Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

Why trust this one when so many others are harmful? Well, let's take this to another topic....Well, we hear about sooo many bad and hurtful people from the Middle East, then they must all be bad and untrustworthy.  What about Catholic priests...we hear about all the bad ones in the news......I guess they must all be bad and hurtful.....and what about bad parents...they aer all over the news....rarely do we hear about the good ones...they must ALL be bad....and I say again...ignorant forum...to use a very limited amount of experience without taking in the whole number and extrapolating out to get resultss is anything but good science....I think they call it a flawed control group....

I never got any responses from anyone with FIRST-HAND knowledge of Anchor....so I stopped coming to this completely biased and ignorant forum....unless I received an e-mail response directly from someone here.....The only thing I have heard from anyone first hand are good results and thankful parents and changed teens.  Good luck to you all.

I am sure that this is the place formy son....and will be taking him there nexyt week.  I found a video clip on it at http://www.christiangiving.net.  Click on the photo on the main page and it will take you to links to 4 charities....if you click the Anchor Academy button, it will take you to a place where you can watch the video.  I agree with you about the people on this site....I don't pay much attention to most of the people here.....Good luck with your son...I will pray for him and you.  (one of the things that helped me make my final decision was that one evening at home I received a call from Anchor regarding the upcoming arrival of my son...The person on the othre side of the call was a young man that had graduated from Anchor 4 years previously and came back to work during his vacations.

wasn't aware of the Nevada death....I was aware of the death of the youth when the tree (or branch) fell on him.  Should we blame a program for the death?  It was very unfortunate and I feel for the parents of the teen.  I don't see how a program can be held to blame for an accident such as that.....What about the Boy Scouts that were killed by lightening at the Jamboree this past summer....is the Boy Scout program to blame for that?  Should we disband them also?

My son is not in the program. If you actually read what I write instead of glance through it, you would have read that he completed Catherine Freer over a year ago. He hated the program, but by the way he talked about it and the stories he tells about it (still tells, by the way) it was an experience that is still showing positive effects and he IS proud of completing the program, enduring and thriving through the hardships of the program.  I know you said forced exercise, bland food etc....how about your last hike in the woods and enjoying nature....did you hike to a secluded campsite and eat freeze-dried stew or is your idea of camping in a  36' motorhome with microwave and color tv?  Nothing personal, but I think you are such an idiot....it's hard to take anyone seriously when they take a name from a computer game.....let's talk about the real world....of all the people "contributing" to this forum, you have the least amount of credibility to me....

I have tried to treat the problem....the drugs, alcohol (and it's not just a beer or two). He has stolen from friends, myself of course, shoplifted (and gotten caught), taken my car at night....(I have had to sleep with my car keys and my wallet under my mattress).  Last time he went to detention, he couldn't remember how he got there he was so drunk...his friends turned him in (he was on the run for 12 days and I offered $200 to anyone that could get him to come home).  His use of pot and alcohol will prevent him from keeping a job and his continued use of potwill prevent him from becoming what he espouses to be his hope....of becoming a law enforcement officer. I don't ask my son to believe as I do...what I was trying to convwey was that I believe in God...if he wants to become Buddhist, ok.....Islam, I might question his reasons, as long as he didn't subscribe to the jihadist extremism, ok....Judaism, fine, even Wiccan might be OK..
The curriculum is very well rounded....although they do teach creationism instead of evolution, but he is already aware of the theory of evolution from his days in public school.
I find it interesting that everyone that knows him well....family, family friends and even his friends that have struggled with and beat the drugs and alcohol are behind a program such as this 100%...I am here looking for someone with experience (personal experience) with the program at Anchor.

Thanks to all that have posted in my request for information on the Anchor Academy in Havre, MT.  I have found this site very informative.  I have found the following:
1: People seem to like to generalize and have input even if they have no personal experience (shich is what I have asked for)
2: There seems to be an overabundance of attacking another's beliefs instead of respecting a differing point of view
3: A lot of people with nothing better to do than sit and condemn an entire industry (that, I admit, is fraught with abuse) when theree are examples of success and some good programs out there.
By success I mean teaching a youth how to survive and behave in a manner that is acceptable to society (at least a part of society that I want to participate in). That teaches a youth to respect others and their property as well as themselves and not degenerate to a point of self-destruction.  That believes in God (as I do) and the principles that the Bible teaches....Morality, service to others and doing good for good's sake.
4: That there are a few people out there that are willing to look at an individual program/facility with an open mind and judge it on it's own merits
5: I have seen an entire facility condemned because the director worked in the past at a school that had problems without finding out what his position was at that school...was he responsible or the abuses that were suffered there? Does that mean that everyone that worked at Enron was guilty? or that every Catholic priest is a child abuser?  Does it mean that every person that lived in Germany during WWII is guilty of participating in the Holocaust? Brother Dennis worked at a Roloff school.....does that identify his standards now or then? Or does it mean that he found employment in a less than desireable facility?  But then, I haven't researched Roloff, so I don't know for a fact what kind of place it is.

I appreciate Pastor, who tried to help make calmer heads prevail and bring a sense of calm, investigative thinking and research to this forum, only to be personally attacked, have his belief system berated and generalized beyond any sense of realism by people who can't spell, don't research or think before they speak.  I, for one would want to RUN from those that choose to bring gasoline to a fire instead of trying to find out what started the fire in the first place.

Now a little about my situation.....so you don't think that I am the type to run amok..My son, now 16, effectively left school in the 8th grade.  He reads at a college level, comprehends at a college level, does math at a 9th grade level without ever doing any studying, so he's not an idiot.  He got into drugs and started skipping school....no consequences I could mete out would have any impact on him.  I have had him in 3 inpatient programs and 3 outpatient programs and according to the last one "He could teach this stuff.  He knows what to do, he just won't do it"  The only program that effected a change in him in any way was the Catherine Freer Wilderness Program in Albany Oregon.  When he came back from that, I had my son back for about 8 months...life was great....we talked, did family things, spent time together, etc...and he admitted taht he NEEDED the structure that was provided there.  I couldn't provide the 24/7 supervision that he needed for an extended period of time until he was able to internalize the self-discipline needed to maintain.  He was aware that boarding school would be a last resort andhas know it for over a year.  I live in Washington State which is, besides beautiful, one of the worst states in the country for parental rights when it comes to dealing with children.  Here they have a program to help parents with children that are out of control called "At Risk Youth". It brings the courts into the home......there is a list of behavior standards that the parents put together for their household....the child is made aware through the courts of these standards....when a child doesn't follow the rules, they are taken to court and dealt with through sanctions such as community service, house arrest, warnings (innumerable times) and finally, detention time.  My son, in the past year has been in detention 22 times..for times ranging from 1 day to 30 days for refusing to go to court and running away for 12 days, doing drugs and stealing form me (once again).  Over the past year and a half, he has stolen over $5K in goods and cash, refuses to participate in any family functions except vacations.  We love him dearly, he loves us, but only thinks of himself and what he will get out of his actions, not what his actions are doing to him, his 5 yr old sister or the rest of the family.  He has very low self-esteem because he has not been able to complete anything in his life (except Catherine Freer....he left all the other treatment programs) adn doesn't feel he can.  I will do whatever it takes to help him succeed and accomplish/complete something in his life....except the ruiniation of his life.
I appreciate everyone's input....this is one forum that gives all forums a bad name....and is a waste of the internet.
I abhor any form of child abuse, but applaud any effort to teach children the kind of values that this wonderful country was founded on....family, God, discipline, patience, work and ethics.

As for the A.C.E. education program...I know 2-3 dozen families that utilize the same program to educate their children at home....and they all graduate from high school at a level that public schools could only dream of achieving.  They are all,  respectful, intelligent, kind and trustworthy children/young adults.  Most graduates are attending colleges and maintaining  grade levels of 3.7 or above and don't seem to be falling into the self-depracating lifestyle that we find in a lot of college students.  The families that I am familiar with are from Baptist churches, non-denominational Christian, evangelical Christian, Lutheran and even a Catholic family....Yes, they are all church going people and good people.  People that I would, and am, prouod to call friends.
Thanks.

I have tried to teach him respect for others, God and honesty.  I have tried through counselors, friends (adult and other children) to guide him as you say, by example, and by living an honest, truthful life.  However, because of his choices in friends, activities (and perhaps my reluctance at an early age to discipline him wiht spankings) he ahs gotten out of control.  He has stolen eveything of value in our house, stolen from tohers in the neighborhood, has not embraced an alcohol, drug-free life, even after 3 inpatient facilities and 3 outpatient treatment programs, he needs more help than I can give.  Perhaps I am being more than a little sensitive, but I take your accusation that I am copping out as a personal affront on my abilities as a parent.  I have another young teen to take care of also, and she deserves to live in a household where she is not afraid to leave the house or come home from school, not knowing what she might find.  My son has a very good heart and his base personality is kind and loving...he is very selfish, has drug-induced sociopathic behaviors at times and manipulative....while at the same time, is very intelligent and aware of social wrongdoings (except his own).