Joe Gauld... on Education

[Anonymous]

Code: [Select]

"honor code" was "ditched" in the 70s. But... what do I know?!


  This was the honor code ala Phillips, Chote, Mt Herman etc.  It was exposed as a failure by [drum roll please] Ed Legg.  I recall the Talkative Texan reading us a paper about his contribution to Hyde culture. It was after that, that the code known by the current moniker "BK" was born.  I do not recall ever have called it "BK"  I recall feeling like Number 6 in the Prisoner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner

[Ursus]

Number Two replies with an inset pause, "You are...Number Six."

"I am not a number — I am a free man!"

(Laughter from Number Two.)

"Although sold as a spy thriller in the mould of McGoohan's previous series, Danger Man, the show's combination of 1960s countercultural themes and its surreal setting had a far-reaching effect upon science fiction-fantasy-genre television and also popular culture in general."

---------------------------

I was always partial to Danger Mouse.    

That comes from growing up without a television in the house.

[Ursus]

This was the honor code ala Phillips, Chote, Mt Herman etc. It was exposed as a failure by [drum roll please] Ed Legg. I recall the Talkative Texan reading us a paper about his contribution to Hyde culture. It was after that, that the code known by the current moniker "BK" was born. I do not recall ever have called it "BK" I recall feeling like Number 6 in the Prisoner.

I do recall the term "Brother's Keeper" used, albeit not exactly the way it is now.  

I heard it used in the context of idealized behavior as an antidote to certain disparaged or admonished acts, but not heralded as a separate category that we were expected to aspire to in and of itself.

[Ursus]

LINK to Amazon.com
From the chapter on "Building a Community of Virtue," pp77-80, in:
Building Character in Schools: Practical Ways to Bring Moral Instruction to Life
by Kevin Ryan and Karen Bohlin
Published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Company; copyright 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Examples of Schools of Character

Not all schools of character look the same.  What follows are two pictures of very different schools that have taken who they are and what they stand for seriously and built a community of virtue that expresses their distinctive character.

The Hyde School

In 1966 Joseph W. Gauld, concerned that America's schools were failing to inspire excellence in students, founded the Hyde School -- a private boarding high school that is perhaps best known for its success in working with "troubled" youth. Today the Hyde School has two campuses -- one in Bath and the other in Woodstock, Connecticut -- and a national reputation. Five other schools have adopted some elements of the Hyde "character first" curriculum.  

The Hyde School is based on the principle that we each have dignity and a "unique potential that defines a destiny." Helping students achieve this potential means putting "character first." All students are expected to develop these traits:

•  The courage to accept challenges
•  The integrity to be truly themselves
•  Concern for others
•  The curiosity to explore life and learning
•  Leadership in making the school and community work

At Hyde, character development is fundamentally a family affair. "We do not take kids unless parents make a commitment to go through our character development program," says Gauld. Parents gather monthly for parent meetings, retreats, and family weekends. Hyde asks parents to look within themselves, find their strengths and weaknesses, and strive to better themselves, for their own sake as well as their child's. "You have to start with the principle that parents are the primary teachers and home is the primary classroom... If you get to the parents, you get to the kids," says Gauld.

The Hyde faculty know -- and students quickly learn -- that achieving excellence is not easy. A sign hanging in the school simply reads, "The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable." Says Gauld, "I learn the most about myself by facing challenges." Students are not the only ones held to the school's high standards of truth and responsibility; teachers and staff are as well. Students are expected to accept challenges -- including mandatory participation in athletics and performing arts. The "building blocks" of excellence in a Hyde education are as follows:

• Motions. The individual is expected to follow the motions of responsible behavior.
• Effort. The individual begins to take pride in meeting his or her given challenges.
• Excellence. The individual begins to pursue his or her best. One discovers and acts on a unique potential.

How does the Motions-Effort-Excellence model look in practice? Malcolm Gauld -- the founder's son and the current headmaster -- describes taking over the Hyde women's soccer program in the mid-1980s: "The program was in shambles. The girls not only did not want to play soccer but held great disdain for Hyde's mandatory sports policy." At the first practice, he called the girls together and said:

Okay, I know that many of you would prefer not to be out here. I'm not going to waste my time explaining why this will be good for you or why I think you could begin to develop a love for soccer or athletics. For the next two months, we are simply going to do the things that soccer players do. What do soccer players do?  They show up on time. They bring their cleats and leave their purses at home. All of you will be expected to wear special Hyde soccer T-shirts, which I will order. In short, I expect you to behave like soccer players and keep your attention on task while you're out here on the field.[/list]
Although initially he met with great resistance, the coach held them accountable for the motions of responsibility he had outlined. After several weeks, a group of girls made the step from the Motions to the Efforts phase, displaying a positive attitude and a greater work ethic at practices. At the end of the season, three girls asked to join a local winter league -- they wanted to move up to the Excellence phase. The following season, the three players at the Excellence level served as exemplars for the rest of the team, and a group of Effort-level girls wanted to compete for starting positions. Soon, 90 percent of the players displayed a norm of consistent effort and hard work. This was the beginning of a tradition of championship soccer teams.

When you walk through the halls of Hyde, you may see a student scrubbing the floor or cleaning a bathroom. "All students have jobs here," says Gauld. Students are expected to take responsibility at every level -- including taking responsibility for other students. The concept is called "brother's keeper." One student described it this way: "If I respect this person and I love this person, then I want them to go after their best. If it's someone who's going out and drinking, they're not going after their best. I'm going to hold them to that. You view it more as 'How can I help this person?' than 'How can I snitch on this person?'" Says Gauld, "America is a freedom-of-choice society; {Hyde} is a 'choosing-well' environment." At Hyde, students, faculty, and parents believe that "we're trying to make the best choices possible, and it's my responsibility to let you know when you're not making good choices."

The "Hyde Solution" goes beyond rhetoric: it embodies a fundamental commitment to individual character development. At Hyde, the purpose of academics is to allow students to develop their unique potential -- to help them answer the questions "Who am I?  Where am I going?  How am I going to get there?"

Copyrighted Material

[Anonymous]

"Who am I? Where am I going? How am I going to get there?"

 

[Ursus]

"Who am I? Where am I going? How am I going to get there?"

 

Very clever, Guest!

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
1897, oil on canvas
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

[Anonymous]

Very clever, Guest!

  Thanks,  it is just the character I learned at Hyde.

"Who am I? Why am I here?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale

[Ursus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale

...Perot eventually re-entered the race in the fall of 1992 with Stockdale still in place as the vice-presidential nominee. Stockdale was not informed that he would be participating in the October 13 vice-presidential debate held in Atlanta, Georgia, until a week before the event. He had no formal preparation for the debate, unlike his opponents Al Gore and Dan Quayle. Stockdale infamously opened the debate by saying, "Who am I? Why am I here?"

[Anonymous]

I think I get it now.  Joe is just like what we were supposed to be.  Don't over think things.  Keep a positive attitude.  Work hard.  Stand for something.  Can I have my Diploma now?  All you have to do is click your heels three times.

  OH! Auntie Em .... there's no place like home!

[Anonymous]

At Hyde, character development is fundamentally a family affair.

 ::smokingun::  Truer words have never been spoken.

[Anonymous]

Malcolm Gauld -- the founder's son and the current headmaster -- describes taking over the Hyde women's soccer program in the mid-1980s:  "The program was in shambles.  The girls not only did not want to play soccer but held great disdain for Hyde's mandatory sports policy."  At the first practice, he called the girls together and said:

Okay, I know that many of you would prefer not to be out here.  I'm not going to waste my time explaining why this will be good for you or why I think you could begin to develop a love for soccer or athletics.  For the next two months, we are simply going to do the things that soccer players do.  What do soccer players do?  They show up on time.  They bring their cleats and leave their purses at home.  All of you will be expected to wear special Hyde soccer T-shirts, which I will order.  In short, I expect you to behave like soccer players and keep your attention on task while you're out here on the field.[/list]
Although initially he met with great resistance, the coach held them accountable for the motions of responsibility he had outlined.  After several weeks, a group of girls made the step from the Motions to the Efforts phase, displaying a positive attitude and a greater work ethic at practices.  At the end of the season, three girls asked to join a local winter league -- they wanted to move up to the Excellence phase.  The following season, the three players at the Excellence level served as exemplars for the rest of the team, and a group of Effort-level girls wanted to compete for starting positions.  Soon, 90 percent of the players displayed a norm of consistent effort and hard work.  This was the beginning of a tradition of championship soccer teams.

This is retarded.  Im sure the girls tried their best.  Im sure they got their act together and made a great team.  But its about as simple as you can tell it, and it misses a lot.  It wasnt about Malcom, or Hyde.  It was simple about trying your best and trying to win.  Nothing more.  3 girls asked cuz we wer told it was available.  And if no one asked, then probably we would be told we had an attitude problem.  Almost as if someone kind of had to ask.  " norm of consistent effort and hard work"?  Give me a break.  How do they measure these things?

[Surfer Mouse]

By any accepted definition what Joe Gauld and the Hyde School program engage in is called family therapy. By using the label of “Educator” Joe Gauld presents his views and approach as unique and important contributions to the field of education, and feels he can operate completely free from the professional standards, accepted therapeutic approaches, and generally accepted views of the field of Family Therapy and the American Psychological Association. If he were to be practicing as a “Family Therapist” and a part of that field, his approach and views would have to compete in the larger market place of therapeutic approaches and be subject to professional peer comment and evaluation and review. I seriously doubt if he would be able to claim such high standing under those circumstances as he tries to present as an “Educator”. By operating under the label of “Educator” he conveniently avoids accountability for his actions in accordance to accepted professional and ethical standards for the American Psychological Association.

This is absolutely dead-on bull's eye TRUE.  What can be done about this?  "Has anyone actually tried to sue him for providing therapy services without a license?

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Encounter Groups
"Encounter Groups were nontraditional attempts at psychotherapy that offered short-term treatment for members without serious psychiatric problems. These groups were also known as sensitivity (or sensory) awareness groups and training groups (or T-groups). Encounter groups were an outgrowth of studies conducted in 1946 at the National Training Laboratories in Connecticut by Kurt Lewin. The use of continual feedback, participation, and observation by the group encouraged the analysis and interpretation of their problems. Other methods for the group dynamics included Gestalt therapy (working with one person at a time with a primary goal of increasing awareness of oneself in the moment, also known as holistic therapy) and meditation.

Encounter groups were popularized by people such as Dr. Fritz Perls and Dr. Will Schutz (of the Esalen Institute) and had their greatest impact on the general population in the 1960s and 1970s. These groups fell out of favor with the psychiatric community because of criticism that many of the group leaders at the time were not trained in traditional group therapy and that the groups could sometimes cause great harm to people with serious emotional problems."

What can br done?  More parents and former students need to be getting lawyers and filing civil law suites agains Hyde.

Licensed or non-licensed, Hyde teachers and staff still are liable
for harm done to others due to gross negligence. If the prevailing professional
opinion since the '80s in the field of Counseling and Psychology is that there is potential
for great harm to others with encounter groups run by unqualified leaders then Hyde
is a sitting duck.

Perhaps this is the lesson to be learned from how past law suites have been handled.
Always settle out of court or in a sealed secret agreement.  Never go to court because
any law suite that went to an actual jury would be so damaging to the school it would
not be worth it. If 5 people sued at the same time for personal damages due to having
to be subjected to encounter groups run by  unqualified staff Hyde would freak out.
You might actually see some changes.

[Anonymous]

1.  How many families would be needed for a class action suit?

2.  What is the statue of limitations for such gross negligence, irreparable psychological harm?

[Anonymous]

1.  How many families would be needed for a class action suit?

2.  What is the statue of limitations for such gross negligence, irreparable psychological harm?

  You need only a lawyer, a claim that a parties in a class have been harmed and one member of the class.  My guess is you will not find a lawyer to touch it.  There would be tons of research required, years of discovery and trial and no money unless the plaintives prevail initially and on appeal.

IANAL

[Anonymous]

How do they measure these things

  How do they measure anything?  They pull it out of their collective ass.  How do you measure character?  Hyde graduates have gone off to be drug addicts and sexual offenders.  I guess they made a mistake _or_ they don't have a freaking idea how to measure character.