Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Anonymous on January 14, 2007, 02:55:27 PM
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Didn't I read somewhere that he's now a paid consultant to the teen industry somehow?
http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_ ... 13&id=1256 (http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=26&func=view&catid=13&id=1256)
When trying to reach out to parents the critical thing is to offer help in determining what information they can trust and why and what they can't. The obvious we already know.
But here's one that drives me nuts:
Dave Marcus wrote the book thttp://www.davemarcus.com/What (http://thttp://www.davemarcus.com/What) It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Ou
The book is about kids at Academy at Swift River, Aspn program (one of the better ones). Supposedly Aspen gave him, "a pulitzer prize wining journalist", free access to one group of kids as they went through the program. It's pretty positive about the program except for one jab about Aspen's big production for the annual arrival by limo of the ed cons.
He's gone on to buddy up with the former head of ASR, Rudy Bentz, and is giving out advice for families and teens. He has no background in the field and is putting himself out as an expert. I've written to him numerous times to no avail. If anyone's read the book, which I'd suggest because Aspn uses it as one of their PR stunts, please email him if you have similar objections to his activities.
"Pulitzer prize winning journalist" - he did no research at all. he took his experience at face value. he's an engaging writer thus convincing. that's the problem.
I could not agree more. He also seemed to fail to ask some pretty fundamental questions that ran through my mind.
I wondered for instance whether any one questioned how safe it was to send a dangerously underweight girl on a wilderness expidition
Or whether Jerome would not have done just as well at a normal boarding school with small classes, caring teachers and strong academics
and speaking of Jerome Marcus did not seem to see any injustice in the fact that the kid worked like a train for all of the wilderness expidition only to be forced to do exta time for refusing to rat out a mate!
Or that his mother was not allowed to write a letter stating that she missed him in spite of the fact that Jerome was not a bot who had given her much trouble overall.
I also questioned the fact that the school seemed to have little cultural sensitivity. They forced a hispanic catholic girl to write a leter to her father confessing her sexual misdeeds.
or why 1 line was devoted to the fact that the enthusiastic young english teacher burnt out after 1 year and claimed the only good thing about the place was the kids.
I was also astonished that he did not question more strongly why no long term studies have been published or why it is difficult to come up with easily defined outcomes.