Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools

Snow job on the eve of May Day

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Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Joe Gauld" ---...a second grade would evaluate a student's effort, as reflecting attitude, perseverance, hard work, attentiveness, curiosity, decorum and other qualities of character. Research demonstrates that students who are praised for their effort clearly show superior progress over those praised for "being smart."

So, while the effort grade would be a vital step in addressing student character and restoring student dignity, it will also significantly improve academic performance.
--- End quote ---
Joe fails to mention any specifics as to who conducted this "research," what parameters were actually being measured and how they were measured, what the "superior progress" allegedly shown actually entailed, not to mention how the results of that "research" should ultimately and miraculously translate into a significantly improved academic performance.

But what I take most umbrage to is the tacit implication that there's a whole lotta "praising" going on to effect these miraculous improvements in students' academic careers.

The fact is, there is NOT a whole lotta praising going on, unless you're one of the chosen few who is being groomed for Senior Leadership and/or a future career as a Hyde faculty member or spokesmodel.

Here is a far more HONEST depiction of what goes on, from a 1976 Time Magazine article, from back when Hyde apparently felt far less constrained by concerns of political correctness, emphasis added:

Character Grades. Success at Hyde is measured largely by "character growth" rather than academic excellence. Students are given two sets of grades: one for performance in a traditional curriculum laden with remedial courses; the other, which is considered more important, for overcoming personal problems such as being shy or cowardly, as shown in survival tests the school has copied from Outward Bound. The grades in character development are hammered out in a kind of encounter group, where classmates and teachers urge a student to confess his strengths and weaknesses. In similar sessions, teachers are evaluated publicly by the students.[/list][/size]
I have to say, despite the above description, I can't ever recall someone being "urged to confess their strengths." Moreover, "personal problems such as being shy or cowardly" were reinterpreted through a moral prism as being indicative of selfishness, or not having enough CONCERN or COMMITMENT. You might even be accused of hiding some stronger stuff like illicit drug use or horrific teenage sex crimes. Joe loved confessions of that nature.

Here's some more about Hyde's "effort-supportive" environment, from the same article, emphasis added:

...life at the small (enrollment: 175) coed boarding school is almost as rigorous as that of a Marine boot camp. Many of the students are troubled, and short-tempered Gauld treats them like a drill instructor faced with a platoon of left-footed recruits. He occasionally slaps and routinely humiliates the kids—with their parents' tacit consent—in a no-holds-barred effort to toughen them up and build their characters. "The rod is only wrong in the wrong hands," Gauld likes to say. When he finds that a student has what he considers a "bad attitude," Gauld may order him to wear a sign saying I ACT LIKE A BABY, or tell him to dig a 6-ft. by 6-ft. trench and then fill it up. He has even conducted a public paddling ceremony at Hyde.[/list][/size]
Although some of these physical practices are no longer a part of Hyde's curriculum of "character development," the underlying philosophy and attitude towards children, from what I can tell, has NOT changed one bit.

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