Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Hyde Schools => Topic started by: Anonymous on July 27, 2008, 03:03:02 AM
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I understand that there are a lot of very resentful people out there who have left Hyde Schools bitterly. And, in my own opinion, I find it really sad. The time you spend at Hyde is what you make of it; if you aren't going to meet them halfway, you are right when you say you won't get anything out of it. That is not to say they won't try with their own tactics, but regardless - you wasted your parents money, your family's time, as well as years of your own life.
To the credit of the institution, I am a recent graduate of the Woodstock campus, and Hyde changed my life. I was not a kid out doing drugs or on the streets or with a police record. I was disrespectful to my parents and to myself. I was not living up to my "unique potential," as Hyde puts it. Quite the contrary, I was a walking, breathing, self-sabotaging young girl. I graduated Hyde, two years after enrollment, a young woman hoping to embody its five words and five principles and actively working towards that goal. I would not be surprised if asked what they took away from it, each and every member of my graduating class would allude to or outright say the same thing.
If you are prospective parent, please take into consideration that some people are resentful towards Hyde for their own personal reasons. Just like any other school, there are students who do not "click" with the methods and beliefs that the school is founded upon. Please, please speak with some alumni (who have graduated, not just left) and the staff and faculty at either Bath or Woodstock so you can gain a better perspective of what Hyde is really about.. not the slander that these threads seem to always contain.
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"Aaron's desire is schizophrenic, an incestuous desire for the other of himself, Holly, the completion of the self to the end of eliminating desire, hence, a death wish."
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"Aaron's desire is schizophrenic, an incestuous desire for the other of himself, Holly, the completion of the self to the end of eliminating desire, hence, a death wish."
AKA, less poetically...."self gratification"
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OK
I graduated from Hyde. I went on to be by all standards successful and I am truly a happy, well adjusted person with a family and a good job and a life long marrage, ect.
But, I Don't look back at Hyde School as a fond memory. The school was sold to my mom, I was not happy there but was shamed into compliance in these public encounter groups that were pretty stressful for a shy adolescent. And my Mom towed the line and rebuked my concerns about the cult like place I was living in. It was a bad time for me that lasted 4 years.
They forced me to play sports I did not like or choose so that the schools teams were evened out. I am an excellent athlete and played NCAA sports, in a sport that I was denied at Hyde for 3 of the 4 years I was there. (seems like unique potential denial to me).
Then they forced me to sing and dance in a goofy show designed primarily as an infomercial for potential families. I have never performed since. I was coerced to help evangelize , how utterly embarrassing! I am not really an extrovert, but that was the Hyde school model student (all in-yourface and confident, a singin' and a dancin' and telling you all about how you should be leading your life and what is wrong with you) Unique or conformist? you decide
I was convinced I had to comply or lose my family support eventually I accepted it all as true and necessary..Yes I was a little hard to take when I got to college but youth, music, drugs and women helped out and then later I started to do a thing called .....Learning. I realized people respond better to being told what is good about them, and that love is not tough, and that achievement is in fact the embodiment and essence of character.
It was not really all bad, the previous poster seemed to like it (perhaps the coolaid has yet to wear off). My advice is that if you are sending your kids there do it for them not for you. Ask them outside of an encouter group at home where they are safe if they like it . Don't abandon them like the Hyde school leaders ask...unless you are tired of parenting and just want someone else to do it
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Unique or conformist? you decide
Hyde is all about peer pressure and conformism. Hyde takes lord of the flies instincts trains them to the goals of the institution. I saw some vicious things done to those who heard a different drummer. Kids that were able to go along did OK. Some of those kids, the wheels fell of after they left: crash and burn.
I have no idea what you should do with a kid you can't control. I would think pretty hard before I sent a kid to Hyde.
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Dear John,
You let the demoralization get to you so much that twenty years on you feel a need to tell Hyde of your achievements. I totally understand this, I was there too. I don't know whether Malcolm called you a "nothing," which seems to me trivial enough in itself and possibly just your neat summarization of Hyde's war of attrition on your self-worth during your stay, but I do know that for Hyde's opponents, it's either 2-4 or demoralization, and that several respected Hyde figures and students made similar pessimistic predictions about my future. Hell, I remember Joe Gauld standing on stage and calling the whole student body "smiling zeros" (which we were, thanks to him) and the even more Shakespearean "worm meat"! "Nothing" seems tame by comparison.
John, you weren't alone. If I were Malcolm, I would have written you an apology, since whether or not the word "nothing" was uttered by him or anyone else, he is the man to be held accountable for the all-too-apparent fact that Hyde damaged your self-worth and your confidence in your future, to the extent that you are still hurting twenty years later. I would have apologized for having you believe that Hyde is equal to morality, and that your rejection of Hyde is a rejection of morality. No private school is entitled to such claims.
John, if you reply to Malcolm's question, tell him that a something is someone who is man enough to apologize. A nothing is someone is isn't.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rebel Spirits & Committed Teachers
7/28/2008
I recently received an e-mail from an early 90s student who had left school in mid-year under a stormy sky of disciplinary and attitudinal circumstances. He was writing to tell me that he has since graduated from college. Given his sarcastic tone, it was not hard to discern that he was also writing out of a desire to “stick it” in the faces of those Hyde teachers who he believes doubted his potentials during his time as a student. in fact, he was quite blunt in his accusation that I had told him that he would never rise above being a "nothing." Here’s part of my e-mail reply to this former student:
Dear John (not his real name),
After nearly 30 years (and several hundred Johns!), the memory indeed gets hazy. However, I do remember you…..I also remember that you were quite a handful and that the parting was not amicable, especially with your stepfather. While 45 days on 2-4 is an exaggeration, suffice it to say that you spent more time there than most and yet not as much as some. (I am also assuming that you agree that your name was not chosen at random for 2-4 duty, that your behavior had a little something to do with it.)
While it’s truly great to see you taking pride in what your life is becoming, I would suggest that perhaps your memory is hazy as well. You state that I had said you would turn out to be “nothing.” While I cannot swear that I would have never said something like that in a moment of exasperation (and you and I shared several such moments!), the years have taught me to stand by what I write. I don’t always know what I said, but I know what I wrote. Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote you a few months after you left Hyde:
…..Your time at Hyde was often marked with heartfelt apologies accompanied by commitments to do better. Too often your deeds did not follow your words. However, throughout all of your travails, I always believed that there was something good in you, and I continue to believe that today. As I’ve often said, to quote Will Rogers, “I’d rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.” Perhaps anyone who doesn’t believe this probably doesn’t belong in education.
I congratulate you on your success [at graduating from college] and would love to know what you’re up to. While I suppose some people see a college degree as synonymous with “making it,” I do not. Theodore Roosevelt covered that one pretty well when he said, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." I know folks with Masters degrees who could probably pass for “nothings.” I also know blue collar workers at the Bath Iron Works who I would trust with anything I hold dear. So, if we agree that you ain’t nothing, what’s your idea of “something?”
All the best to you, John. Thanks for getting in touch. Onward, Malcolm
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"It was not really all bad, the previous poster seemed to like it (perhaps the coolaid has yet to wear off)."
I resent that. I feel as though you are attempting to demean me and disregard what I have to say just because I am a recent graduate. I am sorry you didn't enjoy your time at Hyde. It is your loss. It wasn't a walk in the park for me by any means; halfway through my senior year, I almost left due to anxiety and stress that I thought I could not handle. But the fact of the matter is that I finished it off, and Hyde helped me a lot. Your experience is not any more worth while than my own, and your attempt to undermine and joke about it is rude and insulting.
If you have complaints about the school or about how you were treated, I suggest you do what Hyde tried to teach you. "The truth will set you free - but first it will make you miserable." Remember that? I would say get in contact with those that were there while you attended. Hyde has, so I see, changed a lot since its past. I do not know when you attended or which campus, but I know Hyde in 2008. I'm sure they would welcome a phonecall or email from you.
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Rebel Spirits & Committed Teachers
7/28/2008
I recently received an e-mail from an early 90s student who had left school in mid-year under a stormy sky of disciplinary and attitudinal circumstances. He was writing to tell me that he has since graduated from college. Given his sarcastic tone, it was not hard to discern that he was also writing out of a desire to "stick it" in the faces of those Hyde teachers who he believes doubted his potentials during his time as a student. in fact, he was quite blunt in his accusation that I had told him that he would never rise above being a "nothing." Here's part of my e-mail reply to this former student:
Dear John (not his real name),
After nearly 30 years (and several hundred Johns!), the memory indeed gets hazy. However, I do remember you...I also remember that you were quite a handful and that the parting was not amicable, especially with your stepfather. While 45 days on 2-4 is an exaggeration, suffice it to say that you spent more time there than most and yet not as much as some. (I am also assuming that you agree that your name was not chosen at random for 2-4 duty, that your behavior had a little something to do with it.)
While it's truly great to see you taking pride in what your life is becoming, I would suggest that perhaps your memory is hazy as well. You state that I had said you would turn out to be "nothing." While I cannot swear that I would have never said something like that in a moment of exasperation (and you and I shared several such moments!), the years have taught me to stand by what I write. I don't always know what I said, but I know what I wrote. Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote you a few months after you left Hyde:
...Your time at Hyde was often marked with heartfelt apologies accompanied by commitments to do better. Too often your deeds did not follow your words. However, throughout all of your travails, I always believed that there was something good in you, and I continue to believe that today. As I've often said, to quote Will Rogers, "I'd rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it." Perhaps anyone who doesn't believe this probably doesn't belong in education.
I congratulate you on your success [at graduating from college] and would love to know what you're up to. While I suppose some people see a college degree as synonymous with "making it," I do not. Theodore Roosevelt covered that one pretty well when he said, "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." I know folks with Masters degrees who could probably pass for "nothings." I also know blue collar workers at the Bath Iron Works who I would trust with anything I hold dear. So, if we agree that you ain't nothing, what's your idea of "something?"
All the best to you, John. Thanks for getting in touch. Onward, Malcolm
What a snide, petty, whining dickhead.
Malcolm the Magnanimous sees fit to air details of a private email sent to him (from one of countless dissatisfied customers) NOT to demonstrate his great bigness of spirit, or the optimism of the inherent good in everyone, or the potentially delayed effects of the golden halo of Hyde's influence (which is highly debatable)... but to quibble about the exact number of days "John" actually spent on 2-4, whether or not Malcolm actually called him a "nothing," and to snidely remind "John" again and again of his allegedly less than stellar comportment in days 15 years prior.
Note that this is a "Dear John" letter, the proverbial final kiss-off from those too cowardly or unable to do it face-to-face.
A real class act. And this from the CEO of an institution purportedly devoted to "character" education.
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Funny. Amongst the obligatory tired quotes from famous people, I found the one from Will Rogers most amusing. You see, I've always maintained that an institution which sells "character development," and which clearly lacks even a rudimentary level of same, is absolutely analogous to the selling of the Brooklyn Bridge.
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THE CASH COW INHERITED
WAS HARDLY WELL MERITED.
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JEEEZZZ.....
Well, if ya wanna talk about "a real class act," check out this little recent number from... the Woodstock campus? (-- I'm guessing --)
Perhaps an appropriate subtitle might be, "The beneficial influence of 'snitching' (Brother's Keeper!), and an artificially imposed pecking order (morning chores), on student maturity levels."
:D
Get the hell off me
From: dradeluxe
Joined: 4 weeks ago
Added: July 14, 2008
Two 14 year olds wrestleing at 6 AM
Category: Comedy
Tags: Hyde School fighting Addison Wheat
[/list]
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diKirBFnbGU
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I wasn't even there for this student's experience, and I can guess who it was based on their first year. Because there are so few who will stick up for Hyde after graduating.
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I see real LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL in the two (older? maybe not!) students videotaping this little fracas. What was it? 7-8 minutes worth? And they couldn't put the camera down and bother to intercede?
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The two were living one of the Hyde words: curiosity. They were curious about what might happen.
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The two were living one of the Hyde words: curiosity. They were curious about what might happen.
:D ;D :D
I think what most of the lads in the boys dorm were curious about ... did not reside in the boys dorm.
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Hyde is all about peer pressure and conformism. Hyde takes lord of the flies instincts trains them to the goals of the institution.
Hurd instincts.
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Hyde is all about peer pressure and conformism. Hyde takes lord of the flies instincts trains them to the goals of the institution.
Hurd instincts.
ROFL hahahahaaaa!!! Homerun!
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I wasn't even there for this student's experience, and I can guess who it was based on their first year. Because there are so few who will stick up for Hyde after graduating.
to whom are you referring? the first poster who started the thread or the students in the video?
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I understand that there are a lot of very resentful people out there who have left Hyde Schools bitterly. And, in my own opinion, I find it really sad. The time you spend at Hyde is what you make of it; if you aren't going to meet them halfway, you are right when you say you won't get anything out of it. That is not to say they won't try with their own tactics, but regardless - you wasted your parents money, your family's time, as well as years of your own life.
To the credit of the institution, I am a recent graduate of the Woodstock campus, and Hyde changed my life. I was not a kid out doing drugs or on the streets or with a police record. I was disrespectful to my parents and to myself. I was not living up to my "unique potential," as Hyde puts it. Quite the contrary, I was a walking, breathing, self-sabotaging young girl. I graduated Hyde, two years after enrollment, a young woman hoping to embody its five words and five principles and actively working towards that goal. I would not be surprised if asked what they took away from it, each and every member of my graduating class would allude to or outright say the same thing.
If you are prospective parent, please take into consideration that some people are resentful towards Hyde for their own personal reasons. Just like any other school, there are students who do not "click" with the methods and beliefs that the school is founded upon. Please, please speak with some alumni (who have graduated, not just left) and the staff and faculty at either Bath or Woodstock so you can gain a better perspective of what Hyde is really about.. not the slander that these threads seem to always contain.
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I was disrespectful to my parents and to myself. I was not living up to my "unique potential," as Hyde puts it. ...I was a walking, breathing, self-sabotaging young girl. I graduated Hyde, two years after enrollment, a young woman hoping to embody its five words and five principles and actively working towards that goal.
Glad to hear that you feel the process "worked" for you, Guest. Any chance that your analysis might be a tad narrow-minded or premature? With all due respect, I detect a certain intolerance for others who do not share your sunny opinion of Hyde School. Is this perchance not in keeping with the Hyde word "Concern?"
[Perhaps it IS. Perhaps Hyde's definition of "concern" is significantly different from that of the dictionary, and something that prospective parents would do well to clarify beforehand.]
The time you spend at Hyde is what you make of it; if you aren't going to meet them halfway, you are right when you say you won't get anything out of it.
Tell us, what would you suggest for the students who have been physically or psychologically harmed by Hyde School? Should they still be expected to "meet Hyde halfway?" What if they are no longer capable of that? What might you recommend for students who were put through long drawn-out public gauntlets of moral reprisal reminiscent of feudal village justice ... for something they may not even have done?
What might you tell the students with learning disabilities and psychiatric diagnoses, who were informed that these were just character flaws, and punished and ridiculed accordingly?
What might you say to the former students who were sexually preyed upon by founders Joe Gauld and Sumner Hawley? Think those "relationships" were appropriate or psychologically healthy?
What might you say to the students who were raped or sexually assaulted by faculty members Robert Thurrell, Larry Dubinsky, and Earl Bigelow (as well as too many others to mention in one sentence)?
What might you say to families who were ripped apart, never to be repaired, by Hyde's exploitation of their (previously minor) dysfunctions for the sake of the almighty dollar, and big ego-strokes for those at Hyde's helm?
And just exactly what might you have to say to the families of students who attempted suicide not long after their Hyde experience, some of whom were tragically successful at said attempt?
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It would appear that Hyde School, not the students, wasted these parents' money, wasted these families' time, not to mention years of these students' and their families' lives spent trying to recover from traumas associated with Hyde ... assuming they are still around to do so.
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What might you say to the students who were raped or sexually assaulted by faculty members
Why don't you ask a former headmaster about his son who was raped while at the Bath Campus. Gang raped by other boys at Bath. This happened in the 90's. He spoke about it in group and they chose never to call in the authorities! Shame on Hyde and all who covered this up!!