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Hyde Schools / Recent Hyde Graduate . . .
« on: January 10, 2006, 11:48:00 PM »
Reading many of the messages on this site have left me as a Hyde former Hyde student frustrated and confused as to what parents in this country are teaching their children. Most of the messages I have read seemed to portray Hyde as an institution that does not place the value on education, in either a character or academic sense. I would like to take this opportunity to contradict this opinion with my own.
In my two years of attending Hyde and my four (and counting) years involved with the schools I have seen and been part of many significant life changes. To hear how the school "brain washes" kids and parents that come through and somehow convinces them to take part in an "inferior" educational process seems to me to be blatant ignorance. In fact, those words were very similar to mine when I was a 16 year old sibling in the Hyde program. To go along with this point, I WAS also afraid of anything that might be challenging to me in any substantial way.
Through my time at Hyde there were many moments that I wanted to back down and run from my fears and problems like most kids my age, but my parents would not allow me to do this, they took a stand where most parents would back down and let me live my life of mediocrity. I went from a scared child with bad grades, a poor work ethic, no direction and no real sense of self to a young man who not only knows who I want to be, but that no matter what happens I have a group of people who believe in me and would support me regardless of my life circumstances.
I grew in many ways and am quickly maturing into a young man of standards and honor, standards that I am disappointed to say I don?t see many of my peers in college pursuing. I would attribute this success to my time at Hyde School. I was given an environment that I truly wish everyone could experience and give a chance, contradictory to what many people on this site seem to believe, EVERYONE COULD USE HYDE.
Now in a more direct response to some of the opinions that I have read, I would like to site some of the comments that I have reviewed. Perhaps the most troubling to me was this "Shame on Joe Gauld - and shame on his pathetic family followers and other weird followers......." This statement truly captures and gives justice to my point. A process with is undoubtedly hard and requires personal sacrifice of emotional comfort and time BUT has worked for thousands of families and students is hardly pathetic. Joe Gauld has helped change thousands of lives, for the better by having the courage to face, accept and tell the truth, to everyone he meets. From my experience, and take it as you will, those who leave Hyde with a bitter taste in their mouths are those who cowardly shrank from the tasks in front of them, parents afraid to truly invest and teach their children, or students afraid to face themselves. While I am by no means saying that this encompasses every family/student that attends and then leaves Hyde I firmly believe that this is the case in the majority. I have personally seen parents selfishly take themselves and their comfort with feeling in control and strong more seriously than their job and commitment as a parent at least 50 times, and not once has it benefited the student. Usually this has to do with the parent?s lack of willingness to give the Hyde Process a chance in their own lives. Wrapping up as I believe I have said most of what I have to say at the moment, I do to stress as well to all those who I directly challenged their commitment to their job as a parent that before you get all fired up at me and this comment, remember that it is you that your children learn the most from and most directly reflect in most ways, your decisions will and have reflected in many different ways in their lives, before you quit on yourself again and the Hyde process altogether, remember and have the courage to face, like many Hyde parents before you, that you do have a huge and vital role to play in who your young man/woman grows up to be. Don't teach them to run from their fears and mistakes.
Thoughtfully,
Richard Rush
Class of 2005
Freshman at Syracuse University
rwrush@syr.edu
P.S. I would love to get some response for further discussion at my e-mail.
In my two years of attending Hyde and my four (and counting) years involved with the schools I have seen and been part of many significant life changes. To hear how the school "brain washes" kids and parents that come through and somehow convinces them to take part in an "inferior" educational process seems to me to be blatant ignorance. In fact, those words were very similar to mine when I was a 16 year old sibling in the Hyde program. To go along with this point, I WAS also afraid of anything that might be challenging to me in any substantial way.
Through my time at Hyde there were many moments that I wanted to back down and run from my fears and problems like most kids my age, but my parents would not allow me to do this, they took a stand where most parents would back down and let me live my life of mediocrity. I went from a scared child with bad grades, a poor work ethic, no direction and no real sense of self to a young man who not only knows who I want to be, but that no matter what happens I have a group of people who believe in me and would support me regardless of my life circumstances.
I grew in many ways and am quickly maturing into a young man of standards and honor, standards that I am disappointed to say I don?t see many of my peers in college pursuing. I would attribute this success to my time at Hyde School. I was given an environment that I truly wish everyone could experience and give a chance, contradictory to what many people on this site seem to believe, EVERYONE COULD USE HYDE.
Now in a more direct response to some of the opinions that I have read, I would like to site some of the comments that I have reviewed. Perhaps the most troubling to me was this "Shame on Joe Gauld - and shame on his pathetic family followers and other weird followers......." This statement truly captures and gives justice to my point. A process with is undoubtedly hard and requires personal sacrifice of emotional comfort and time BUT has worked for thousands of families and students is hardly pathetic. Joe Gauld has helped change thousands of lives, for the better by having the courage to face, accept and tell the truth, to everyone he meets. From my experience, and take it as you will, those who leave Hyde with a bitter taste in their mouths are those who cowardly shrank from the tasks in front of them, parents afraid to truly invest and teach their children, or students afraid to face themselves. While I am by no means saying that this encompasses every family/student that attends and then leaves Hyde I firmly believe that this is the case in the majority. I have personally seen parents selfishly take themselves and their comfort with feeling in control and strong more seriously than their job and commitment as a parent at least 50 times, and not once has it benefited the student. Usually this has to do with the parent?s lack of willingness to give the Hyde Process a chance in their own lives. Wrapping up as I believe I have said most of what I have to say at the moment, I do to stress as well to all those who I directly challenged their commitment to their job as a parent that before you get all fired up at me and this comment, remember that it is you that your children learn the most from and most directly reflect in most ways, your decisions will and have reflected in many different ways in their lives, before you quit on yourself again and the Hyde process altogether, remember and have the courage to face, like many Hyde parents before you, that you do have a huge and vital role to play in who your young man/woman grows up to be. Don't teach them to run from their fears and mistakes.
Thoughtfully,
Richard Rush
Class of 2005
Freshman at Syracuse University
rwrush@syr.edu
P.S. I would love to get some response for further discussion at my e-mail.