Be honest with yourself. Do you really think these raps and propheets are therapeutic? You don't see the unrelenting verbal/mental abuse? Do you REALLY think these sessions are helpful for people with low self esteem, anxiety, and other disorders? You don't see how the staff and culture encourages bullies to get ahead? Intimidation to keep you conformed (not in a good way). Do you really thnk the academic standards allow you to keep up to grade level when you're out? You don't think its odd that CEDU is such an insulated environment with so many arbitrary bans and the outside world off-limits that students can easily reintegrate into the real world? Don't you think it's odd that anytime someone has a problem w/the staff or culture they are deemed "manipulative" or liars? Is everone a con artist? I didn't go there b/c I was a liar; in fact, I always answered a question honestly regardeless of the consequences before I went to CEDU. CEDU manipulates every situation into a bigger drama so you believe you are a slut if you had sex once (or even, never) and a druggie if you ever smoked pot. I easily gave up experimental use of drugs months before CEDU and never went back, yet the minute staff found out I ever used it, they had their "story." They blew it up and manipulated my folks with it. While I didn't get blown away in raps, very few instances had real merit. How do I know? Because the situations would be baseless--as in never happened. But asserting the truth gets you nowhere. In fact, they only way to get promoted is to say you are worthless, did stuff you did or DID NOT ever do, and have facilitated "breakthroughs" after being mentally badgered for hours. Do you know how many people confessed to stuff they never even did just to get the staff leaders off their back? Why do they need to monitor your letters and calls to your parents?
I don't know if its still the same way but a lot of our supposed "success" in the program was because we were so physically drained from the physical labor and emotionally drained from the fear-inducing atmosphere and over-emotionality of the raps that we exhausted in submission. Also, the program was so super structured but it couldn't be maintained at home. Last, many of us say the asme thing: we weren't prepared for the real world on any level--academically, socially, emotionally--when we got out.
So, then, what is the point? It's just a 2.5 year holding tank.
PS: What about the TOTAL lack of therapeutic boundaries between staff and students?
