006

Reviewer:   Tilted John "TJ" (Liverpool, UK) - See all my reviews

Wow, what a peculiar take on the world some people have. They dismiss a book grounded in a solid review of the research evidence for it's so-called 'lack of objectivity', and in an attempt to rebut it, they post a review by an educational consultant -- one of the very people whose income stream is threatened by parents who read this book.

For those few who might be tempted to question the author's commitment to troubled teens, or anybody with a drug problem, I'd suggest they go away and read her previous book, 'Recovery Options: The complete guide', which she co-authored with Dr. Joe Volpicelli, the guy who heads up the addictions research programme at Penn U. Or do a search for her journalism on Google. Anyone who bothers to do something as basic as this will be left in no doubt as to Szalavitz's commitment to the needs of people with substance misuse problems and their families.

Then go away and look at where these 'Educational Consultants' earn their money. They make a living by referring the children of desperate parents to these so-called 'schools', often getting kickbacks from both sides -- the parent and the school. And perhaps it's just me, but I'd have thought that anyone who genuinely cares about troubled teens should welcome a book that empowers parents by maximizing the information that they have at their disposal. Where that's not the case, you've got to ask yourself, why not? Who benefits here? Who loses?

I'd also point out here that there isn't another country in the world where schools like this exist, let alone flourish. Here in the UK, similar schools in the public sector that practiced far more moderate disciplinary practices (Google for 'pindown') were closed and a public enquiry was set up to discover how such abuse was allowed to perpetuate.

There is one group of readers though, that I'd expect to be genuinely troubled by their reading of Szalavitz's book. Parents who were at their wits end, due to the behaviour of their children, and who sent their kids off to one of these abusive facilities for some quick 'attitude adjustment' are surely not going to relish being told that they paid a lot of money to have their children abused at the hands of sadists. This book will cause such parents a fair amount of cognitive dissonance, and that's only to be expected. In the long run, time will tell whether these schools turn out to be an overall positive or an overall negative, but for my money, the people whose experiences will really count in the evaluation aren't those of the parents or of the educational consultants (God forbid), but those of the kids.

And in this book, Maia is speaking for them.

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[Anonymous]

On 2006-04-30 16:18:00, BuzzKill wrote:

"7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Credibility and bias, March 20, 2006



Reviewer:   Tilted John "TJ" (Liverpool, UK) - See all my reviews



Wow, what a peculiar take on the world some people have. They dismiss a book grounded in a solid review of the research evidence for it's so-called 'lack of objectivity', and in an attempt to rebut it, they post a review by an educational consultant -- one of the very people whose income stream is threatened by parents who read this book.



For those few who might be tempted to question the author's commitment to troubled teens, or anybody with a drug problem, I'd suggest they go away and read her previous book, 'Recovery Options: The complete guide', which she co-authored with Dr. Joe Volpicelli, the guy who heads up the addictions research programme at Penn U. Or do a search for her journalism on Google. Anyone who bothers to do something as basic as this will be left in no doubt as to Szalavitz's commitment to the needs of people with substance misuse problems and their families.



Then go away and look at where these 'Educational Consultants' earn their money. They make a living by referring the children of desperate parents to these so-called 'schools', often getting kickbacks from both sides -- the parent and the school. And perhaps it's just me, but I'd have thought that anyone who genuinely cares about troubled teens should welcome a book that empowers parents by maximizing the information that they have at their disposal. Where that's not the case, you've got to ask yourself, why not? Who benefits here? Who loses?



I'd also point out here that there isn't another country in the world where schools like this exist, let alone flourish. Here in the UK, similar schools in the public sector that practiced far more moderate disciplinary practices (Google for 'pindown') were closed and a public enquiry was set up to discover how such abuse was allowed to perpetuate.



There is one group of readers though, that I'd expect to be genuinely troubled by their reading of Szalavitz's book. Parents who were at their wits end, due to the behaviour of their children, and who sent their kids off to one of these abusive facilities for some quick 'attitude adjustment' are surely not going to relish being told that they paid a lot of money to have their children abused at the hands of sadists. This book will cause such parents a fair amount of cognitive dissonance, and that's only to be expected. In the long run, time will tell whether these schools turn out to be an overall positive or an overall negative, but for my money, the people whose experiences will really count in the evaluation aren't those of the parents or of the educational consultants (God forbid), but those of the kids.



And in this book, Maia is speaking for them.



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