Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Hyde Schools => Topic started by: Ursus on February 10, 2008, 02:16:39 PM
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This from an old set of Malcolm Gauld's Blog entries (http://http://web.archive.org/web/20060427074000/www.hyde.edu/page.ww?section=root&name=Blogs):
Date: August 17, 2005
Subject: Brother's Keeper
One of our readers e-mailed us to suggest that our blog address Hyde's time-honored concept of "Brother's Keeper." What is it about? How does it work? How does it impact family and school culture? I welcome comments from the readership. In the meantime, I offer a few thoughts.
The principle of Brother's Keeper simply states, "We help others achieve their best." Our hope is also simple: that Hyde students, teachers, and parents will learn that if they push others and others push them, the total cultural benefits will be greater than the sum of their parts.
Those who seek to teach character will quickly discover that they must "influence the influencers." This discovery is typically accompanied by the realization that kids are impacted daily by two critical influencers: 1. their parents; 2. their friends. At Hyde, we have developed our Family Education Department to address the former. Brother's Keeper helps us nurture the optimal student culture for character development.
Far too many of the schools I have visited are locked in the debilitating grip of a no-win game of "cops and robbers" when it comes to student discipline. Brother's Keeper is a better solution because it brings all the players – students, teachers, and parents – to the table in addressing the problem. Your thoughts?
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F.E.D.?
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Gives new meaning to the concept of having the "FEDs" after you, hahah!!
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Those who seek to teach character will quickly discover that they must "influence the influencers." This discovery is typically accompanied by the realization that kids are impacted daily by two critical influencers: 1. their parents; 2. their friends. At Hyde, we have developed our Family Education Department to address the former. Brother's Keeper helps us nurture the optimal student culture for character development.
Ya know... I didn't even catch that. Isn't "Family Education Department" just another way of saying "HAPA?" Is this MORE culty lingo for the lackeys to learn?
And what does that last sentence (following) have to do with anything else in that paragraph, anyway, hmm? Looks like someone was cutting and pasting from the Hallmark Book of Hyde Phrases and forgot to keep track. The expected sentence would have addressed the second of the "two critical influencers," namely, the kids' friends. I fail to follow Malcolm's semantic logic here.
Brother's Keeper is a better solution because it brings all the players – students, teachers, and parents – to the table in addressing the problem.
What problematic situation would not bring everyone to the table in addressing it? What, pray tell, is so unique about Brother's Keeper in this regard? Malcolm does not explain.
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Come on now. It is the unique elements that built character at Hyde. Don't go all Gary AssCow and over think it. Fake it until you make it. Go thought the motions of excellence until you have it in your muscle memory. It is a way of life, a life time commitment. Use Joe as your role model. You can do it Ursus. Dig Deeper.
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Come on now. It is the unique elements that built character at Hyde. Don't go all Gary AssCow and over think it. Fake it until you make it. Go thought the motions of excellence until you have it in your muscle memory. It is a way of life, a life time commitment. Use Joe as your role model. You can do it Ursus. Dig Deeper.
I thought that Choosy Mothers choose JIF (peanut butter), not Jeff (Black), but what do I know... And what the hell is so unique about Hyde anyway, save the fact that they dress up abuse and disrespect for a human being's autonomy, call it some oxymoron, and expect people to be too stupid or too well-meaning to pick up on that they have been suckered? The Emperor's New Clothes all over again.
Thanks, but I'm happy enough with my "container" as it is. PPfffttt!!
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Malcolm tries again (http://http://web.archive.org/web/20060427074000/www.hyde.edu/page.ww?section=root&name=Blogs) five days later:
Date: August 22, 2005
Subject: Brother's Keeper
Over the years, I have been approached by a number of school heads and teachers who have asked, "Brother's Keeper sounds great! Could you help us add it to our program?" I tend to answer this question with one of my own: "Are you prepared to abandon or at least significantly overhaul your expulsion policy?"
If the answer is no, I stress the idea that Brother's Keeper cannot be added to a school culture like a stereo component. It is a holistic concept. Of the many educators who annually visit Hyde, nearly all are both impressed and surprised by Brother's Keeper. Their surprise stems from their shock over the realization that it actually works. More than a few have remarked, "It would never work if you expelled the kids for discipline transgressions." I think this is accurate. It also makes sense. After all, if we're going to ask the kids to make an unusual commitment to their student culture, we, their teachers, must make an unusual commitment to them. Your thoughts?
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"Bullshit" is right on. They always use smoking as an example. But it is used more for judging your attitude and if your with the program, and guess whose judging THAT?
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The crap about "holistic concept" always gets me. There is similar or the same language used on the Hyde-DC website as well. There is nothing "holistic" about it. It's called "wrap-around brainwashing" in my book, thank you very much.
They probably realize that smoking is a good "smoking gun" for poster material here. Easy to define, easy to spot, more or less universally frowned upon by all parents and society in general, to boot. The reality that students are turned into petty tin tyrants, feeding off each other's foibles and insecurities, tends to paint a picture not nearly so attractive...
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gotta fake it! or your not going to last it out there.
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It's very holistic.
1 gargantuan "hole" from which all sensibility and reason gets sucked into another dimension.
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Mission: Control
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Luke 6:41-44
41 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.' ''
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The harder the truth to tell the truer the friend who tells it: aka if you are a true friend, your brother's keeper, then at every opportunity you will indict your friend for his/her short comings or perceive ineptitude. Be a true friend. Scream at your friend about how she's acting like a whore for smiling at someone, although she's a virgin. Go on scream at your true friend for reverting to old duggie patterns, like chatting about a particular brand of clothing. Tell your friend that s/he is an incredible lazy slob for not tucking in that T-shirt. And, that confidence that your friend told you. Well, be a true friend, I know it's hard, but scream a your friend in a group session about how confidences are not acceptable. Be sure to totally humiliate your friend by betraying the confidence in a group setting. The more personal the confidence, like a teenage crush, the better to blast your friend with. Go on: be your Brother's Keeper.
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It occurred to me, given the recent activity in this thread, that I had not finished entering Malcolm's blog entries on Brother's Keeper from 2005. Here's is #3, using the example of a student caught smoking.
Ironically, this was right around the time that Hyde parent Nancy Lund, who describes herself in her bio (http://http://www.altria.com/about_altria/biography/1_4_5_lund.asp) as being "the key steward of the Marlboro brand for more than two decades," was in the midst of -- or just gearing up to -- her financial contributing frenzy that ended up landing her on the Hyde Board of Governors not long after.
Although the veracity of a matching employer contribution is not known, IMO I find that possibility highly likely, given that her employer was then (and still is) "Altria Group, Inc.," previously known as Philip Morris USA. Philip Morris chose to rename itself in the wake of plummeting popular opinion re. the rapacious marketing strategies of cigarette companies, and strategically strove to present an image of a philanthropic steward of public consumption. "Altria"... is that supposed to suggest "altruism?"
See the Only @ Hyde (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=26127) thread for more details. The new Only @ Hyde site was "conceptualized during discussions between Hyde Board of Governors member Nancy Lund and Hyde President Malcolm Gauld, who expressed interest in featuring the 'unique' and 'intriguing' qualities and experiences delivered only at Hyde." Incidentally that "cutting edge global marketing firm" of Leo Burnett Worldwide, Inc. that Nancy Lund teamed up with for this project, has been handling the Marlboro brand since 1955.
Back to Malcolm's blog (http://http://web.archive.org/web/20060427074000/www.hyde.edu/page.ww?section=root&name=Blogs), color emphasis mine:
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Date: August 30, 2005
Subject: Brother's Keeper
It occurs to me that this topic (Brother's Keeper) might require some explanation.
Most of Hyde's ethics regarding student behavioral expectations are easily understandable. The fact that we do not allow students to take drugs and that we penalize them for stealing from their peers does not surprise them; nor are students surprised to learn that cheating is not tolerated. The "rub" with the vast majority of Hyde students comes with the concept of Brother's Keeper.
Simply put, students are expected to act upon the disciplinary infractions and attitudes of their peers. They are expected to hold each other accountable to their personal best. For example, if you are not a smoker but you're walking downtown with Johnny, who lights up a cigarette, you have a responsibility to do something about that. You must tell Johnny to turn himself in to the Dean's Office and make it clear that if he doesn't, you will. If we later become aware of Johnny's smoking and it becomes clear that you knew he had smoked and that you had not acted upon it, you will be treated as if you were in the same boat as Johnny. This is a bitter pill for Hyde students to swallow. When a young student first learns of Brother's Keeper, he or she will invariably say something like "No way! I'm not going to 'narc' on my friends." In most schools, a student would commit social suicide if he or she turned a classmate in for breaking the rules of the school. Not so at Hyde.
Much of the initial disdain for Brother's Keeper is due to the fact that a student's initial association with the concept is usually a negative one. Either a student has committed a violation of the ethics and does not want to accept accountability for it, or one has witnessed another student committing a violation and would rather not get involved in the ugly social repercussions of turning in a fellow student. However, later on, after a student begins to perform well academically, scores a few goals out on the soccer field, or sings a solo in a school production, the student realizes that he or she might never have accomplished these things without the positive peer pressure of Brother's Keeper. After these experiences the veteran student generally regards Brother's Keeper in a positive light.
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Luke 6:41-44
41 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.' ''
1Jesus went to the mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the middle, 4 They say to him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say you? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the oldest, even to the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middle. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those your accusers? has no man condemned you? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.
This is from John 8 which also contains:
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how say you, You shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham's seed; but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father.
Go in peace my child
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Of potential interest to Father Tim:
I joined a ministry!!!!!!
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27217 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27217)[/list]
:rofl: :rofl:
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Look at Brother’s Keeper played on a reality show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Uos2fzIJ0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Uos2fzIJ0)
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Look at Brother’s Keeper played on a reality show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Uos2fzIJ0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Uos2fzIJ0)
Lol. That poor chump. She did kinda spell it out though, that she had no intention of splitting the take. Is this self-interest vs. "the common good?"
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The game is all about self-interested behavior and in its original formulation is called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Two prisoners face these outcomes: they betray each other (each gets ten years), they stay silent (each gets five years), one betrays and the other stays silent (the betrayer walks and the silent partner gets ten years).
Joe teaches the Prisoner’s Dilemma in school meetings with the aim of convincing the kids that it’s always best to betray one’s peer (be a “brother’s keeper”). On the face of it, he’s right:
Betrayal = freedom or ten years (all or nothing).
Stay silent = five years or ten years (half or nothing).
Obviously, playing all or nothing is better than playing half or nothing, when your chances of getting nothing are 50% in each case.
The trouble with Joe’s analogy is that as the number of brother’s keeper increases, so do the odds of a double betrayal. If everyone is a brother’s keeper, everyone gets the maximum punishment of ten years. You are better off betraying only if there are few brother’s keepers around or if you are pretty sure your peer will not betray you. It’s a lesson in crass opportunism.
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The funny thing is that crass opportunism at Hyde is called courage, curiosity, concern, leadership, and some fifth thing.
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Ah... I had forgotten about Prisoner's Dilemma. I've never been too good at those kinds of games, when they are cloaked with vestiges too analogous to real life. I prefer my games a bit more abstract.
There are a number of these "ethical dilemmas" that became popular, it would appear, in tandem with the Human Potential movement. Another is the "Lifeboat Dilemma," which, in fact, made it into the cult protocol (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27378) at CEDU, with similar versions at WWASP and Daytop. Probably others as well. Did Hyde ever do it? I can't remember...
I believe these were once supposed to be philosophical exercises, perhaps a part of some motivational coaching endeavor or leadership training, or a means to foster greater cohesion amongst co-workers. I don't think they were originally meant to be foisted upon a vulnerable adolescent population, many of whom have some serious self-esteem issues, not to mention drug problems, psych histories, abusive home environments (which Hyde would not always deal with, at least back then), etc. etc.
The net result, IMO, is innately destructive. Maybe even lethal in certain kids' cases. Certainly, "emotional growth" is not assured and quite possibly, but incidental to some greater harm.
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A recent Hyde grad, Billy Pro, said somewhere in this Hyde forum that Joe compared “Brother’s Keeper” to the Prisoner’s Dilemma. It’s reasonable to assume that Joe was arguing that if you inform on your peer, you’ll not only be doing him a favor (the Brother’s Keeper aspect), you’ll also be doing yourself a favor (the Prisoner’s Dilemma aspect). Well, that’s false, logically speaking; but you’ll definitely be doing Hyde a favor. Joe’s singular aim is to get the kids to carry out his normative prescriptions. A school in which the kids are part of the enforcement mechanism together with the staff is the most effective kind of behavior modification model.
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A school in which the kids are part of the enforcement mechanism together with the staff is the most effective kind of behavior modification model.
Oh, I would call it a lot more than just your run of the mill "behavior modification." I would call it "thought reform." That place sought to supplant your entire value system and concept of good and evil with their own. And, I should add, their system has very little to do with good or evil, or whatever they call "character." It has everything to do with buying the company policy, body and soul, and to cease thinking for yourself, or anyone else for that matter. "Stop your stinkin' thinkin', boy!"
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LOL. Here's that Billy Procida post, plus the one immediately following. It was in the Happy Birthday Joe (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=21340&p=257303#p257321) thread, from April 2007:
true story i got a good laugh over that pic...i gotta admit. he's a funny guy to watch during a meeting. there's def. a generation gap (or 2!), like when we had a meeting and he did the prisoner's dilemma and was saying, "now would you finger yourself? or would you finger the other guy?" the whole student body broke out laughing, not even the most ontrack senior could hold it in...haha that was 2 years ago...wow
- billy pro '07
38 days
Joe's using game theory to teach brother's keeper? It could be the ignoble start of a glorious career.
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Attitude Adjustment Mobile, from the Youth Behavior Modification Experts:
(http://http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r225/fridechx/AttitudeAdjustmentConsequenceCamp.jpg)
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Attitude Adjustment Mobile, from the Youth Behavior Modification Experts:
(http://http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r225/fridechx/AttitudeAdjustmentConsequenceCamp.jpg)
These people are saying that the additude adjustments of their local youths will start in the back of a tinted widowed creep mobile?
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Well, I'll be a characterless monkey's gol-darn uncle, har har har!! Them fancy wheels sure put my CONCERN and INTEGRITY banners to shame!!!